Donald Trump is polling astoundingly well on the most important election issue. It's not just his outspoken statements on a range of high-profile topics. Republican voters in Iowa also think Donald Trump would do a far better job than his GOP rivals at managing the most important issue of them all: The economy.
According to a new CNN/ORC poll released on Wednesday, 37% of likely Republican caucus-goers in Iowa responded that Trump would do the best job of the Republican candidates handling the economy. The next-closest candidate is former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who grabs 10% of the vote.
The number on the economy is far higher than Trump's actual support in Iowa — he's still leading the pack, but his support is at 22%.
But it shows that voters in the crucial caucus state may actually respect the real-estate magnate and businessman for something other than his bombast.
Commentators, analysts, and rival candidates have frequently noted that Trump has connected with voters who are unhappy with politicians and respect his refusal to surrender to those who want him to be more "politically correct." The CNN poll question is open-ended, but it indicates that Republicans in Iowa respect Trump's record and his views on business.
Trump has said he'd be the "best jobs president that God ever created."
Americans have consistently said that economic issues are the most important problem facing the country, and often vote based on who they think will handle the economy best. Indeed, 86% of Americans said in a recent Gallup survey that the economy will be either "very" or "extremely" important when they cast their votes next year.
FBI reportedly takes possession of 'blank' Clinton email server. The FBI has taken possession of the personal e-mail server used by Hillary Clinton during her tenure as secretary of state, according to a published report.
Barbara Wells, an attorney for Denver-based computer services firm Platte River Networks, told The Washington Post that federal agents picked up the server from a private data center in New Jersey Wednesday afternoon. The attorney told the paper that the server "was blank" and no longer contained useful information.
"The information had been migrated over to a different server for purposes of transition," Wells told the paper. "To my knowledge the data on the old server is not available now on any servers or devices in Platte River Network’s control." Wells added that the company had cooperated with the FBI and had been told it was not a target of the investigation.
The Justice Department is looking into whether classified information was improperly stored on or passed through the server, which Clinton used for all her correspondence during her time as secretary of state.
The Post reported that Platte River Networks had been hired by former President Bill and Hillary Clinton to upgrade their private e-mail network in June 2013, after Hillary Clinton had left the State Department. As part of the job, the old server was taken from the basement of the Clintons' Chappaqua, N.Y. home and moved to the New Jersey data center.
Clinton announced that she would turn the server over to the FBI Tuesday. That same day, Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III told members of Congress that at least two emails that traversed the device while she was secretary of state contained information that warranted one of the government's highest levels of classification.
Email scandal a political and legal nightmare for Hillary?
The latest e-mail revelations have thrown a major wrench into Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, though communications director Jennifer Palmieri shrugged off the ongoing investigation in an e-mail to supporters Wednesday.
"Look, this kind of nonsense comes with the territory of running for president," Palmieri wrote.
We know it, Hillary knows it, and we expect it to continue from now until Election Day."
Meanwhile, Fox News has learned that top U.S. intelligence officials are running out of patience with the State Department's reluctance to turn over emails from the server.
The Intelligence Community's Inspector General has requested approximately 30,000 emails from Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State in order to conduct its own review. Those emails are in possession of the State Department, which has been gradually releasing them to the public.
An intelligence source told Fox News the State Department has pushed back on the government intelligence watchdog's request, and that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is considering intervening. The source said the inspector general wants to check the controls on the redaction process and ensure that the office can get a handle on all of the potentially sensitive information that was contained in the Clinton emails.
In addition, Republican lawmakers have reached out to Platte River Networks with questions about what measures it took to safeguard national security information in Clinton's emails.
"Given that the server was used to conduct official State Department business, questions have been raised regarding whether classified information was stored on the private server," Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., wrote Platte president Treve Suazo in a letter obtained by McClatchy Tuesday. Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, has asked Suazo to respond to his questions within two weeks, including "if that data was secure, who had access to that material and whether all official documents were appropriately preserved" and whether Platte River Networks was "authorized to maintain or access classified information." Fox News' Matt Dean and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Massive blasts rock Chinese city of Tianjin; 44 dead, hundreds injured. A series of huge explosions shook the northern Chinese city of Tianjin late Wednesday, killing at least 44 people and injuring hundreds more, according to officials and state media.
The cause was not immediately clear.
Liu Yue, a 25-year-old Tianjin resident, said she felt the first blast but didn't think too much of it.
"The second explosion was so powerful that I felt the entire 16-floor-building was shaking," said Liu, who lives about 4 kilometers (2½ miles) from the site of the blasts. "I thought it was an earthquake! I was extremely scared. I was afraid my family was in danger."
Xinhua reported Thursday that 12 firefighters were among the dead and that dozens more remained unaccounted for in the aftermath of the blasts.
Video from late Wednesday showed a blinding blast of light and smoke that sent fireballs shooting across the night sky. That was followed by an even bigger explosion, the force of which appeared to knock over the video camera.
The shock waves were felt kilometers away, Xinhua reported, and some residents said windows and fish tanks had been shattered.
As day broke Thursday, the extent of the damage was beginning to become clear. State media carried images of damaged buildings and parking lots full of rows of burned-out cars.
Xinhua said that 44 people were killed and more than 500 were hospitalized, 66 of them for critical injuries. It had reported earlier that most of the injuries were from stones or broken glass.
Many roads were blocked off around the city, which has a population of more than 13 million.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have called for "all-out efforts" to save the injured and minimize casualties, Xinhua reported. Li also promised a full investigation of the incident.
Steven Jiang reported from Tianjin. Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong Kong, and Dana Ford reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Will Ripley, Shen Lu, Kevin Wang, Elizabeth Joseph and Don Melvin contributed to this report.
ISIS truck bomb in Baghdad kills more than 70 and injures 200. There are conflicting reports of the number of casualties. The Associated Press cited Iraqi officials who said that at least 54 were dead and 86 wounded, while Agence France-Presse said that at least 33 people have been killed in the explosions. Reuters has given the highest numbers of casualties so far, at 76 dead and 200 injured.
#Iraq Photos: Bombing at Jameela market in Sadr City #Baghdad, about 61 dead & 200 wounded.
via @IraqiSuryani1
A local witness told Reuters that he saw blood and bodily remains among the fruit and vegetables at the market. Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) has claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted online. The group says it targeted Iraqi army and militia fighters in the Shiite neighborhood.
Islamic State militants, who have controlled almost one-third of Iraq since June 2014, have repeatedly performed similar attacks in Shia-dominated neighborhoods. The ISIS jihadists now control two Iraqi provincial capitals, as well as the city of Fallujah.
Martin O'Malley on the need for more debates in Iowa and New Hampshire: 'What have we come to as a party? It's ridiculous.'
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