Joining today's show are Sam Stein, Steve Rattner, Nicolle Wallace, Mark Halperin, Cokie Roberts, Kasie Hunt, Mary Kissel, Hallie Jackson, Eugene Robinson, Chuck Todd, Elise Jordan, Fmr. Gov. Mike Huckabee, Gov. Chris Christie, Jane Sanders, Tom Costello, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Dave Campbell and in Taiji, Japan today/yesterday, all is quiet at the harbor, it will be a blue cove day! We will monitor the captives from yesterday's drive and update with any new information. The Whale Museum staff return to the sea pens for another training session. They waste no time breaking their newly captured dolphins into performing, money-making commodities. 5 divers entered the sea pen with the dolphins from yesterday's capture. Others lifted the nets to give the dolphins a smaller space to swim. The dolphins have not been transferred as of yet, trainers have left. 2016-29-01 6:18am #tweet4dolphins
Trump overshadows Republican debate even as he sits it out. Even in boycotting a debate with his Republican rivals, front-runner Donald Trump managed to upstage the event on Thursday with a typical dramatic flourish.
Instead of attending a seventh debate, the former reality TV star held a competing event across town that he said raised $6 million for U.S. military veterans. In doing so, he cast a shadow over his rivals, who frequently tossed barbs his way.
Trump's gamble that he could leave the battlefield to his rivals for one night appeared to pay off, with just days to go before Iowa holds the first nominating contest of the 2016 election season. No one appeared to emerge as a central challenger to him during the two-hour face-off in Des Moines.
Trump's refusal to participate in the debate out of anger that Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly was a moderator prompted a flurry of last-minute phone calls with Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes that failed to resolve their dispute.
A Fox News (FOXA.O) statement said Trump requested that Fox contribute $5 million to his charities in exchange for his attendance, which the network turned down.
The debate was the type of event Republicans would routinely have without the flamboyant Trump on stage, and it lacked the electricity that he brings to the party's search for a nominee for the Nov. 8 election.
Without Trump on stage, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie found themselves with more room to make their case to voters seeking a more mainstream candidate.
Both men have an eye on the Feb. 9 first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire, which comes on the heels of the Iowa caucuses on Monday and where an establishment Republican like them might have a better chance of standing out.
Senator Ted Cruz from Texas and Senator Marco Rubio from Florida, the two top challengers to Trump in Iowa, engaged in squabbles over immigration and national security and did not appear to threaten Trump's lead. He holds the edge over Cruz in polls of Iowa Republicans.
Trump's rivals mocked his decision to sit out the debate and found ways to criticize him.
"I’m a maniac and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly, and Ben, you're a terrible surgeon," Cruz told his rivals, including Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, as the debate opened. His next sentence began: "Now that we’ve gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way."
Bush, who has been a frequent target of Trump's attacks, turned a question about religious tolerance into an attack on Trump's proposed temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.
"Donald Trump, for example — I mentioned his name again if anybody was missing him — Mr. Trump believed in reaction to people’s fears that we should ban all Muslims. Well, that creates an environment that’s toxic in our own country," Bush said.
Cruz, after a series of questions, said: "If you ask me one more mean question, I may have to leave the stage."
In a swipe at both Trump and Cruz, Rubio chimed in: "Don't worry, I'm not going to leave the stage no matter what you ask me."
With his veterans' event drawing live TV news coverage on Fox News competitors CNN and MSNBC, Trump absorbed plenty of media attention.
He clung to his insistence that Fox News had treated him badly. He has complained that Kelly insulted him at a debate in August and that a statement from the network earlier this week had belittled him.
Two other Republican candidates, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee, joined Trump on stage after participating in a debate of low-polling candidates.
Not so former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore.
"I’m not about to go across town tonight to carry the coat for some billionaire," he said at the "undercard" debate.
There was some mystery as to which veterans' groups would receive the money raised at the event, which included $1 million from Trump himself. His campaign did not say which group was getting the funds.
Trump, with just one day's notice on a weeknight, was able to fill to capacity a hall at Drake University that holds 700.
"I didn’t want to be here, to be honest, I wanted to be about five minutes away" at the debate, Trump told the crowd. "When you’re treated badly, you have to stick up for your rights - whether we like it or not."
Trump dominated social media during the debate, leading the entire Republican pack in Twitter mentions throughout the first half of the debate, according to data from social media analytics firm Zoomph.
Trump was by far the most-searched-for candidate on Google during the first half of the debate, at one point outpacing the second-most-searched-for candidate, Rubio, by nearly four-to-one, according to Google Trends data.
Trump's support in opinion polls, much of it from blue-collar men, has not wavered for months despite him insulting Mexican immigrants and Muslims and clashing with Republican establishment figures like Senator John McCain. Reporting by JOHN WHITESIDES, GINGER GIBSON AND STEVE HOLLAND, James Oliphant in Iowa, Doina Chiacu and Valerie Volcovici in Washington, Richard Valdmanis in Boston and Emily Flitter in New York; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Peter Cooney.
We now know what a Republican presidential debate looks like without Donald Trump -- pretty tame.
The final GOP debate before the Iowa caucuses went on without the party's front-runner Thursday night, and in his absence, the personal attacks, bluster and theatrics that had dominated previous debates were largely gone.
As Trump hosted a rival event for veterans less than three miles away, other leading Republicans clashed along familiar battle lines that included immigration and surveillance, as each tried to make their most forceful case to voters just days away from the Iowa contest. But without Trump on stage, there were few breakout moments that are likely to change the course of the race.
The evening kicked off with a tribute to what Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly called the "elephant not in the room."
"Let me say, I'm a maniac, and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly and Ben, you're a terrible surgeon," said Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump's closest rival in the Hawkeye State. "Now that we've gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way..."
Marco Rubio said the 2016 presidential campaign is "not about Donald Trump."
"He's an entertaining guy, he's the greatest show on earth," the Florida senator said, adding that the party should focus on preventing Democrat Hillary Clinton from winning the White House.
Jeb Bush, who has grown increasingly combative with Trump over the months, joked that he wished the real estate mogul was there. He also appeared to take a swipe at his rivals on stage for not taking on Trump as aggressively as he has.
"I kind of miss Donald Trump. He was a little teddy bear to me," Bush said. "Everybody else was in the witness protection program when I went after him."
But beyond these initial remarks, Trump was missing from the conversation for most of the two-hour debate. Instead, seven of his competitors went head-to-head on policy, as they jockeyed to prove their conservatism and preparedness to run the country.
"The exchanges were much more civil. You didn't have any gratuitous insults," Cruz said on Fox News after the conclusion of the debate.
Policy clash
Not for the first time, immigration drew some of the sharpest clashes.
Rubio, who co-sponsored the so-called "Gang of Eight" bipartisan immigration reform bill, was on the defensive on one of his most vulnerable issues.
"I do not support blanket amnesty," he said.
Bush turned to his fellow Floridian and said he was "confused" to hear Rubio say this, as he accused the senator of changing his position for political expediency.
"He cut and run because it wasn't popular among conservatives, I guess," Bush said.
Cruz also defended his conservative credentials on immigration. He said an amendment he proposed during the Senate's immigration debate made clear that "anyone here illegally is permanently ineligible for citizenship."
"My friend Sen. Rubio stood with Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer" and supported amnesty, Cruz said.
Paul jumped in by calling Cruz's statements on immigration "insulting" and said Cruz had no place accusing his rivals of being for amnesty. Rubio was quick to join in.
"This is the lie that Ted's campaign is built on," Rubio said. "He's the most conservative guy and everyone else is a 'RINO.'"
Christie — who is counting on a solid performance in New Hampshire -- seized on the moment to deliver a powerful rebuke of his rivals. He called Cruz and Rubio products of Washington skilled at making procedural arguments that are inconsequential to voters, in a moment clearly aimed at setting himself apart as a Washington outsider.
"This is why you need to send someone from outside of Washington to Washington," the New Jersey governor said. "I feel like I need a Washington-to-English converter."
Christie: Stop the Washington bull and get things done
Christie: Stop the Washington bull and get things done 00:46
The candidates also butted heads on surveillance and national security. Cruz, in particular, was hit for his vote on NSA reform.
Christie, who has been critical of Cruz's vote to end the NSA's bulk data collection program, said the senator's vote "made the country less safe."
Rand Paul also joined in, accusing Cruz of flip-flopping. "Ted said he was for NSA reform, but then he told Marco Rubio, no, no, no, I voted for the bill because I'm for the government collecting 100 percent of your cell phone records," the Kentucky senator said. "I don't think Ted can have it both ways."
Unexpected curveball
Trump threw an unexpected curveball into the 2016 campaign this week when he declared that he would boycott the debate amid an escalating feud with Fox News.
The decision came amid a feud with Fox News after Trump questioned whether moderator Megyn Kelly would treat him fairly at the debate.
In an interview with CNN's Brianna Keilar on Thursday, Trump said Fox News "apologized" to him for a mocking statement the television network issued two days before the debate. While the network "could not have been nicer" as it tried to woo him back into attending the debate, Trump said he would stick to his plan of holding the event for veterans.
"I was treated very unfairly by Fox. Since then they've been excellent, they've been very nice, but it's too late," he said in the interview aboard his private plane.
A Fox News spokesperson said Roger Ailes, the network's chief executive, had "three brief conversations" with Trump on Thursday.
"In the course of those conversations, we acknowledged his concerns about a satirical observation we made in order to quell the attacks on Megyn Kelly, and prevent her from being smeared any further," the spokesperson said.
At his competing event, Trump said he raised more than $6 million for veterans in a single day. He dismissed any notion that his absences from the debate would hurt him with voters.
"When you're treated badly you have to stick up for your rights," Trump said. "And that's what our country has to do."
Undercard
Trump's boycott was also a topic of conversation at an earlier undercard debate featuring four lower-polling candidates -- Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Jim Gilmore. Santorum quickly expressed deep frustration with the drama surrounding Trump.
"The entire lead-up to this debate was about whether Donald Trump was going to show up to the next debate," Santorum said. "The people of Iowa ... care a lot about the issues. They care about who's going to be the leader of the free world."
Santorum and Huckabee, two previous winners of the Iowa caucuses, attended Trump's veterans event after the debate.
Gilmore, who has not qualified for most undercard debates, mocked Trump's rival event, as he called himself "the only veteran" running for president this cycle.
"I'm not going to any Donald Trump event over across town on some sort of faux veteran sort of issue," Gilmore said.
He appeared to relish his time in the spotlight, taking issue on several occasions with how many questions he was being asked by the moderators.
"Did you miss me? Did you skip me?" Gilmore blurted out when a question went to Huckabee. CNN's Maeve Reston, Jeremy Diamond and Brian Stelter contributed to this report.
Cokie Roberts said "I think the winner of the debate itself was Megyn Kelly... but Donald J. Trump won the night."
Donald Trump throws a grand old party. No one ever really doubted that Donald Trump could pull off a major counter-programing feat -- even when competing with a GOP debate that was expected to draw millions of viewers.
He did it Thursday night, dazzling a crowd of hundreds of enthusiastic supporters by announcing that he had raised more than $6 million for veterans in one day -- $1 million of it from his own checkbook. "We love our vets," he said.
"You know, my whole theme is make America great again and that's what we're going to do --- and we wouldn't have even been here if it weren't for our vets," Trump said.
Even Trump seemed a bit surprised that he had pulled off his stunt: "Look at all the cameras. This is like the Academy Awards," the real estate magnate said as he took the stage in an auditorium at Drake University about 20 minutes after the debate began a few miles away. "We're actually told that we have more cameras than they do by quite a bit, and you know what that's really in honor of our vets."The rally was a restrained performance by Trump standards. He dispensed with his usual riff about his poll numbers and mostly avoided jabs at his fellow candidates (with the exception of a "low-energy" shot at Jeb Bush).
Instead he delivered a speech mostly focused on the problems veterans have faced when returning from Iraq and Afghanistan -- inadequate healthcare and housing, drug abuse, mental health issues and homelessness.
"Our vets are being mistreated. Illegal immigrants are treated better in many cases than our vets and it's not going to happen any more. It's not going to happen any more."
Clearly enjoying his evening away from the debate, Trump also told the audience what could be another media sensation for his campaign: the fact that his daughter Ivanka is pregnant. "Ivanka, I said, it would be so great if you had your baby in Iowa. It would be so great -- I'd definitely win!"
Huckabee and Santorum join the party
In a somewhat extraordinary move for someone who has reveled in taunting his rivals, he invited Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum -- two candidates who had been relegated to an earlier undercard debate -- to join him on stage to speak about veterans issues. While appearing generous, it was also politically savvy maneuver given that the two men were the respective winners of the past two Iowa caucuses, but stuck in the bottom-tier this time around.
Huckabee and Santorum are still well-liked and admired by core Republican voters here in Iowa, even if their campaigns have failed to ignite this time. And their presence on stage with Trump could go a long way toward negating the criticisms from Trump's rivals like Ted Cruz, whose allies have claimed that Trump will be punished by Iowans on Monday for skipping the debate stage.
Santorum, who narrowly defeated Mitt Romney here in 2012, tried to stand to the side of Trump's podium, noting to laughter that he didn't want to be photographed in front of a Trump sign.
"I'm supporting another candidate, but that doesn't mean we can't work together" to honor America's veterans, Santorum said.
Trump declares victory against Fox News
Trump has regaled in the media spectacle that he created over the past few days after withdrawing from the Fox News debate with complaints that he'd been mistreated by the network. He told the crowd that he wished that he'd been able to participate, but once he had withdrawn -- no amount of cajoling, even by the likes of Fox News host Bill O'Reilly --- could bring him back.
"When you're treated badly, you have to stick up for your rights," he said to cheers. "And that's what our country has to do.... We have to stick up for our country when we're being mistreated."
He added that Fox had been "extremely nice," but it was too late. In an interview with CNN just before the rally, Trump said Fox News "apologized" to him for a mocking statement the television network issued.
"Once this started and it was for our vets there was nothing I could do," he added, reflecting on whether the pundits were right that his maneuver might damage his campaign. "I don't know. Is it for me personally a good thing, a bad thing? Will I get more votes? Will I get less votes? Nobody knows. Who the hell knows."
$6 million for 22 veterans' groups
He predicted that the amount of money that he had raised through a website and through personal calls to wealthy friends who contributed to the cause would impress Iowans. "I think this money is going to continue to pour in."
The Trump campaign on Thursday night released a list of 22 veterans' organizations that will share the more than $6 million fundraising haul.
The organizations run the gamut from groups focused on helping veterans with disabilities and mental health problems to those aimed at helping veterans reintegrate into civilian society.
'Donald Trump isn't scared of anything'
Trump supporters who waited hours in the cold to see him roundly disputed the notion that he would see any attrition in his support in Iowa, where he has led in recent polls.
In interviews, many voters here said the controversy was yet another example of Trump bucking the establishment -- a trait that has endeared him to them from the beginning -- and that they were proud of him standing up to Fox News.
Ernie Ratcliffe, an army veteran who served two tours in Vietnam, drove in from Kansas City for the rally, scoffed when asked for his thoughts on Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's contention that Trump skipped the debate because he was afraid of taunts or difficult questions from the Fox moderators or rival candidates.
"Donald Trump isn't scared of anything. He's not scared of absolutely anything," said Ratcliffe, who has signed up with his wife to call New Hampshire voters on Trump's behalf next week. "Donald J. Trump said he was going to do this and he's done it. He's a man of his word."
Ratcliffe said he was convinced that Trump was the only candidate who could clean up the Department of Veterans Affairs and that it would be "one of the first things he does when he gets into office."
"He's going to get it squared away," he said. "It's not going to take him very long to do it. He's going to put the right people in. He knows how to manage things. He's a very successful businessman. He's going to get it done very quickly and very, very well."
Randal Thom, a former Marine who was among the first admitted to Trump's event, said he loved it that Trump refused to back down.
"When it came out yesterday that he was actually doing this (rally) in less than 24 hours, it was amazing," Thom said. "It just shows he has the ability to rally and get things done."
Thom, who raises Alaskan Malamute and Pomalute puppies in Minnesota, and plans to spend Monday in Iowa volunteering for Trump, dismissed Cruz as "a Canadian-born citizen" and described the Texas senator, as well as the other GOP contenders as "weak."
"Trump is a 100% strongman. He's bullet proof," Thom said. "People say, 'Oh look at his background. Look at the number of wives he's had.' You know what? I don't care about that. What I care about is his future." CNN's Noah Gray, Gregory Krieg, Gabe Ramirez and Jeremy Diamond contributed to this report.
Donald Trump says he raised nearly $6 million for veterans with debate boycott. If Donald Trump had any second thoughts about skipping the GOP debate, he certainly didn’t show it as he took the stage before a raucous crowd at Drake University on Thursday night to say that he had raised nearly $6 million for veterans in one day.
For several days now, the pundits have pontificated about the damage that Trump’s decision could inflict on his campaign. But, comparing his crowd and the number of cameras to the Academy Awards, Trump waved off the notion that Iowans would see him as a sore loser.
“We love our vets,” Trump said.
“When you’re treated badly you have to stick up for your rights,” Trump added, alluding to his relationship with Fox. “And that’s what our country has to do.”
“We have to stick up for our country when we’re being mistreated.”
He added that Fox had been “extremely nice,” but it was too late. In an interview with CNN just before the rally, Trump said Fox News “apologized” to him for a mocking statement the television network issued.
Also appearing with Trump were two men who didn’t make the prime-time debate, and the two most recent winners of the Iowa Caucuses: Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee.
‘Donald Trump isn’t scared of anything’
Trump supporters who waited hours in the cold to see him roundly disputed the notion that he would see any attrition in his support in Iowa, where he has led in recent polls.
In interviews, many voters here said the controversy was yet another example of Trump bucking the establishment — a trait that has endeared them to him from the beginning — and that they were proud of him standing up to Fox News.
Ernie Ratcliffe, an army veteran who served two tours in Vietnam, drove in from Kansas City for the rally, scoffed when asked for his thoughts on Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s contention that Trump skipped the debate because he was afraid of taunts or difficult questions from the Fox moderators or rival candidates.
“Donald Trump isn’t scared of anything. He’s not scared of absolutely anything,” said Ratcliffe, who has signed up with his wife to call New Hampshire voters on Trump’s behalf next week. “Donald J. Trump said he was going to do this and he’s done it. He’s a man of his word.”
Ratcliffe said he was convinced that Trump was the only candidate who could clean up the Department of Veterans Affairs and that it would be “one of the first things he does when he gets into office.”
“He’s going to get it squared away,” Ratlcliffe said. “It’s not going to take him very long to do it. He’s going to put the right people in. He knows how to manage things. He’s a very successful businessman. He’s going to get it done very quickly and very, very well.”
Randal Thom, a former Marine who was among the first admitted to Trump’s event, said he loved it that Trump refused to back down.
“When it came out yesterday that he was actually doing this (rally) in less than 24 hours, it was amazing,” Thom said. “It just shows he has the ability to rally and get things done.”
Thom, who raises Alaskan Malamute and Pomalute puppies in Minnesota, and plans to spend Monday in Iowa volunteering for Trump, dismissed Cruz as “a Canadian born citizen” and described the Texas senator, as well as the other GOP contenders as “weak.”
“Trump is a 100% strongman. He’s bullet proof,” Thom said. “People say, ‘Oh look at his background. Look at the number of wives he’s had.’ You know what? I don’t care about that. What I care about is his future.”
The details of exactly how Trump plans to parcel out money to veterans groups as a result of the event remained unclear on Monday night. But said he gave $1 million to veterans.
Inside the auditorium where Trump spoke, the campaign reserved special seating for veterans, many of them disabled, and Trump recognized them as he took the stage.
Bernie Sanders Ad Steps Up Attack on Hillary Clinton’s Wall Street Ties.
The 30-second ad, called “The Problem,” focuses on Goldman Sachs Group Inc.GS +2.13%, a firm with a history of dealings with Mrs. Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton. A narrator says that the financial ties between politicians and such firms is one reason the economy is “rigged” in favor of powerful interests.
As the Iowa caucus nears, Mr. Sanders has struggled to reconcile his promise to run a positive campaign with paid ads that have the flavor of political attacks.
The latest spot is a fresh illustration of the balance he is trying to strike. It doesn’t mention Mrs. Clinton by name, nor does it carry her image. But the target of the ad is no mystery. In a Democratic debate this month, Mr. Sanders was asked how he and Mrs. Clinton differ when it comes to regulating Wall Street. He replied that “I don’t get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs.”
Mrs. Clinton received $675,000 for delivering three paid speeches to Goldman after she left the State Department in 2013. Mr. Clinton received $2.2 million in speaking fees from Goldman between 2005 and 2013, financial disclosure statements show.
The new Sanders spot highlights Goldman’s role in the financial crisis. Earlier this month, Goldman agreed to pay a regulatory penalty topping $5 billion rooted in the sale of mortgage bonds leading up to the crisis in 2008.
A narrator says: “How does Wall Street get away with it? Millions in campaign contributions and speaking fees. … As long as Washington is bought and paid for, we can’t build an economy that works for people.”
An earlier ad from Mr. Sanders carried much the same message. Called “Two Visions,” the ad featured Mr. Sanders speaking to the camera.
“There are two Democratic visions for regulating Wall Street. One says it’s OK to take millions from big banks, and then tell them what to do,” Mr. Sanders says in that spot.
Mr. Sanders, in a breakfast meeting with reporters Thursday, insisted he is staying true to his pledge that he would not direct personal attacks against Mrs. Clinton. That isn’t the way the Clinton campaign sees it.
“This last-minute sneak attack from the Sanders campaign is clearly meant to plaster the Iowa airwaves in the days before the caucus with negative ads slamming Hillary Clinton, without giving our campaign time to respond,” Matt Paul, the Clinton campaign’s Iowa director, said in a written statement. “It’s a cynical political ploy in a primary that had until recently been characterized by a respectful back-and-forth about the issues.”
Justifying his ads, Mr. Sanders said he is simply drawing a “contrast” with Mrs. Clinton on important issues. That is different from what he described as the TV ad wars on the Republican side, where “one Republican is ripping apart the other Republican as one of the worst people in the history of the world,” he told reporters at a Bloomberg Politics breakfast meeting.
As the Democratic race tightens, Mr. Sanders is casting his main rival in increasingly unflattering terms. At the breakfast, he mentioned a recent fundraising event Mrs. Clinton attended in Philadelphia at the investment firm Franklin Square Capital Partners. “She was in Philadelphia … to raise substantial sums of money from an investment bank,” Mr. Sanders said. “I don’t know much money she raised. But that’s what she was doing. That’s how she has raised money throughout her political career.”
Clinton in White Plains just a few days before Iowa caucuses. Campaigning for the neck and neck Iowa Democratic caucus was put on hold while presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton attended a fundraiser here on Thursday where attendees paid at least $250 for breakfast.
Speaking to several hundred supporters at the RPW Group Building at 1133 Westchester Ave., Clinton recalled a stop in this city 24 years ago, while campaigning for her husband’s bid for the White House.
“Here we are all these years later,” she said. “And we didn’t do so badly then, did we?”
Supporters paid between $250 and $2,700, according to HillaryClinton.com. The building is home to several companies, including The Journal News/lohud.com, and is a roughly 15-minute drive from Clinton’s home in Chappaqua.
Media representatives were banned from the event, but a participant streamed it live on Periscope.
The breakfast was one of a few fundraising stops in Philadelphia and New York scheduled just days before Monday’s Iowa caucuses. Sen. Bernie Sanders leads Clinton in several polls ahead of the caucuses, with a Quinnipiac University poll this week showing him 4 percentage points ahead.
At a Mason City, Iowa, rally on Wednesday night, Sanders criticized Clinton for leaving Iowa to raise money, according to USA Today.
“Frankly, I would rather be here with you,” he said.
But Clinton’s fundraising while in the heat of battle shouldn’t be interpreted as either overconfidence or conceding defeat, Westchester County Democratic Party Chairman Reggie Lafayette said.
Lafayette, a member of the Hillary for New York leadership council, said he wasn’t able to attend Thursday's fundraiser, but said it was normal for national candidates to fly all over the country for multiple events. A close primary wouldn’t mean she'd cancel a planned event, he said.
“That doesn’t mean a person changes around their schedule in a panic,” he said. “So I see her keeping her commitment of being here.”
An email to a Clinton campaign spokesperson wasn’t returned.
Her White Plains fundraiser began at 8:30 a.m., with attendees going through security checks in front of the building. Secret Security agents guarded the building. Prior to the breakfast, security dogs sniffed around the back entrance, where Clinton arrived in a black SUV just before 9 a.m.
Outside, Sanders' supporters left palm cards on some vehicles parked around the building.
The former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state was introduced to the audience by U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, D-Harrison, whom Clinton said is an “incredible voice and advocate for her constituents.”
Lowey was among several local officials in attendance, including Assemblyman David Buchwald, D-White Plains, White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach, New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson and Westchester County Legislator Ken Jenkins.
Clinton touched on topics ranging from student loan debt to international challenges and conflicts. She emphasized the need to create more jobs and bolster the nation's infrastructure.
"We also need to combat climate change with investments in clean, renewable energy," she said.
Hillary Clinton touched on numerous points as she spoke at a fundraiser in White Plains on Thursday morning. Here are 10 comments the Democratic candidate made about challenges facing the nation's next leader.
1. Climate: "We ... need to combat climate change with investments in clean, renewable energy. It is such a massive opportunistic version of denial [from Republicans]. They don't want to cross the Koch brothers and all their other big funders, so they're going to keep denying climate change."
2. Energy: "By the end of my first term I want us to have deployed a half a billion more solar panels, and by the end of my second enough clean energy to power every home in America."
3. Energy: "Some nation is going to be the 21st Century clean energy superpower. It's either going to be China, Germany, or us, I think. I want it to be us."
4. Health care: "This is one of the big differences between Sen. Sanders and myself. Look, before it was Obamacare it was called 'Hillarycare.'"
5. Health care: "Sen. Sanders wants to rip what we've done up, start all over again with a single-payer debate, and I've been there, and Nancy Pelosi said it really well yesterday, this will never happen."
6. Iran: "I know there's a lot of questions, and I understand that, but I want you to know from me, I do believe we have a lid on their nuclear weapons program. That does not mean we don't have a lot of problems with Iran."
7. Israel: "I gave a speech in Des Moines to the Jewish Federation a few days ago outlining, again, my absolute rock solid commitment to Israel's security. It's more essential than ever. What's going on in that region means that the United States and Israel have to have even closer ties."
8. Economy: "The idea that raising the minimum wage is somehow beyond our ability to do and absorb just doesn't really square with what I think we need to do."
9. Economy: "It's hard to start businesses in America today. We don't have the flow of credit, we have too many obstacles, too much red tape. We've got to rip through that."
10. Education: "Unlike Sen. Sanders, I do not believe in the promise of free college for everybody in America, because I don't think that will solve our problems.... I am not going to ask you to help me pay for Donald Trump to send his last child to college."
Bill Clinton’s poll ratings are in free-fall, and that surprise crash undermines the conventional wisdom that Hillary Clinton has a lock on the Democrat nomination.
A new CBS/New York Times poll shows that just 39 percent of American voters have a favorable opinion of Bill Clinton.
This is down from a 50 percent approval rating just a few months ago. In 2012, when Bill Clinton was campaigning aggressively for President Obama’s reelection, 66 percent of voters had a favorable opinion of Mr. Clinton.
Bill Clinton’s favorable rating today is actually lower than it was in 2008, when he last campaigned forcefully for Hillary as she was battling Barack Obama for the Democrat nomination. As that contest heated up, Mr. Clinton’s favorable rating sank to 46 percent.
A modest drop in Bill Clinton’s approval rating is to be expected as he reenters the political fray. As a former President, Clinton is normally viewed by voters as somewhat “above” politics, allowing them to hold more favorable views of the former politician.
Campaigning for one side in a political debate, even if that candidate is his wife, is naturally going to impact the opinions of those on the other side of that debate. The steep drop in Bill Clinton’s approval ratings, though, as he is only beginning to campaign for Hillary in the primary suggests something deeper is going on.
A few weeks ago, GOP frontrunner Donald Trump responded to criticism from Hillary Clinton by raising the issue of Bill Clinton’s sexual transgressions and the allegations of sexual assault against the former President.
In the wake of the controversy between Trump and Hillary Clinton, several women from Bill Clinton’s past emerged again from the media shadows to retell their stories of Mr. Clinton’s alleged sexual abuse.
The last time these allegations were raised at all in the media was back in 1998, during the height of the controversy surrounding Bill Clinton’s sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Tellingly, during this time, Mr. Clinton’s approval rating also sunk to 39 percent in the CBS poll.
While the resurfacing of the old allegations brings back memories of a dysfunctional Clinton White House for older voters, for a large portion of the electorate, these stories are largely new. Voters younger than 35 weren’t even old enough to vote when the Lewinsky story dominated political news.
Interestingly, young voters are a powerful force behind the dramatic rise of Hillary Clinton’s current rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)16%
. Sanders leads Hillary by 12 points among voters aged 18-34. In another poll, voters younger than 24 prefer Sanders over Hillary by a massive 42 points, 68-26.
It isn’t hard to imagine that these twin phenomenon — Bill Clinton’s plummeting approval ratings and Sanders’ surge among young voters — are related.
Before Trump, the conventional wisdom was that voters didn’t care about Clinton’s past sexual transgressions. These, the pundits assured us, were old news. For many voters, though, these allegations aren’t old news at all.
Even for those who do remember the old controversies, the kind of conduct allegedly committed by Bill Clinton is viewed much differently today than 20 years ago. This may be the clearest sign that the Clinton era is truly over.
FBI's Hillary Clinton email investigation not letting up. Six months after it began, the federal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server shows no signs of slowing down.
Former FBI officials said the length of the probe is not unusual and speculated that a decision on whether to file charges against Clinton or her top aides could come later this year, during the heat of the general election campaign.
“I don’t know that there’s any magical cutoff date,” said Ron Hosko, the FBI’s former assistant director of the criminal investigative division and a 30-year veteran of the bureau.
For Democrats, the extended investigation has become a source of some anxiety, with Republicans gleefully raising the prospect of the Democratic presidential front-runner being indicted.
“It does give pause to Democrats who are concerned that there may be another shoe to drop down the road,” said Andrew Smith, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire.
The government has been examining the former secretary of State's private email server since last July, when the inspector general for the intelligence community issued a security referral noting that classified information could have been mishandled.
That referral came months after Clinton acknowledged that she had exclusively used a personal email address housed on a private server during her tenure as secretary.
The scrutiny of her email practices has mounted since then, with more than 1,300 emails that passed through her server found to contain information that has since been classified, some at the highest levels.
The State Department and Clinton’s campaign contend that none of the information in the emails was classified when it was originally sent, and they have portrayed the matter as an interagency dispute.
The FBI and Justice Department have refused to discuss the details of their investigation and declined to comment to The Hill.
Officials have indicated that the bureau is not targeting Clinton specifically, however, but is investigating whether any information on her account was mishandled. Earlier this month, Fox News reported that the FBI had expanded its inquiry to examine how the State Department’s work intersected with the Clinton family foundation.
In December, FBI Director James Comey pledged that the probe would be “competent,” “honest” and “independent.”
“We don't give a rip about politics,” he told a Senate committee.
Yet the FBI is well aware of the high political stakes surrounding the investigation.
“I think the clock ticks louder every day,” said Hosko, who is the president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund. “I’m sure they’re all incredibly sensitive to it.”
President Obama has downplayed Clinton’s email setup, claiming that it was “not a situation in which America’s national security was endangered.”
Multiple former officials, lawmakers and lawyers have said they are confident that Comey, who is a Republican, will not let the presidential campaign influence the FBI’s investigation.
Yet many conservatives worry that even if the bureau comes up with sufficient evidence that Clinton broke the law, the Justice Department will decline to press charges. In response, some have pressed for a special prosecutor to be appointed, or for the FBI to pledge to release whatever evidence it digs up.
So far, Democrats have publicly shrugged of the threat of criminal action by painting it as a partisan attack from Republicans.
Clinton’s top rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), channeled the feelings of Democrats in October when he told Clinton during a debate that “the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.”
But Clinton will have to confront the issue more forcefully if charges are filed.
And should Clinton win the nomination, the topic is sure to be an issue in the general election campaign — even if no indictment is handed down.
A fight over the emails then could weaken Democratic enthusiasm and turn off swing voters, some analysts predicted.
“More likely, it’s going to sour some of those folks in the middle,” said Doug Roscoe, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
“Having to be in the news talking about this investigation takes her off message,” he added.
It might not be Clinton herself who faces the music for any potential crime, however.
The former secretary of State did not appear to send most of the emails now marked classified. Instead, they were largely sent or forwarded to her by aides.
“It’d be a lot harder to make a criminal charge for having received [classified] information," said Bradley Moss, a lawyer who specializes in national security and protection of classified information
Drivers are stunned that they never knew this. If you drive less than 50 mi/day, you better read this Read More
“If I’m in Clinton’s campaign, I’m more worried if am Cheryl Mills, Huma Abedin or Jake Sullivan than if I’m Hillary Clinton,” Moss said. Mills, Abedin and Sullivan were all top aides of Clinton’s at the State Department. Abedin and Sullivan continue to hold high positions in Clinton’s presidential campaign.
“The sloppiness and the complete fundamental failure to comply with any aspect of operational and informational security is what puts them at risk,” Moss said. “You just can’t do that that many times and not expect to find yourself in trouble.”
Clinton’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from The Hill.
In other news besides political news, world shares heat up as Bank of Japan goes sub-zero.
The yield on Japanese benchmark government bonds plunged to record lows JP10YTN=JBTC after the central said it would charge 0.1 percent for excess reserves parked with the institution, an aggressive policy pioneered by the European Central Bank.
The central bank said in a statement it would cut interest rates further if it judged it necessary.
Most investors had believed Japan's policymakers were too cautious to ever adopt such a radical measure. Their reaction sent the dollar surging about three yen to an almost six-week high of 121.495 JPY=. It was last up 1.7 percent at 120.87 yen.
European shares tracked Asian stock markets higher, with the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index bouncing back 1.2 percent by 0930 GMT, having fallen 1.7 percent on Thursday.
The MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS, which tracks shares in 45 countries, rose half a percent.
"It has become clear that stock markets cannot stand on their own feet," said KBC senior economist Koen De Leus, in Brussels. "As long as the economy is shaky and the world is burdened with high debt, central banks and their money printing machines are a necessary evil to keep up the markets."
The plunge in Japanese bond yields set up a positive tone for other major bond markets.
Germany's 10-year Bund yield fell four basis points to a nine-month low at 0.29 percent DE10YT=TWEB, while two-year German bond yields touched a fresh record low at minus 0.471 percent. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries meanwhile fell 4 basis points to 1.95 percent US10YT=TWEB.
The dollar was up 0.4 percent against a basket of major currencies at 98.885 .DXY, though still down about 0.7 percent for the week.
OIL GAINS
The promise of extra global stimulus gave an added fillip to oil, which had already risen for three sessions on talk of a possible deal to pare back excess supply. [O/R]
U.S. crude CLc1 added about 0.7 percent to $33.45 per barrel, while Brent futures LCOc1 firmed 0.9 percent to $34.18. That put oil on track for a second weekly gain, though oil volatility has climbed to its highest since 2009 as traders try to price in the uncertainty around supply cuts.
Earlier, Japan's Nikkei share index .N225 whipsawed on the BOJ announcement before ending up 2.8 percent, to mark a 3.3 percent weekly gain. [.T]
The central bank's move gave a lift to bourses across the region, even though economists at HSBC and elsewhere doubted it would give a boost to Japan's real economy or inflation.
"We do not think negative rates are a game changer," said Commerzbank strategist Esther Reichelt, in Frankfurt. "Pressure on the BoJ will mount to do even more in coming months to attain their inflation target."
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS added 1.8 percent, up 2.7 percent for the week .
The Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC rose 2.9 percent, while the CSI300 index .CSI300 of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen added 3.2 percent, bouncing from steep losses early in the week.
The buying spread to U.S. debt markets as investors wagered the BOJ decision and a stronger dollar would make it even harder for the Federal Reserve to hike rates four times this year, as originally envisioned by its policy board.
Fed fund futures <0#FF:> rose to imply a rate of 51 basis points by year end, compared to 90 basis points a month ago. Futures for U.S. 10-year bonds <0#TZY:> rose 5 ticks. Additional reporting by Atul Prakash, Dhara Ranasinghe, Anirban Nag and Marc Jones in London, Lisa Twaronite in Tokyo and Wayne Cole in Sydney.
Jason Rezaian: Iranian captors told me help wasn't on the way. Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian said Thursday that throughout his ordeal in an Iranian prison, his jailers insisted "the United States government would not lift a finger for my release."
Rezaian spoke emotionally during the official opening of the newspaper's new headquarters in front of the staff, owner Jeff Bezos and Secretary of State John Kerry.
"For much of the 18 months I was in prison, my Iranian interrogators told me the Washington Post did not exist, that no one knew of my plight and that the United States government would not lift a finger for my release," he said. "Today, I'm here in this room with the very people who helped prove the Iranians wrong in so many ways."
Rezaian also expressed gratitude to Kerry.
"No other country would do so much for an ordinary citizen," Rezaian said.
Post publisher Fred Ryan welcomed attendees to the event by saying there was no sense in "burying the lede."
"We have been waiting a long time to welcome you back to the Washington Post," Ryan told Rezaian.
Rezaian received a standing ovation from those in attendance. As he stood at the podium, an emotional Rezaian acknowledged that he had "not been around a crowd for a long time."
He spoke graciously of the people who supported him during his 545 days in captivity. He thanked Bezos by name as well as Ryan and Post executive editor Marty Baron.
Bezos, Rezaian said, "not only gave me a ride home to freedom but spent the last year and a half supporting the Post's efforts on my behalf."
"Jason, we are all so delighted that you are back now," Kerry said.
Kerry also said the case "gnawed at us."
Jim Sciutto
"This is really wonderful to be here" @jrezaian takes the stage. His first words since going free #JasonIsFree
"First of all, we couldn't have a better guest of honor for our grand opening than Jason," Bezos said, "because the fact that you're our guest of honor means you're here."
The Post recently moved into a brand-new headquarters building on K Street in Washington. It is holding a week of events to formally open the building. The timing overlapped with Rezaian's return home.
Rezaian left Iran on January 17 as part of a prisoner swap deal between the United States and Iran.
He spent several days at a U.S. military hospital in Germany before flying home to the states on Bezos's private plane last Friday.
"I am overjoyed to be reconnecting with my family," he said when he departed Germany. "I am feeling well and plan to relax and enjoy home-cooked meals, sports, and movies with them over the next few days and weeks."
He visited the Post newsroom Wednesday morning ahead of the official event on Thursday.
He attended a morning editorial meeting, had "his first look at the new newsroom" and said hello to colleagues, a Post spokeswoman said.
Woman arrested on suspicion of helping trio escape from Orange County jail.
The arrest comes after police and security experts suggested that fugitives Hossein Nayeri, Jonathan Tieu and Bac Duong received outside help when they broke out of the Men's Central Jail on Jan. 22.
The woman, Nooshafarin Ravaghi, a Lake Forest resident, was an English as a Second Language teacher and had been working as a contracted employee at the jail for the last six months, according to Lt. Jeffrey Hallock, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
Nayeri had been attending one of the woman's classes, and they developed a friendly relationship from there, according to Hallock, who said police believe she "directly contributed to the escape and provided credible planning tools."
Ravaghi has been speaking with police, and denied providing the escapees with anything beyond maps. But Hallock said investigators "absolutely could not rule out" the possibility that she provided the physical tools the men used to cut their way into the jail's plumbing tunnels.
"We continue to get information from her," Hallock said."We have a certain amount of information she has provided thus far. But again she has denied bringing in any tools to this point. She did provide some tools for planning such as maps."
Ravaghi may have allowed the fugitives to access Google Maps, which would have provided "them with opportunity to look at the roof" of the jail, he added.
She was arrested at approximately 3:30 p.m., Hallock said. Ravaghi was a part-time English as a second language teacher with Rancho Santiago Community College's Inmate Education Program, according to a statement issued by the school district.
Ravaghi passed a Sheriff's Department background check and began working with the program in the fall of 2014, the school district said. She began teaching courses at Men's Central Jail six months ago, Hallock said.
Hallock also said police believe the fugitives are living out of a White 2008 GMC Savana Utility Vehicle that was stolen from South Los Angeles earlier this week. The vehicle was reported stolen to Los Angeles police at 4:40 p.m. on Saturday, according to an Orange County Sheriff's Department news release.
The suspect in the vehicle theft matches Duong's description, according to the release.
Hallock said investigators were "extremely encouraged" by the new leads.
The trio escaped from the Santa Ana lockup sometime after 5 a.m last Friday, cutting through four layers of steel, metal and rebar as they moved through the jail's plumbing tunnels and an air duct. They ascended to the roof, one floor above the dormitory area where they had been housed, and used a makeshift rope of knotted bedsheets and cloth to rappel down the side of the building.
They haven't been seen since.
Ravaghi was born in Iran and grew up in Tehran, and spent much of her youth traveling around the world with her father, according to her personal website.
She moved to California in 1997, after studying French literature in Tehran and Paris.
Ravaghi earned a graduate degree in education from Cal State Fullerton, the website said. She had taught English, Farsi and French in Orange County to both adults and children since moving to the U.S., she said on the Web page.
Ravaghi also worked as a book editor and wrote an eponymous series of “multicultural books” for children, The Noosha Collection.
“The main character of this collection, Noosha, is a little girl who, in the first seven books, discovers new aspects of her Persian heritage,” she wrote on the website. The book series aimed to foster tolerance, her site said.
A former colleague of Ravaghi, who asked not to be identified, described her as a hard-working tutor who rarely interacted with her students outside of the classroom. “She was very kind to the students, a good tutor, but she didn’t really socialize with the students. She treated them like a teacher does,” the colleague said. “She seemed to be very ethical.” The colleague, who hadn’t spoken to Ravaghi in about four years, also said the teacher was “kind of a loner.”
At least 10 other people have been arrested since Wednesday as part of the escape investigation. Some were gang members, while others were detained because of probation violations.
Hallock said some of those arrested were part of the same gang as Tieu. The department has not identified the gang, but court records show Tieu was one of several members of the Tiny Rascals, a large South Asian gang known to operate in Orange County and Long Beach, charged in a 2011 murder.
Tieu was set to be retried in that killing next month, prosecutors have said.
Nayeri was awaiting trial in a brutal 2012 torture plot. Prosecutors allege he and several accomplices kidnapped a man, beat him, burned him with a blowtorch and severed his penis in an attempt to extort $1 million.
Duong was arrested and charged with attempted murder in late 2015, prosecutors said.
Ravaghi's involvement bears a striking similarity to another jail break that gained national attention in upstate New York last summer.
Convicted killers Richard Matt and David Sweat sparked a three-week manhunt after they used power tools to cut through steel pipes and plates inside the aging Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., break through a brick wall and climb out through a manhole cover.
An investigation later revealed that a prison employee who had tutored one of the men as part of an "honor program" smuggled in hacksaw blades and other tools the men used in their escape. Matt was shot and killed 20 days after he escaped, and Sweat was shot and captured two days after that.
Jefferson Airplane’s Paul Kantner dies at 74.
His death was confirmed by longtime publicist and friend, Cynthia Bowman, who said he died of multiple organ failure and septic shock.
Mr. Kantner had a string of health problems in recent years, including a heart attack in March.
With Jefferson Airplane, Mr. Kantner pioneered what became known as the San Francisco sound in the mid-1960s, with such hits as “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit.”
The Airplane was renowned for thrilling vocal gymnastics by singers Marty Balin, Grace Slick and Mr. Kantner, the psychedelic blues-rock sound developed by guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bass player Jack Casady and the LSD-spiked, ’60s-era revolutionary fervor of its lyrics.
The band was formed in 1965 in a Union Street bar called the Drinking Gourd, when Balin met Mr. Kantner and expressed his interest in creating a “folk-rock” band. It didn’t take long for the Airplane to attract a sizable local following, enough so that when fledgling promoter Bill Graham opened his legendary Fillmore Auditorium, the Jefferson Airplane served as the first headliner.
The Airplane was the first of the so-called “San Francisco sound” bands to sign a recording contract with a major label, and in August of 1966, its debut album, “Jefferson Airplane Takes Off,” was released. Slick joined the band a year later and songs like “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit” became national hits as the love children came streaming into San Francisco.
Headliner at festivals
The group quickly became an integral part of the ’60s rock scene, from the Matrix club to Golden Gate Park’s “Human Be-In” to Monterey Pop. The Airplane’s high point may have been its sterling early-morning performance at Woodstock, while its nadir may have come only months later, at the violence-plagued Altamont concert, when Balin was knocked unconscious by the rampaging Hells Angels.
After the band was grounded by feuds and a lawsuit, Mr. Kantner and Slick transformed the group into Jefferson Starship in 1974, taking the name from a Kantner solo album.
When Mr. Kantner left the Starship in 1985, he accepted an $80,000 settlement in exchange for a promise not to use the names “Jefferson” or “Airplane” without Slick’s consent.
Slick stayed with the Starship and had a hit with “We Built This City” before the band folded in the late 1980s.
Stayed in San Francisco
A sometimes prickly, often sarcastic musician who kept his own counsel and routinely enraged his old bandmates — they sued him for trademark infringement (and settled) after he started his own version of Jefferson Starship in 1991 — Mr. Kantner became something of a landmark on the San Francisco music scene, the only member of the band still living in town.
“Somebody once said, if you want to go crazy go to San Francisco,” he said. “Nobody will notice.”
Mr. Kantner was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 for his work with the Jefferson Airplane during the band’s glory years — from the breakthrough 1967 “Surrealistic Pillow” album through Woodstock and Altamont.
“We never made plans,” said Mr. Kantner. “Well, we made plans, but they went awry. It was good to have a plan in case they didn’t go awry.”
He maintained a strenuous touring schedule, performing regularly with some version of the Jefferson Starship name. His group sometimes included Balin, as well as David Freiberg of the Quicksilver Messenger Service, another leading Bay Area band from the ’60s.
“When I look back on it, that’s probably longer than any of the other bands I’ve been in,” Mr. Kantner said.
Paul Lorin Kantner was born in San Francisco on March 17, 1941.
His father, a traveling salesman, sent Mr. Kantner to military school after his mother’s death. He sought escape in science fiction books and music, before being inspired by Pete Seeger to become a folk singer. He attended Santa Clara University and San Jose State College before dropping out to pursue music.
When not on the road with his band, Mr. Kantner was a fixture at Caffe Trieste in North Beach.
“I’ve always loved San Francisco better than anywhere,” he said. “It’s always had its problems, but just the weather alone, the views. This corner alone has proved so nourishing.”
Mr. Kantner is survived by three children; sons Gareth and Alexander, and daughter China. Funeral arrangements are pending.
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