Good morning! Joining us today...Mike Barnicle, Nicholas Confessore, Amy Holmes, Mark Halperin, Kristen Soltis Anderson, Martin Fletcher, Hugh Hewitt, David Ignatius, Sen. John Cornyn, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Brian Sullivan, Ronan Farrow... and more!
I am very proud of my Rams. They played a very solid game yesterday to Top Cardinals, Move to 2-0 in NFC West. It was another tough showdown between two NFC West teams, and with some big turnovers and offensive execution, the Rams came away with a 24-22 victory over the Cardinals.
“We got contribution out of all three phases today. And that’s kind of what has been hindering us the last couple weeks,” head coach Jeff Fisher said. “We finally had a second half of offense and I think that was the difference in the ball game.”
While the run game had a tough time getting going in the first half, it came alive for the second. Running back Todd Gurley recorded 144 of his 146 yards rushing in the second half, with four runs of 20-plus yards. He finished the day with 19 attempts, good for an average of 7.7 yards per carry.
“What can you say about Todd? In the second half, he took the game over and we needed it,” Fisher said.
“I was able to get in a rhythm tonight, just keep getting carries,” Gurley said. “And the offensive line did a great job of blocking those guys.”
Tavon Austin also had an outstanding game, recording six catches for 96 yards and two touchdowns from quarterback Nick Foles. Plus, he ran the ball twice for 20 yards, giving him 116 yards from scrimmage on the day.
“It’s all about the opportunities and taking advantage of it when the ball comes your way,” Austin said.
Both Gurley and Austin were involved from the get go, in large part because of a turnover on the opening kickoff. Arizona won the toss and elected to receive, but the home team would lose the ball before the offense ever took the field. Safety Mark Barron stripped return man David Johnson on a solo tackle, and Daren Batesrecovered at the Arizona 17 to set up an excellent scoring opportunity.
St. Louis would quickly capitalize with just three plays. Gurley, who got the start at running back, got involved immediately with an 8-yard screen pass. Though the running back was stopped for a loss on his first carry on the next play, Foles found Austin for a 12-yard touchdown pass on third down. The wide receiver caught the ball on an ‘in’ route, and evaded a couple Arizona defenders with his speed to give the Rams an early 7-0 lead.
Making th emost of turnovers would be a theme for the contest, as St. Louis scored 17 points on their extra possessions.
“When we get a short field, especially on the road -- we’re in the red zone, we’ve got to come away with touchdowns,” Foles said.
The defense came out getting plenty of early pressure on Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer, which the home team combatted by using quick passes. Chris Long and Lamarcus Joyner did pick up sacks in the first two quarters, giving each 2.0 on the year. In all, the Rams recorded four sacks on the day, with James Laurinaitis and T.J. McDonald coming up with the others. Though Arizona would have its share of scoring opportunities, St. Louis would hold the home team to field goals in the first half.
After the short first series, the Rams again had some trouble moving the ball, though that changed when the defense got another turnover.
On 2nd-and-1 from Arizona’s 49, Palmer attempted a deep pass to wideout John Brown. With Janoris Jenkins and McDonald on the coverage, the cornerback played the slightly underthrown ball well, and ended up using his helmet to secure the interception in the end zone.
“He ran a post-corner, and then a post, and I just went and got the ball at the highest point,” Jenkins said. “Somehow it ended up on my helmet, and all I could think about was, control the ball while coming down.”
It was Jenkins’ second interception in two weeks.
“I think you’re going to have to look hard to find two back-to-back interceptions by a player like Janoris like the ones that he’s made,” Fisher said. “That was an amazing athletic play, [as] was his play last week. Interceptions are hard to come by in the league.”
The ensuing drive got going quickly with Foles hitting tight end Jared Cook with a 12-yard pass on its second play. And then Austin once again got involved, with Foles hitting him for a 47-yard deep ball in the middle of the field to move St. Louis into the red zone. They would come away with a field goal, extending the lead to 10-6.
The Cardinals would add a field goal of their own before the end of the second quarter, making the score 10-9, Rams, at halftime.
After the break, St. Louis would capitalize on another turnover. On 3rd-and-2 from Arizona’s own 38, Palmer hit Larry Fitzgerald with a deep pass to the right. But safety Rodney McLeod came right in to put a hit on the wide receiver and popped the ball loose. Trumaine Johnson was there to pick it up and gave the Rams the ball at their own 42.
That’s when the ground game started to get going. Gurley had his first explosive run on the first play of the drive, taking the ball up the middle for a 23-yard gain. He immediately followed that up with a 12-yard run to put St. Louis at the Cardinals’ 23. A few plays later, Foles hit Stedman Bailey in the back right corner of the end zone with a nice touch pass for six. The scoring strike gave the Rams a 17-9 lead.
“Sted ran a really great route,” Foles said. “It’s something we really worked on this last week, just talking about what we wanted out of a route, and he got to the right spot, and came down with a huge play.”
“We got exactly what we wanted in today’s game on the play that we called, and it’s just how we drew it up in practice,” Bailey said.
Unfortunately, St. Louis would lose linebacker Alec Ogletree to an ankle injury in the third quarter. The linebacker did not return to the contest.
“Alec is going to require surgery,” Fisher said. “I don’t know the extent of it right now. The doctors, we still have some discussions we have to do, and MRIs and things like that. But there’s potential right now for designation to return. But we’ll have to see.”
Daren Bates and Akeem Ayers would fill in for the injured Ogletree, and the defense did not suffer a drop off. The Cardinals continued to put up field goals instead of touchdowns, which cut St. Louis’ lead to 17-15. But on a drive starting with 11:57 left, the ground game once again got the Rams in position to extend their lead.
On the drive’s second play, Austin took and end around 12 yards to the left side. That play set up the next run for Gurley. On 1st-and-10, the running back took a handoff up the middle, while Foles faked an end around to Austin, freezing some on the defense. The result was as 52-yard run for the rookie, with the running back finally getting stopped at the Arizona 16.
Fisher said the team would like to continue to play Gurley and Austin off of each other to set up successful drives.
“It’s just one week of game-plan stuff against their defense,” Fisher said. “But they had the reverse on a couple of occasions defended, [Austin] just hit the crease. He’s just so explosive, he hit the crease.”
A few plays later on 3rd-and-6, Foles evaded the pass rush in the pocket, pumped, and then fired a pass to Austin that the wideout caught in the end zone for a touchdown, putting the Rams up 24-15.
“Tavon’s a playmaker,” Foles said. “He’s just got to keep going. He’s one of those guys, the sky is the limit. He’s got a great work ethic and I was proud of him today.”
But the Cardinals weren’t done yet. Though the defense had done well to not let anything behind them throughout the game, the unit let it happen in the red zone on the ensuing drive. David Johnson got open on the second level, and Palmer hit him with a 23-yard pass for a touchdown. With the seven points, the Cardinals pulled within two, 24-22.
Though the Rams were forced to punt, the defense would hold strong, getting a big 4th-down stop with the Cardinals out of field-goal range. With the pass rush coming on 4th-and-2, Palmer threw too high and incomplete to Johnson, giving St. Louis the ball back.
Gurley did the rest to put the game away. He had a 20-yard run to start the drive, and then hit a 30 yarder to put the game on ice with Arizona out of timeouts. It looked as if Gurley could go in for his first NFL touchdown on the 30-yard gain, but he slid down in bounds to keep the clock moving and allow Foles to take a knee.
It was a veteran play for the 21-year-old that impressed his teammates and coaches.
“It’s totally unselfish,” Fisher said, “and beyond that, for a rookie to have the presence of mind to do that -- that says a lot for his understanding of this game and putting games away.”
“That just shows you how unselfish he is, how much he really wants to win,” said defensive lineman Will Hayes. “The average guy is taking the ball inside the end zone, and he [didn’t]. And that was big in itself because people don’t understand how big of a play that is. You run the clock out and the game is over with. He’s a stud.”
With the win, the Rams improve to 2-2 and 2-0 in the NFC West. They’ll be on the road next week against the Packers, which should be another good challenge for St. Louis’ defense.
“It’s really hard to win on the road in the NFL, especially in the division, so this is a big step to help us out,” Laurinaitis said. “But what I’m going to be harping on all week, is we’ve got to figure out how to stack wins, put them back-to-back. And, like I said, we’re playing the best in the world at quarterback on Sunday.”
Todd Gurley emerges as dominant force in Rams' win. Rookie Todd Gurley exploded for 136 yards in the second half as the St. Louis Rams held on for a 24-22 nail-biting victory over the Arizona Cardinals in a hard-fought Week 4 NFC West showdown. Here's what you need to know:
1. We've seen the Jekyll-and-Hyde Rams pull off impressive divisional wins in the Jeff Fisher era, but this one had a new feel with Gurley and Tavon Austin emerging as difference-makers. Austin's elusiveness almost single-handedly kept the offense afloat until Gurley's dynamic combination of power and speed put a relentless Cardinals defense on its heels late in the game. The rookie rushed for more yards against Arizona than Mark Ingram, Matt Forte and Carlos Hyde combined in the first three weeks of the season. As obvious as Gurley's talent is, it was just as telling that he had the awareness to burn the clock rather than running out of bounds or trying to gain extra yardage on the game's final drive. He showed all of the traits of a clock-killing finisher.
2. Outgaining the Rams 447-328, the Cardinals will rue their mistakes and missed opportunities against the first quality defense they have faced this season. The NFL's best red-zone offense failed to capitalize on first-and-goal from the 1-yard line early and was forced into four field goals after moving the chains. Larry Fitzgerald and rookie David Johnson both lost fumbles and Carson Palmer threw a costly interception. For all of that misfortune, Palmer had a chance to win the game only to sail a couple of passes on third and fourth down on the brink of field-goal territory. Make no mistake, Bruce Arians' well-rounded team remains one of the NFL's powerhouses.
3. For the second week in a row, the Rams played bend-but-don't-break defense against a high-flying offense. Palmer was sacked more times on the opening possession than he had through the first three games combined. He was hit nine times and taken out of his comfort zone throughout the afternoon. The opportunistic St. Louis defense also forced three fumbles, deflected six passes, intercepted Palmer in the end zone and made a mess of Arizona's nearly pristine red-zone conversion rate. With a trip to undefeated Green Bay on the horizon, the loss of playmaking linebacker Alec Ogletree is a letdown. Coach Jeff Fisher revealed after the game that Ogletree will need surgery to repair an ankle injury suffered during the game's second half.
'Boston is not a college town'. Yet 20,000 people plus people showed up in Boston yesterday. Bernie Sanders Holds Boston's Largest Democratic Primary Rally Ever. The event made history, topping the size of the Boston's biggest Obama rally. On Saturday evening, Bernie Sanders finally took his campaign to Boston, Massachussetts, having canceled an earlier appearance there because they couldn't find a space large enough at an affordable price. The Boston stop was the second stop of the day, following a rally of 6,000 in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The Boston Globe noted that the rally in their city made history – topping the size of a 10,000-person rallyBarack Obama held during the 2008 Democratic primary.
Sanders was introduced by several speakers, including both nursing students and a representative of National Nurses United, the large nursing union. Bill McKibben, one of the nation's most prominent climate activists, took the podium before the Senator, and praised his opposition to the Keystone pipeline, a project Sanders opposed first in 2011.
“We have raised substantial sums of money because 650,000 Americans made contributions averaging 30 dollars a piece,” said Sanders to a crowd of around 25,000 both inside the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center and more watching the event on screens outside who were unable to get in. The fundraising numbers have given renewed credibility to his campaign, with The New York Times noting that “Mr. Sanders was initially dismissed by political insiders as a fringe candidate running only to push Hillary Rodham Clinton to the left. But he has now demonstrated that he has the resources and the supporters, whom he has only begun to tap financially, to compete for the Democratic presidential nomination.” Indeed, the $26 million he raised placed him right behind Hillary Clinton's own $28 million haul (as of this writing Clinton did not release number of donors or the average donation).
It's worth pointing out that the crowd size Sanders generated tops where Obama was at this point in the campaign not only in Boston, but nationally. The Obama campaign went to a city more than ten times as large, New York, and spoke to 24,000 around this time in 2007.
A new addition to Sanders's stump speech was a section on guns. “Guns should not be in the hands of those who do not have them,” he said, vowing to strengthen the instant background check system and put restrictions on semi-automatic weapons. Additionally, he touched on improving the mental health care system, or lack thereof in America, noting that his office receives calls all the time from distraught family members of those with mental health problems who cannot find treatment.
“I support Bernie because of what he did for Burlington as mayor in the 1980s. The city was half-dead from deindustrialization, and many of his policies, such as reworking the watrefront on lake Champlain, helped it become one of the best cities in America. I visited last year and loved it,” said one supporte Desmond Molloy. “Cities have long been engines of change and opportunity for our country, but many smaller metropolitan areas are currently struggling, especially in my home state of Maine. I hope he can take his Burlington experience and apply it at a national level.”
Another supporter, Chris Johnson, cited his remarks against the drug war. “Cannabis saved my life from a debilitating spine degeneration condition that caused me to have six surgeries and become severely addicted to narcotic painkillers and alcohol almost dying many times,” he said.
The themes highlighted by Sanders's rally in Boston and attendees gravitated towards hope: hope for an America with a rebuilt middle class, stopping destructive climate change, reforming the criminal justice system, and ending war.
A thousand miles to the southwest, GOP frontrunner Donald Trump was hosting a rally in Franklin, Tennessee that represented something else.
He referred to Syrian refugees as a “Trojan horse” for terrorists to infiltrate the United States, while saying we should send the paltry number we have taken back. He turned to dark humor, saying that Syria has “plenty of land...not a lot of people investing in Syria right now,” to cheers and laughter from a crowd that was unaware or immune to the fact that over 200,000 Syrians have lost their lives to be the brunt of Trump's jokes. Rather than embrace any form of policy reforms following the Oregon massacre, Trump simply pointed to the benefits of gun ownership, saying he owns a gun himself and anyone who “attacks me, oh they're gonna get shot.” He said “if you have a couple of teachers with guns in that room you would've been a hell of a lot better off,” unveiling a vision of a world of high-stakes shoot outs replacing campus security and the police.
Trump and Sanders represent dueling poles of the American political spectrum. Both are challenges to the political establishment, with one representing fear while the other represents hope.
Hillary Clinton Embraces Her Image On 'Saturday Night Live'. Hillary Clinton came on NBC's Saturday Night Live during the 2008 campaign and appeared alongside Amy Poehler, her alter-ego on the show.
They poked through the facade. Clinton was coming on as herself, wearing the same pantsuit as Poehler, who feigned awkwardness about sharing the screen with the woman she mocked weekly (though Poehler and Clinton say they are friends in real life).
Last night, Clinton again appeared on SNL — on the season premiere.
This time she was in character as a bartender named Val, chatting up Hillary Clinton, played now by Kate McKinnon. They ended up with their arms around each other, and Clinton embraced a lot of what ails her as a candidate.
- Authenticity: One of the most common criticisms of the real Hillary Clinton is that she is anything but "real." She's criticized as too calculating — even "wooden" in public. She's been making the rounds on comedy shows lately to show what a "real" person she really is. Right out of the gate on SNL, the real Hillary Clinton got to look at McKinnon's image of Hillary Clinton, defining herself as a "grandmother" and "a human," and say, "Oh, I get it. You're a politician."
- Elitism: The real Clinton is facing a strong challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who contrasts himself as a man of the people, leaving the image of Clinton as the ultimate insider, and friend of the elites — from Washington to Wall Street. It's an image that sticks, and something Clinton was able to tackle in character. Through "Val," she said, "I'm just an ordinary citizen who believes the Keystone pipeline will destroy our environment."
- Keystone: It's not all about personality. Clinton confronted issues that many progressives wish she embraced sooner. The first was that line about the Keystone XL pipeline. Clinton was the last Democratic candidate to publicly oppose it. The real Clinton assured the fake Clinton on SNL, "There's nothing wrong with taking your time. What's important is getting it right."
- Same-Sex Marriage: Clinton also took her time endorsing same-sex marriage. She did so in 2013 (the first year a full 50% of Americans did the same), and last night the fake Hillary Clinton — played by the first openly gay woman to join the SNL cast — called her out on live TV. Fake Clinton said, "I could have supported it sooner." The real Clinton pushed back, but then relented when McKinnon, with a wink, gave her a chance for a mea culpa. "Fair point" is where Clinton left it.
- Inevitability: Clinton launched her 2016 campaign pushing back hard on the perception that she expected to win — the sense of inevitability that surrounded her campaign in 2008. Clinton repeatedly says how hard she's working "for every vote." But one of the most consistent threads of any Clinton impression is that she wants a victory to be inevitable. This was done slyly in the midst of a joke that wrapped in Clinton's age and desire to be seen as human. Real Hillary Clinton, playing a bartender, asked fake Clinton for her ID. Laughing it off, fake Clinton noted that she is old enough to have a one-year-old granddaughter: "She calls me Madam President."
- Age: In 2008, Clinton represented the old guard. Barack Obama represented a fresh generation of leadership. We know which won. Now, Clinton needs to inspire young voters to turn out like Obama did. The nod to Clinton's status as a grandmother led to disbelief from the real Clinton. "You give off such a young, cool vibe," she assured fake Clinton. Then came a mention that her campaign headquarters is in the hippest of New York City's five boroughs: Brooklyn. Though, fake Hillary made it seem like she hadn't actually spent much time there.
Through her four minutes on SNL, Hillary Clinton avoided the biggest things that are damaging her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Clinton didn't talk about her emails, a scandal that SNL has already toyed with since it heated up well before the show's summer hiatus. She also avoided any allusion to the economic populism that has fueled her main challenger for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
And there was no mention of Vice President Joe Biden, on a weekend when there is more speculation about his possible entry into the race. Even without running, Biden is a drag on Clinton's poll numbers. Many have said it's because he's so human — so relatable.
But Clinton ended her cameo singing with a pal. Badly. And without a total command of the lyrics. That's about as relatable as she could get.
Echelon Insights Co-Founder Kristen Soltis Anderson asks: 'Are you authentic and are you fresh?' What are young voters looking for?A Morning Joe panel talks about the tightening race on the Democratic side and discuss why authenticity of candidates may draw more younger voters to the polls.
New Iowa poll: Carly Fiorina ahead of Hillary Clinton by 14 points.
Other Polls: Trump Still Leads in IA and NH, But Loses Ground. Donald Trump remains ahead in the early Republican nominating contests of Iowa and New Hampshire, but his lead has shrunk from a month ago, according to brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls of these two states.
The polls were conducted Sept. 23-30 - so after the second Republican presidential debate, as well as after Scott Walker's withdrawal from the GOP field.
In New Hampshire, Trump now holds a five-point advantage over Carly Fiorina among GOP primary voters, 21 percent to 16 percent - followed by Jeb Bush in third at 11 percent, and Marco Rubio and Ben Carson tied at 10 percent each.
But a month ago, Trump's lead over the nearest competition in the Granite State (John Kasich) was 16 points, 28 percent to 12 percent.
And in Iowa, Trump is ahead of Carson by five points among potential GOP caucus-goers, 24 percent to 19 percent - with Fiorina in third at 8 percent, Bush at 7 percent, and Ted Cruz, Rubio and Bobby Jindal tied at 6 percent.
A month ago, Trump's lead over Carson in Iowa was seven points in the same poll, 29 percent to 22 percent.
Meanwhile, in the Democratic race, Hillary Clinton maintains her lead in Iowa, and Bernie Sanders is still ahead in New Hampshire.
In Iowa, she gets support from 47 percent of Iowa caucus-goers, while Sanders gets 36 percent and Martin O'Malley gets 4 percent.
That's essentially unchanged from a month ago, when the poll showed Clinton ahead of Sanders by an identical 11 points, 48 percent to 37 percent.
But Clinton's lead shrinks to five points when Vice President Joe Biden is added to the field - Clinton at 33 percent, Sanders at 28 percent and Biden at 22 percent.
And in New Hampshire, Sanders leads Clinton by nine points, 48 percent to 39 percent. That's essentially unchanged from a month ago, when Sanders was ahead 49 percent to 38 percent.
Yet once again, Clinton loses ground when Biden is added to the contest - Sanders sits at 42 percent, Clinton at 28 percent and Biden at 18 percent.
The NBC/WSJ/Marist polls were conducted Sept. 23-30. In Iowa, 431 potential GOP caucus-goers were interviewed (margin of error plus-minus 4.7 percentage points), as well as 348 Democratic caucus-goers (plus-minus 5.3 percentage points. In New Hampshire, 450 potential GOP primary voters were interviewed (margin of error plus-minus 4.6 percentage points), as well as 404 Democratic voters (plus-minus 4.)
South Carolina governor calls deadly rain a 'thousand-year' event. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley didn't mince any words Sunday about just how dangerous a situation the weather -- which was blamed for five deaths in the state by Sunday night -- had become in her state.
"We are at a 1,000-year level of rain," Haley said at an afternoon news conference. "That's how big this is."
It wasn't hyperbole.
Since weather records don't go back far enough to know if it's rained this much in South Carolina in a 1,000 years, a "thousand-year rainfall" means that the amount of rainfall in South Carolina has a 1-in-1,000 chance of happening in any given year, explained CNN meteorologist Taylor Ward.
Certain areas of South Carolina had never before been deluged with such eye-popping rainfall tallies: more than 24 inches in Mount Pleasant, nearly 20 inches in areas around Charleston and more than 18 inches in the Gills Creek area of Columbia, according to Ward.
Steven Pfaff of the National Weather Service said the "phenomenal amount of rainfall" was "a very dangerous situation."
"Flash flood warnings have been issued and many areas that received a large amount of rainfall 24 hours ago are being hit hard again," said Plaff. "This is an extremely dangerous situation in those areas."
Haley: keep off the roads
But the torrential rain was more than just dangerous. It was deadly.
The weather is being blamed for five deaths along South Carolina roadways, according to Derrec Becker of the South Carolina Emergency Management Division.
Three of those deaths were reported by the South Carolina Highway Patrol, and two by the Richland County Sheriff's Department, according to Becker.
The weather service issued a public service announcement video reminding people not to drive through rushing waters, no matter how shallow the water appears to be. "Do not attempt to drive into flooded roadways ... it takes just 12 inches of flowing water to carry off a small car. Turn around, don't drown," it said.
"Regardless of where you are in the state, stay home," implored the governor. "Stay off the roadways."
But many didn't heed their call.
Becker said that 315 vehicle collisions occurred in one 12-hour period on Sunday, and Haley said that more than 750 motorists called for assistance during that same stretch.
Perhaps that is why Haley went beyond simply urging South Carolinians to stay off the roads in some areas. In Columbia, for example -- a city that had the rainiest day in its history Sunday according to the National Weather Service -- Haley made sure of it by closing all interstates in and around the capital city.
"This is an incident we've never dealt with before," she said.
National Guard deployed
Haley announced Sunday that in addition to the eight swift water rescue teams and 11 aircraft, 600 National Guardsmen had been deployed to assist in rescues and evacuations, and that hundreds more were on standby.
The day before, President Barack Obama signed a statewide emergency declaration retroactive to Thursday, authorizing federal aid in anticipation of more rain.
Haley also said several fellow states, including North Carolina, Tennessee and Florida had lent resources as well.
Not over yet
The weather service forecast "catastrophic flash flooding" overnight into Monday in Berkeley County in South Carolina, where more than 18 inches of rain had fallen in 24 hours, according to the CNN Weather Center.
"It's not over," warned Haley. "We are in the middle of it...we have another 24 hours of this."
Northeast on deck
The wet misery isn't just limited to South Carolina; as of Sunday evening, both Carolinas, New Jersey and Virginia were under states of emergency, and the weather service has issued flood watches stretching from Georgia to Delaware.
But Hurricane Joaquin, downgraded to Category 3 strength earlier in the day Sunday and only expected to continue to weaken, isn't necessarily the culprit -- it's coming from two sources.
The low pressure area associated with the rain soaking the Carolinas is funneling heavy tropical moisture into the region, creating the torrential rainfall, the CNN Weather Center said.
Joaquin inched northward in the Atlantic on Sunday, but luckily away from U.S. shores. However, the storm is expected to push in a storm surge in the Northeast as it passes, resulting in a one-two water punch.
"Life-threatening rip currents, high surf and coastal flooding, mainly at high tides, will stretch nearly the entire eastern U.S. coast," CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said.
CNN's Nick Valencia reported from South Carolina. CNN's Kevin Conlon wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Ben Brumfield, Ashley Fantz, Greg Botelho, Joe Sutton, Devon Sayers, Tony Marco, Shawn Nottingham, Dominique Dodley, Michael Martinez and Kerry Chan-Laddaran also contributed to this report.
Democrats pounce as Bush defends 'stuff happens' remarks. Jeb Bush is defending a comment he made Friday afternoon in the wake of the Oregon college shooting, when he said "stuff happens," and argued that officials should fight the impulse to react to tragedies with more government.
"We're in a difficult time in our country and I don't think more government is necessarily the answer to this. I think we need to reconnect ourselves with everybody else. It's very sad to see. I resist the notion," Bush said at a campaign stop in South Carolina. "I had this challenge as governor, 'cause we had, look, stuff happens, there's always a crisis. And the impulse is always to do something and it's not necessarily the right thing to do."
Democrats were quick to hop on the language as tone deaf, and President Barack Obama indirectly criticized his remarks when asked about it during a White House briefing.
Shooting at Oregon community college
15 photos: Shooting at Oregon community college
"I don't even think I have to react to that one. I think the American people should hear that and make their own judgments based on the fact that every couple of months we have a mass shooting," he said. "And they can decide if they consider that 'stuff happening.'"
Bush clarified later to reporters that his comment was "not related to Oregon."
"There are all sorts of things that happen in life," Bush said. "Tragedies unfold almost, look, you just read the papers, and you see a child dies in a pool and drowns. And parents want to pass a law to do something, and you got to be careful that you want to solve the problem. If there's a problem, a defect in the law, fine, then we did that all the time, but sometimes you're imposing solutions to problems that doesn't fix the problem and takes away people's liberties and rights, and that's the point I was trying to make."
GOP candidates: Gun laws won't stop 'crazies'
Bush's campaign called the Democratic attacks -- and the media's response "beyond craven."
"It is sad and beyond craven that liberal Democrats, aided and abetted by some in the national media, would dishonestly take Governor Bush's comments out of context in a cheap attempt to advance their political agenda in the wake of a tragedy," Bush spokesperson Allie Brandenburger said in a statement. "Taking shameless advantage of a horrific tragedy is wrong and only serves to prey on people's emotions."
Oregon shooting shakes D.C., campaign trail
The remark was similar to one Donald Trump said earlier that if he became president, he doesn't expect to halt all mass shootings because there will always be people that society can't stop.
"You're going to have these things happen and it's a horrible thing to behold, horrible," Trump said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"It's not politically correct to say that, but you're going to have difficulty and that will be for the next million years, there's going to be difficulty and people are going to slip through the cracks," Trump added. "What are you going to do, institutionalize everybody?"
Here is my article that I wrote up for the news wires yesterday. Click the link to get to it and thanks for reading it. It is an important article that needs to be out there.
Four California Students Arrested in High School Shooting Plot. Four students were arrested Friday in Tuolumne, California, after police discovered a "detailed" plan to "shoot and kill as many people as possible" at a local high school, the sheriff said.
Tuolumne County Sheriff James Mele didn't identify the suspects in a news conference Saturday, although he said they were students at Summerville High School, where the alleged shooting was to have taken place, and that they were male. They haven't yet been charged.
Other students at Summerville in Tuolumne, about 55 miles east of Stockton, heard the suspects discussing the shooting last week, so they told school staff, Mele said. The school then contacted the sheriff's office.
"Detectives located evidence verifying a plot to shoot staff and students at Summerville High School," Mele said. "The suspects' plan was very detailed in nature and included names of would-be victims, locations and the methods in which the plan was to be carried out."
The "common denominator" of possible victims, Mele said, was their affiliation with Summerville.
The four suspects were in the process of securing weapons, Mele said, adding that they were "pretty doggone close" to being able to carry out the attack.
"I have no idea why somebody or a group of individuals would want to do this," Mele said, but he added, "Cyber-bullying is a problem in our society."
"I think children today have a hard time trying to understand what is reality and what is fiction," he said.
Recalling the shootings at Columbine, Sandy Hook and now Roseburg, Oregon, Assistant District Attorney Eric Hovatter told reporters that it might be easy to dismiss the idea of a school shooting happening in a place like Tuolumne County.
But, he added, "it is clear" that "children are willing and capable of planning and carrying out acts of violence against fellow students and teachers." Oregon shooter's dad: 'That's what guns are, the killers'.
The father of the Roseburg, Oregon, shooter said he doesn't know where his son got his weapons, and he declined to comment much on his son's mental state, but he was quick to say what he thought was to blame in the deadly college attack: Guns.
Who were the victims?
Ian Mercer, during an interview outside his California home Saturday, told CNN that he didn't know his son had a single gun, let alone 13. He asked, "How on earth could he compile 13 guns? How could that happen?"
Mercer's son, Chris Harper-Mercer, staged an attack at Umpqua Community College, killing nine people and injuring nine others Thursday.
During his interview, Ian Mercer appeared to walk back his statement that guns were to blame, but only briefly.
When leaders say 'it's not the time' to talk gun control 01:31
"We talk about gun laws. We talk about gun control. Every time something like this happens, they talk about it and nothing gets done. I'm not trying to say that that's to blame for what happened, but if Chris had not been able to get hold of 13 guns, this wouldn't have happened," the father said.
Mercer said he has never held a gun. He doesn't want to, he said. He laid out his personal philosophy on the issue: "I'm a great believer (in) you don't buy guns, don't buy guns, you don't buy guns."
Oregon shooting hero tells gunman, 'It's my son's birthday today'
Other countries don't see mass shootings at the same clip that the United States does, he said, asserting, "Somebody has to ask the question: How is it so easy to get all these guns?"
His condemnation of guns grew stronger as the interview went on, and he closed his remarks on the subject with a call for change.
"It has to change. How can it not? Even people that believe in the right to bear arms, what right do you have to take people's lives? That's what guns are, the killers. Simple as that. Simple as that. It's black and white. What do you want a gun for?"
Pressed on whether his son's mental state could be to blame for the violence, Mercer declined to comment, saying he wanted to let police follow through, but he left open the possibility that his son's state of mind could have played a role.
"Obviously, somebody who goes and kills nine people has to have some kind of issue. Whatever it is, let the police determine what they find," he said. CNN's Ryan Young contributed to this report.
The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Out of the 1.6 million Americans incarcerated in 2013, over eight percent of them were in private prisons. Inmates in these facilities suffer worse conditions, including more assaults and higher recidivism.
John Cornyn Introduces Mental Health and Safe Communities Act. Bill Will Enable Law Enforcement, Local Officials to Better Identify and Treat Potentially Dangerous Mentally-Ill Individuals
U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) will introduce legislation designed to enhance the ability of local communities to identify and treat potentially dangerous, mentally-ill individuals. The Mental Health and Safe Communities Act will help fix the existing background check system without expanding it, increase the use of treatment-based alternatives for mentally-ill offenders, and improve crisis response and prevention by local officials. The bill is endorsed by a diverse group of organizations, including the National Rifle Association (NRA), the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and the National Association of Police Organizations.
“While potentially dangerous mentally-ill individuals are often known to law enforcement and local officials, gaps in existing law or inadequate resources prevent our communities from taking proactive steps to prevent them from becoming violent,” said Sen. Cornyn.
“This legislation will strengthen programs that promote preventative screening and crisis response training so that we can better understand and treat the factors which may endanger public safety,” Sen. Cornyn continued. “By giving our communities the resources necessary to recognize and prevent acts of violence, we not only protect American families, but help those affected by mental illness.”
The bill has been endorsed by key national organizations, including:
National Rifle Association
National Alliance on Mental Illness
National Association of Police Organizations
American Correctional Association
American Jail Association
Council of State Governments
Treatment Advocacy Center
National Association of Social Workers
And when for-profit prison corporations lobby for harsh laws that lead to more incarcerations, incarceration rates rise throughout the entire U.S. correctional system, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for maintaining the highest incarceration rate in the world.
Corporations should not be able to profit from mass incarceration. The Justice Is Not For Sale Act, introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Raul Grijalva, bars federal, state, and local governments from contracting with private prisons. We need to come out in strong support of this bill.
Also, backed by the NRA, Sen. John Cornyn proposes gun background check bill.
Backed by the National Rifle Association, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican leader introduced legislation Wednesday that would reward states for sending more information about residents with serious mental problems to the federal background check system for firearms purchasers.
The bill by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, would also bolster programs for treating mentally ill people and handling confrontations with them. It comes after last month’s killings in a Louisiana movie theater by a gunman with mental problems put a fresh spotlight on holes in the background check system and programs for people with psychological difficulties.
Cornyn’s legislation is far more limited than a Senate measure expanding background check requirements that Republicans and the NRA helped defeat two years ago. It’s also narrower than a bill a top Senate Democrat announced this week.
Still, it represents a rare effort by a leading Republican to propose modest steps that could curb some firearms purchases. Cornyn has an A-plus rating for his gun-rights voting record from the NRA, which long has fought gun restrictions yet has backed some bills limiting the ability of mentally troubled people to buy firearms.
Cornyn said that while past bills have been designed to “drive a political wedge” on the issue, his was aimed at helping people with mental health issues to “hopefully pre-empt them from committing an act of violence.”
Jennifer Baker, spokeswoman for NRA legislative affairs, said the bill took “meaningful steps toward fixing the system and making our communities safer.”
Gun control advocates criticized the measure for doing little to curb firearms purchases. Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said it “does nothing to prevent dangerous people from purchasing guns” online or at gun shows.
By law, federally licensed gun dealers must conduct background checks on firearms purchasers.
Among those barred from buying guns are people legally determined to be “mentally defective” and those who have been committed to mental institutions. But states are not required to send those records to the background check system, which is run by the FBI, and its database is spotty.
Cornyn’s bill would increase grants under the government’s main law enforcement program by up to 5 percent for states that send the federal system at least 90 percent of their records on people with serious mental problems. States providing less data could see their grants from a broad range of justice programs penalized by the same amounts, at the attorney general’s discretion.
The bill would give state and local governments more flexibility to use federal funds to screen for mental problems in prisoners and improve training for law enforcement officers and others on handling emergencies involving the mentally ill.
Less than two weeks ago, John Russell Houser fired a handgun into a crowd of movie watchers in Lafayette, Louisiana, killing two and wounding nine. Houser’s family said they knew he had mental problems and had sought court protection, but he was not involuntarily committed to a hospital.
When he purchased the weapon at a gun shop in Alabama, the information about his problems had not been sent to the background check system and the sale was allowed. Police said Houser killed himself after they confronted him.
Dylann Roof, charged in June’s massacre of nine people at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, bought his gun after an FBI background check examiner did not discover that Roof had been arrested for possessing illegal drugs, authorities said. That should have blocked his purchase.
On Monday, a Democratic leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced legislation that would provide extra federal money to states that send a broad range of data on the mentally ill to the federal system, including information about the mentally ill, violent criminals and domestic abusers.
In 2013, the Senate shelved bipartisan legislation that would have expanded required background checks to firearms bought at gun shows and all Internet sales. All but four of the chamber’s 45 Republicans opposed the measure.
John Oliver Chastises Secret Service For Wasting Time Trying To Embarrass Jason Chaffetz. Last Week Tonight's John Oliver wondered why the Secret Service was wasting their time trying to make an ass out of Rep. Jason Chaffetz when the man was already doing such a wonderful job of that on his own.
Apparently the Secret Service was leaking unflattering information about the Congressman's rejection from the agency some years ago, but as Oliver noted, they could have just waited for him to take care of that problem for them without an ounce of their help.
OLIVER: That's right. The Secret Service attempted to embarrass one of their biggest critics, Congressman Jason Chaffetz, by leaking his rejected application to join them, essentially behaving like the high school table of mean girls.
And I don't know what's worse here. The fact that the Secret Service is so petty that they broke the law to embarrass Jason Chaffetz, or that they're so stupid, they didn't realize, if you want to embarrass Jason Chaffetz, just wait, and he will do it for you.
Oliver followed up with a clip of Chaffetz getting owned by Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, when he tried to roll out the chart that was given to him by an extremist anti-abortion group and pretend it was his office's own work, only to be called out by Richards about where it came from, along with some other footage of Chaffetz's greatest hits.
It seems he wasn't done yet this Sunday when he announced his intention to run for Speaker on Faux "news": Republicans In Disarray As Jason Chaffetz Announces Run For Speaker Then Dodges Questions:
When Rep. Jason Chaffetz announced his candidacy for Speaker, the dysfunction in the Republican Party hit an all new high, as the Utah Republican dodged questions and refused to say what he would do if he were elected Speaker.
Details, schmetails. Who needs specifics when you've got fearmongering and platitudes to run on?
Regardless of it all today, please stay in touch!
