Joining today's show are Nicolle Wallace, Howard Dean, Mark Halperin, Rev. Al Sharpton, Harold Ford Jr., Steve Schmidt, Nicholas Confessore, Hallie Jackson, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, James Fallows, Gov. Rick Snyder, Dr. Dave Campbell, Sara Eisen and eand in Taji, Japan today, bottlenose dolphins are now netted in the Cove. The panicked pod huddles together while we are waiting for trainers to arrive. Aggressive captive selection. 5 captives taken so far. 6th captive taken while some of the family still swims in the cove. 6 Dolphins taken for captivity and the rest is being released. 2016-10-2 11:15am #tweet4dolphins #dolphinproject.
Stephen Colbert Grills Bernie Sanders: Isn’t This ‘Class Warfare?’ Bernie Sanders stopped by for a victory lap during his second appearance on ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ Wednesday night, where the host made him defend his “revolution.”
Bernie Sanders continued his New Hampshire victory lap Wednesday night by making his second appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. And while he was still a major underdog when he visited Stephen Colbert last September, this time he was riding high.
The senator from Vermont began by crashing Colbert’s monologue. When the host protested that the show should begin with him alone standing on stage and telling jokes, Sanders replied, “That’s what the elites want you to think.
“You’ve got to go your own way, follow your own heart, the revolution is possible,” Sanders told Colbert before delivering the final line of the monologue. “Last night, Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire primary by 22 points. No joke!”
When Sanders entered as Colbert’s guest later in the show, he quickly faced questions about how he managed to win 86 percent of voters 18-24 in New Hampshire. “By definition, young people are idealistic,” he said. “And they look at a world with so many problems and they say, why not? Why can’t all people in this country have healthcare? Why can’t we make public colleges and universities tuition-free?”
Playing devil’s advocate in the vein of his former Colbert Report character, the host argued that Sanders was promoting “class warfare” and reasoned that the 1 percent is not going to give up their power and influence so easily. “And I’ll tell you how I know, I am in the top 1 percent,” he said.
When Bill O’Reilly was on Colbert’s show earlier in the week, he said Sanders and Donald Trump were essentially the same person with different haircuts. While Sanders acknowledged that his and Trump’s supporters share a certain anger, he criticized the “false message” that Trump is pushing that discrimination will somehow lead to a better America. Sanders also noted that O’Reilly has said he will move to Ireland if he becomes president, an outcome he referred to as a “two-fer.”
Moving on, Colbert challenged Sanders by bringing up Hillary Clinton’s critique that he is promising solutions to the country’s problems that can never be achieved, for example his plan to provide single-payer healthcare.
“The question is, do we have the ability to stand up to the private insurance companies and the drug companies?” Sanders asked the host, before answering his own question. “I believe that when people are aroused, when they’re organized, when they’re prepared to stand up and fight back, yes, we can take on the drug companies and the insurance companies.”
As a South Carolinian, Colbert asked Sanders to explain how he plans to break Clinton’s alleged Southern “firewall.” At first, the candidate launched into what sounded a lot like a rehearsed campaign speech. “Why do we have more people in jail than any other country on earth, disproportionately black and Latino?” he asked. “Why is it that we have a system today where our campaign finance system is now corrupt, where billionaires are literally buying elections?”
But when Colbert pressed him to provide an overarching solution to those troubling questions, Sanders came back to the “revolution” rhetoric that has driven his campaign. Asked how he plans to break up America’s “oligarchy,” Sanders said, “The only way that I know how to do it is the way change has always come about, in this country and in the world.
“We used to have a segregated society,” he continued. “African-Americans couldn’t go to schools, couldn’t drink at water fountains. Millions of people stood together and said, ‘Hey, enough is enough. That is not what America is supposed to be about.’”
Warning against the risks of revolution, Colbert quoted John F. Kennedy: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” But Sanders resisted the idea that his revolution could go that way.
“What the goal of this campaign is about is to look at the Civil Rights Movement, look at the women’s movement, look at the gay movement, understand that when people come together we can accomplish enormous things,” Sanders said. “But I think what people are saying is enough is enough. We need fundamental changes in our political system and our economic system.”
“Bernie Sanders, everybody, he’s running for president,” Colbert said by way of ending the interview. Not only is he running, but at this still early stage, he appears to be winning.
Sanders campaign raised $6.4 million after New Hampshire polls closed. Bernie Sanders raised $6.4 million in the 24 hours since the polls closed in New Hampshire, his campaign said Wednesday.
The large haul, which bests the $3 million he raised after his narrow loss to Hillary Clinton in Iowa, is further evidence of the digital fundraising juggernaut his campaign has built.
The Sanders campaign said Wednesday that $2.6 million of that haul had been raised in just the four-and-a-half hours after he was declared the winner in New Hampshire.
Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver sent an email earlier Wednesday setting a goal of $6 million, then sent a second appeal a little before 8 p.m. Wednesday pushing the new goal to $7 million.
"Well, you already crushed that goal in just a couple hours," Weaver wrote. "So, in the spirit of this campaign, we're going to reach for a bigger but difficult goal — raising $7 million by the end of the day today."
In the midst of his campaign speech Tuesday night, Sanders held an instant fundraiser, asking supporters while his speech was being carried live on-air to donate at his website. The burst of donations that followed spurred complaints that ActBlue, which processes Sanders donations, was crashing.
ActBlue executive director Erin Hill wrote in a blog post Wednesday afternoon that the site saw a peak of 26,000 contributions in 15 minutes Tuesday night and the spike contributed to a problem for some donors.
"We did hit one bump late yesterday though," Hill wrote. "Last night's spontaneous fundraiser (the one that raised $5.2 million in less than a day) broke our external processor's response systems."
But the Sanders campaign and ActBlue both said the service never went down.
The Sanders campaign said the average donation made after his New Hampshire win was $34, just a bit more than the average donation of $27 he has been touting for weeks. CNN's Tom LoBianco and Dan Merica contributed to this report.
He also put out a new campaign ad that somehow makes its points about his competitor (Hillary Clinton), they managed to do it in a positive way.
Milwaukee's Sanders-Clinton debate to be pivotal. For the most politically polarized state in the country, one presidential debate isn't nearly enough.
So, why not two?
Three months after Republicans brought their presidential road show to the Milwaukee Theatre, Democrats are staging their political fight Thursday night inside the Helen Bader Concert Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
And it's a big one.
Vermont independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, fresh off Tuesday's convincing triumph in the New Hampshire primary, meets former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a two-hour debate that starts at 8 p.m.
The debate dynamics post-New Hampshire will be interesting.
For Sanders, it's an opportunity to press his advantage before a nationwide audience that may not yet be fully focused on a politician who calls himself a democratic socialist.
For Clinton, it's a chance to reset the race after a staggering election blow as the primary calendar turns to states that appear to be more favorable for her brand of politics.
During a campaign season in which presidential debates have been filled with high drama — and scored impressive television ratings — this one might stay focused on the issues.
It's a "PBS NewsHour" debate in partnership with Facebook. The moderators are Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff. CNN will simulcast the event.
Only one break is scheduled.
"This is PBS. We don't do commercials," said Sara Just, executive producer of "PBS NewsHour."
This is the sixth Democratic debate of the campaign season but only the second two-candidate matchup. During their last meeting in New Hampshire, Sanders and Clinton clashed on the issues and their credentials as progressives.
"We're coming out to do a responsible, insightful, illuminating and thoughtful debate that will highlight the candidates' positions and differences. That's our goal," Just said.
She said her colleagues at the other networks have done very good jobs in presenting the previous Democratic and Republican debates.
"Debates are really exciting moments," she said. "They capture a moment in time, the candidates' mood and the mood of the electorate."
The stakes are high, not just in the fight for the nomination, but also in helping set the stage for the general election. Even though Republicans haven't won a presidential race in Wisconsin since Ronald Reagan in 1984, the state is seen as an electoral battleground.
Under Gov. Scott Walker, Republicans have total control of state government and have pushed through laws that have resonated nationally, including curtailing collective bargaining for most public workers. After dominating Wisconsin elections in nonpresidential years since 2010, Republicans are aiming to turn the state red in 2016 with a bolstered ground operation.
The timing for the debate, however, is curious since the Democrats' primary fight next heads to Nevada, for a Feb. 20 caucus, and South Carolina on Feb. 27. Wisconsin's presidential primary doesn't come until April 5.
Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Milwaukee was chosen as the site for this debate because of the importance of Wisconsin and the Midwest in a national race.
"In laying out our debate schedule for the primary, we were really focused on making sure to place these debates regionally so we could touch every corner of the country," she said. "We have a major reason to ceding no corner of this country. When we looked at the Midwest, we thought Wisconsin is a battleground state. There are other important battleground states in the Midwest that perhaps get a little more attention, but bringing our debate to Wisconsin is what we thought was the right move."
Wasserman Schultz said Democrats would perform strongly in the state in the fall.
"We're very confident, particularly because of how far to the right the Republican field is," she said.
Asked if she worried that Democrats might be in for a prolonged nomination fight, Wasserman Schultz said: "I think this nomination is going to continue through the next several months. To be honest with you, that gives us more opportunity to have both (Democratic) campaigns organize and mobilize."
The Republican Party of Wisconsin has planned a welcome, of sorts, for Clinton.
On Thursday, it will run a message on a billboard along I-94 near Mitchell International Airport that reads: "While National Democrats Debate in Milwaukee...The FBI is investigating Hillary Clinton. What's there to debate? We know Hillary Clinton Can't be Trusted."
How to watch
PBS is broadcasting the debate (MPTV-Channel 10 in the Milwaukee area) at 8 p.m. Thursday. It will also be streamed at pbs.org/newshour, and CNN will simulcast the broadcast.
Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin says that ‘there Are Now Tensions’ Between Hillary And Campaign Staff. Voters aren’t the only ones who lack trust in Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The former secretary of state’s campaign staffers are also losing faith in their boss, according to Bloomberg Politics’ Mark Halperin.
During the show he co-hosts daily with John Heilemann, Halperin laid out what he surmises is ailing the Clinton operation, which sustained a major blow in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primaries with a 22-point loss to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The problems, according to Halperin:
That she’s not a great candidate, that her message is still really muddy, and that she’s swimming upstream, that she’s running as the change candidate against a guy who is just always going to win on who represents change. And then the last thing is — this always happens in a Clinton campaign when things go bad — there are now tensions between her and her staff. They don’t trust her to do the right thing, she’s losing confidence in them. It’s not a dire situation, it can be turned around it, but it’s currently not so great.
“You saw that coming a mile away,” Heilemann said of the tension and looming shake up within Clinton’s camp. He said that when he first talked to Clinton officials after they signed up for the campaign they openly joked about when the would get fired “when the first shake up would be, or the first layering or whatever it was.”
Days before the New Hampshire primary, rumors began to surface that a campaign overhaul was brewing. The campaign has disputed the claim.
Presidential candidates: South Carolina, here we come. The relentless march of the White House race headed south Wednesday, following a tumultuous New Hampshire primary that left both parties facing a long, punishing process to choose their nominee.
Republican Donald Trump basked in the glory of a win he promised would be the first of many, while a poor finisher in the Granite State, Marco Rubio, showcased a looser approach after an over-programmed debate performance raised questions about his readiness. One-time front-runner Jeb Bush was happy to still be fighting while New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former businesswoman Carly Fiorina suspended their campaigns.
Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, triggered a fundraising avalanche and plotted a nationwide campaign after his rout of Hillary Clinton, who was left with fundamental questions about her lack of appeal to young Democrats.
The New Hampshire primary has often acted as a winnower of presidential fields. But in 2016, by elevating anti-establishment crusaders like billionaire businessman Trump and self-described "democratic socialist" Sanders, it administered a sharp shock to the political elites and left more chaos than clarity in its wake.
The GOP establishment is no nearer finding a champion to halt Trump, whom many party leaders fear could cost them the White House, and Texas Sen. Cruz, who is viewed with deep disdain by many of his peers in Washington.
Former Secretary of State Clinton, for her part, must contemplate whether to make changes to her campaign structure and her message, or to place her trust in the Southern-state firewall her aides have long maintained that Vermont Sen. Sanders would be unable to crack.
With all Republican votes counted, Trump had 35%, ahead of Kasich at 16% and Cruz with 12%. Bush came next at 11%, just over 1,000 votes ahead of Rubio, who also hit 11% in a disappointing showing after his strong third place in Iowa last week. Christie was sixth at 7%, a finish that left him without an apparent path to carry on.
Sanders won the Democratic race by nearly 60,000 votes -- 60% to Clinton's 38%.
The next Republican contest is on February 20 in South Carolina, the same day that Clinton and Sanders clash in the Nevada caucuses. The following Tuesday, GOP voters make their choice in Nevada, while the Democratic primary in South Carolina is on February 27.
Clinton and Sanders meet for what is likely to be a contentious PBS "NewsHour" Democratic debate that will be simulcast on CNN Thursday night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, while remaining GOP candidates have their own showdown in Greenville, South Carolina, on Saturday.
Republican elites Wednesday were digesting the reality that Trump, a former reality TV star, had defied skeptics and turned his polling numbers in the primary into a thumping victory, a performance that offers new credibility to his wide leads in other states.
"I had these massive poll numbers but you never know if they're going to be real. You just have to say, 'Well, what does this mean?' But they turned out to be real," Trump said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
Trump was heading to South Carolina, the next stop in the GOP race, for an early evening rally.
The New Hampshire runner-up, Ohio. Gov. John Kasich, flew to South Carolina as well, but is also looking past the Palmetto State to contests in places like Michigan, Illinois and his own home base that vote in March and may be more receptive to his compassionate conservative message.
"I am starting to really think we are on to something," Kasich told reporters on his campaign plane. "I am starting to really think that the positive nature of a campaign can be very effective. I am starting to think it could be true."
Kasich backers said that the Ohio governor had given himself breathing room on Tuesday and did not need to do as well on February 20 as he did in New Hampshire.
"He doesn't have to go into South Carolina and do what he did here," Bruce Berke, a lobbyist who has been advising Kasich in New Hampshire, told CNN.
Rubio, a Florida senator, delivered another mea culpa for his poor debate performance and conducted a unusually long and free-wheeling 45-minute session with reporters on his plane, in which he took sharp shots at Trump and Bush.
"I don't think anyone is going to wrap this up in South Carolina or Nevada. This is a unique election," Rubio said, in a reflective and more personal appearance than has often been the case throughout this campaign.
An aide said events in New Hampshire would prompt a shift in tactics in the Rubio campaign, saying that it was time to "Let Marco be Marco."
Rubio's tormentor on Saturday night, Christie, was back home in New Jersey, where he suspended his White House effort on Wednesday afternoon, a source close to his campaign said.
Christie had little option after he failed to make a strong impression in New Hampshire, a last stand in a campaign in which he early on lost the mantle of tough talker to Trump.
Fiorina pulled the plug after failing to make an impression in either New Hampshire or Iowa. In a statement, she took an apparent swipe at those who say that young women should support Clinton because of her gender and also at Trump, with whom she clashed in debates.
"Do not listen to anyone who says you have to vote a certain way or for a certain candidate because you're a woman. That is not feminism. Feminism doesn't shut down conversations or threaten women. It is not about ideology. It is not a weapon to wield against your political opponent," the statement said.
Bush, in contrast, prepared to move on to South Carolina, where his brother, former President George W. Bush, will appear as a campaign surrogate. His controversial White House tenure remains a challenge, but the 43rd president remains popular in South Carolina, a state that helped to revive his own campaign in the 2000 GOP primary campaign.
The Bush camp also circulated talking points to surrogates and supporters to drive home the point that Bush is continuing to fight in a campaign that has proven to be far less "joyful" than he had anticipated.
"As it often does, New Hampshire has reset the race. Jeb is the candidate coming out of the Granite State with momentum, a great national ground game and path forward," the memo obtained by CNN said.
On the Democratic side, Sanders wasted little time after his stunning victory over Clinton in taking aim at her stronghold of southern states and minority voters, which pose a stiff challenge to his hopes of being a candidate with national appeal.
He raised $5.2 million in the 18 hours after polls closed in New Hampshire, his campaign announced.
Sanders also met civil rights activist Al Sharpton on Wednesday and discussed affirmative action, police brutality and the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
The meeting at Sylvia's, a famed New York City restaurant in Harlem, lasted about 20 minutes and was initiated by Sanders supporter and former NAACP head Ben Jealous, who told reporters there had never been any doubt about what Sanders stood for.
"There is no candidate in this race who is fiercer in standing up for those who need allies in the struggle than Bernie Sanders," he said.
Clinton, meanwhile, remained out of sight after her stinging defeat in New Hampshire, where both she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, previously had warm political memories.
Her campaign tweeted mid-morning: "You're the reason we're going to win this nomination and then win this election together."
Clinton also sent out a fundraising pitch to supporters.
"Last night's results in New Hampshire weren't what we hoped for. But I woke up this morning ready to keep fighting for the issues you and I believe in. Are you with me?" Clinton asked.
After New Hampshire and Iowa, Sanders now leads Clinton by 36 to 32 pledged delegates. But the former first lady has a wide lead among superdelegates -- senior party officials and office holders. Exactly 2,382 delegates are needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.
Trump has the most delegates among Republicans with 17, ahead of Cruz with 10, Rubio with seven, Kasich with four, Bush and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson with three and Fiorina with one. Six New Hampshire delegates remain to be allocated. Republicans need 1,237 delegates to claim the nomination. CNN's Stephen Collinson, Tami Luhby, Manu Raju, Ashley Killough and Sara Murray contributed to this report.
Cruz Interesting, Trump Inevitable in S.C. Focus Group. In a Bloomberg Politics/Purple Strategies focus group on Wednesday, South Carolina Republican voters praised Ted Cruz for being trustworthy and religious, while Donald Trump was described as “brave” but “crass.” Most of the participants, who said they were either undecided or could change their mind before Election Day, still said the New York billionaire had the best chance of winning their state's primary on Feb. 20.
Methodology: The participants were from the Columbia, South Carolina, area and represented a variety of ages and socio-economic and educational backgrounds. All respondents said they are registered Republicans and likely to vote in the state’s Republican presidential primary. When recruited, nine of the respondents said they were undecided, and the five remaining respondents reported leaning toward a candidate but said they could change their mind before the primary.
Qualitative research results cannot be statistically analyzed or projected onto the broader population at large. As is customary, respondents were compensated for their participation. See more from the Bloomberg Politics/Purple Strategies focus group on With All Due Respect Thursday at 5 p.m. ET on Bloomberg TV and BloombergPolitics.com.
Republican Elites Land in South Carolina With No Plan to Stop Trump. As the race moves south, GOP establishment candidates continue to fight each other as the billionaire enjoys his lead. Republican elites are 0-for-2 in presidential nominating contests this year, a rare and panic-inducing outcome for the party's leadership. Yet their preferred candidates continue to fight each other, and have begun the march to the next battlefield in South Carolina without a plan to stop Donald Trump.
Not only did the billionaire's 20-point blowout in the New Hampshire primary fail to cull the field enough to present a clear mainstream alternative, the three remaining establishment candidates—U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Ohio Governor John Kasich and Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor—spent Wednesday going after one another, as they have throughout the nomination fight.
“Enormous pressure is on the establishment wing to consolidate around one candidate soon or else it will hand the Republican nomination over to Trump,” said Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist and former senior congressional aide.
They're running out of time. With plenty of campaign cash to spare, Trump is pushing the kind of America-first message that resonates in South Carolina, a state that flew the Confederate flag on its Capitol's grounds until last year. The primaries beyond are just as southern and just as friendly to Trump's message. And he remains an extremely difficult candidate to beat in a war of words and media attention.
Cruz Interesting, Trump Inevitable in S.C. Focus Group
“As long as there's five of six people running, I think Donald benefits from that, no doubt about it,” Rubio said Wednesday on CNN.
The anxiety has grown more palpable as Trump has shattered predictions that his crowds and poll numbers wouldn't translate at the ballot box.
“Donald Trump has proven he can turn his rally-goers into voters, and now it’s time for his challengers to prove they’re capable of taking the steering wheel away from him,” said Rory Cooper, a Republican operative and former House leadership aide.
Cruz’s Formula
The GOP's best hope of stopping Trump may be Ted Cruz. The Texas senator has amassed a devoted following of Tea Party conservatives and evangelical Christians, a war chest worth $19 million at year's end, and an enviable ground game that led him to an unexpected victory over Trump in Iowa and a respectable third place finish in New Hampshire.
Exit polls in Iowa offer a glimpse of Cruz's formula: He bested Trump among evangelicals and self-identified “very conservative” voters, two key segments of the national Republican electorate that exist in large numbers in the cluster of Southern states that vote on March 1.
Meanwhile, exit polls in the party's center-right New Hampshire base revealed no obvious weaknesses for Trump. He won voters across age groups, income levels, gender, marital status and ideologies; he even won independents. National polls say Trump is dominating among self-identified moderate Republicans, the group that the establishment-friendly candidates are also gunning for.
“What Iowa and New Hampshire demonstrate is that the only person in this field who can beat Donald Trump is me,” Cruz Wednesday told radio host Mike Gallagher. “You can’t beat Donald coming from the left. It just doesn’t work.”
But the Republican establishment has resisted coalescing behind Cruz because he's the one candidate that some party leaders dislike even more than Trump.
‘Firing Squad’
With Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina quitting the race on Wednesday, Bush, Rubio, and Kasich are competing to become the establishment favorite to take on Trump ahead of the Feb. 20 primary South Carolina.
“If those three get into a circular firing squad, the one who benefits is Trump,” said David Winston, a Republican consultant who worked on Newt Gingrich's 2012 presidential campaign.
Bush attacked Kasich as a “one-state” candidate who has “nothing going on down here” in South Carolina. He also mocked Rubio's “coronation after a third place finish [in Iowa]—looks like they canceled it.”
On CNN, Rubio declared that “Jeb has no foreign policy experience—none.” Earlier, Rubio told reporters that he's “the only one running in this race who can quickly unite the Republican Party.”
Kasich said on CNN that he's “going to have to respond to some of this stuff” coming from Bush, acknowledging that his successful strategy to steer clear of the mud in New Hampshire may not work going forward.
‘Positive’ Results
Ken Langone, the co-founder of Home Depot Inc. and billionaire Republican donor who invested in Christie's bid, said the result Tuesday was “very positive” even though he hoped the New Jersey governor had done better.
“The overarching message that came out of New Hampshire last night is that the American people have had enough of the status quo. I think that’s wonderful,” Langone said in an interview before heading to a round of golf at the Seminole Golf Club in Florida.
He said he's not ready to back another candidate. “I'm going to sit tight,” he said. “I'm going to enjoy being on the sidelines, not having to make any calls or ask anybody for any money. I'm going to take a well-deserved vacation from political activity.”
Attacking Trump
Other Republican elites are eager to stop Trump, who enjoys leads in national surveys.
Doug Heye, a former Republican National Committee spokesman who has ruled out supporting Trump, said the New Yorker “can be taken out” with attacks over issues. Outside groups ran ads hitting him in Iowa for backing eminent domain and his past support of abortion rights.
“We saw how targeting Trump on issues worked in Iowa,” Heye said. By contrast, he added, the campaign reveals that “name-calling with Trump—calling him a cancer, a liar, a loser—doesn’t work.”
Anti-Trump Republicans remain short on answers, though.
“The Donald is very entertaining,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a former presidential candidate turned Bush surrogate, told a crowd of more than 200 people gathered to see Bush in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. “But he'll get us wiped out.” Sahil Kapur with assistance from Michael C. Bender, James Nash, Mark Niquette, John McCormick, and Zachary R. Mider.
Carly Fiorina and Chris Christie drop out of race. Everett RosenfeldGOP hopefuls Carly Fiorina and Chris Christie dropped out of the presidential race Wednesday.
Fiorina announced the suspension of her campaign via Twitter.
Promising to "continue to serve in order to restore citizen government to this great nation so that together we may fulfill our potential" in a statement, the former HP executive also reflected on feminism's role in politics.
"To young girls and women across the country, I say: do not let others define you," she said. "Do not listen to anyone who says you have to vote a certain way or for a certain candidate because you're a woman. That is not feminism. Feminism doesn't shut down conversations or threaten women."
Separately, NBC News confirmed Wednesday that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie plans to suspend his presidential campaign as well.
Christie had said Tuesday night that he intended to go back home from New Hampshire instead of heading on to South Carolina for the next GOP test.
Christie performed worse than his campaign had hoped in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary: Businessman Donald Trump won the night as expected, but the tight competition for GOP runner-up went to Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Trump, Sanders sweep to victory in New Hampshire
The New Jersey governor's camp had hoped that a strong showing in the Granite State could catapult him into the top tier of the Republican pack. Instead, Christie came in sixth place — behind Trump, Kasich, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
"(My message) was heard by a lot of folks, and it was stood for by a lot of folks here in New Hampshire, just not enough. Not enough tonight," Christie said in a somber Tuesday speech.
"And that's okay...I have both won elections that I was supposed to lose and I have lost elections that I was supposed to win," he added. "And what that means is you never know, and it's both the magic and the mystery of politics that you never quite know when which is going to happen — even when you think you do."
Christie said he didn't have "an ounce of regret" for the time he spent in New Hampshire.
Perhaps his best remembered contribution to the presidential race will be Christie's criticisms of Rubio in Saturday's debate. Calling out the Florida senator's propensity for sticking to talking points, Christie apparently dealt real damage to his rival's chances — without gaining any ground for his own campaign.
Joe Scarborough: Rubio's 'Dirty--Um--Dark Money' Drove Christie Down. On today's show, Joe Scarborough forcefully sought to refute the notion that Chris Christie's takedown of Marco Rubio in the last GOP debate was an unprovoked attack. Scarborough painted a very different picture, one in which by dint of his town hall work, Christie had been steadily climbing in the New Hampshire polls--until Rubio unleashed a wave of negative advertising on Christie that drove his numbers back down. It was only then that Christie counter-attacked, suggested Joe.
Scarborough said pundits were either "ignorant" or "lying" to their readers if they portrayed Christie as "mean" for having exposed Rubio as he did, or that Christie's poor performance in New Hampshire was the result of a backlash against his attack. Noteworthy was Scarborough's statement that the funding for Rubio's attack ads against Christie was "dark" money. At one point, Scarborough called it "dirty" money, before correcting himself and repeating "dark" money.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: So there was a lot of -- there's a lot of talk about Chris Christie yesterday: oh, he's mean, he went after poor Marco, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. What people didn't get -- and I know you probably know the back story -- Christie actually was having a great run, he was doing well in town hall meetings, his numbers were going up and then Marco's team started trashing him in ads and they just started running non-stop ads and then the dark money came in and they started trashing Chris Christie with dark money ads and so all of the positive he was doing one town hall meeting at a time just got completely obliterated and he jumped up, he was up at 7%, 8%, 9%, going higher, then, boom, back down to 4%.
And so it's -- I would hope that the people commenting on Christie leaving the race saying he was mean to Marco and that's why he lost, I would hope that they were ignorant and not actually lying to their readers and viewers because if you're too ignorant to know that's what happened in New Hampshire, that it was Marco's dirty money -- dark money, Marco's dark money, and then it was his [inaudible as someone coughed] money that got Chris Christie down to the 4% where he started attacking Marco, then you shouldn't be covering politics, you're lying to your people.
Marco's reboot: How Rubio plans to turn things around. Coming soon: Marco Rubio 2.0.
The Republican candidate, who lost momentum this week after coming in fifth in New Hampshire, plans to take a more aggressive tone with some of his rivals -- especially if they attack him on the debate stage -- and is expected to showcase more of his affable personality in order to rebut criticism that he is a scripted candidate.
As one aide put it, "Let Marco be Marco."
In a shift, Rubio had a 44-minute free-flowing conversation with reporters on his campaign plane en route to Greenville. Relaxed, talkative and reflective, he spoke about his debate gaffe, criticisms of him being too scripted and his path to the nomination. His team hopes to show more of this side of him, including with more focus on his hardscrabble personal story and being the son of working-class Cuban immigrants.
And above all else, he vowed to bounce back.
"You want to have a president who went through adversity in a campaign," Rubio said.
READ: New Hampshire primaries: 5 takeaways
Despite his rivals' attacks that he comes across as scripted, Rubio argues it's better to be consistent than not. Voters don't pay as close attention to things as campaign reporters, he said.
"Just because it's the 80th time you heard it may be the first time someone else heard it," Rubio said of his speeches.
Rubio doesn't believe he needs to win any of the first four primaries. He just needs to stay in the top tier of candidates into March and then come in first in the winner-take-all states from March 15 on, adding that he has no "firewall" state unlike some of his foes.
"I don't think anyone is going to wrap this up in South Carolina or Nevada," he said. "Once you get to the winner-take-all states, then it's about winning."
READ: Presidential candidates: South Carolina, here we come
When it comes to his rivals, Rubio said front-runner Donald Trump lacks national security experience and must explain his views more thoroughly. Voters will want to know whether their nominee knows the difference between ISIS and al Qaeda and that Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to assert influence in the Middle East, among other things, he said.
"Once the race narrows, the pressure is going to be on him (to detail his views). I don't think you can keep saying 'trust me,'" Rubio said.
Rubio added: "I don't think he's shown any in depth understanding of the issues." While he said Trump has said some "entertaining stuff, some of it is not so entertaining."
As he heads into the South Carolina primary, Rubio is battling hard to become the alternative to Donald Trump. And his former mentor, Jeb Bush, is now his biggest hurdle standing in his way.
Rubio would not acknowledge that losing to Bush here would be detrimental to his campaign. But Rubio said the former Florida governor spent a historic amount of money in New Hampshire, but only finished 1,500 votes ahead and won the same number of delegates. He criticized Bush, saying the "party needs to turn the page" and describing himself as more attune to the needs of the 21st century.
"I have more experience in foreign policy and national security than he does," Rubio said. "I just do."
Clearly unafraid of John Kasich, Rubio called the Ohio governor "an impressive guy" whom he likes. Though he added that Kasich, a former congressman, hasn't dealt with foreign policy in a "long time."
And Rubio said he wasn't upset at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for going after him at Saturday's debate, when the Florida freshman repeated the same line three times -- despite being directly criticized for sticking to the script. But he said he learned a valuable lesson: To fight back "frontally" when he's being criticized.
"I don't need to start these fights, but if someone starts one in the future, we are going to point out the differences in our records in a sharper way," Rubio said.
Asked why he didn't attack Christie during the debate, Rubio called it a "strategic decision that turned out to be wrong" and that he didn't want to use "valuable" air time to attack the New Jersey governor.
"Obviously, we can't let that happen again," Rubio said.
Aboard his flight, Rubio spoke with reporters until they ran out of questions. It was unusual for the candidate, who has typically held media availabilities that last just minutes, with an aide hand-selecting reporters to ask one question at a time. This time, it was casual -- and he wasn't afraid to offer some self-deprecating humor.
When asked if his debate missteps were like then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry's infamous "oops" moment in 2012, Rubio said: "There's a big difference. He couldn't remember what he wanted to say. I remembered it too well."
In Other news Today, the Justice Department sues Ferguson over police conduct. The feds are suing Ferguson in a move to force police reform in the city.
"We intend to aggressively prosecute this case," Attorney General Loretta Lynch told reporters Wednesday, "and we intend to prevail."
Authorities had no choice but to file a lawsuit after the Ferguson City Council voted Tuesday to change the terms of a deal negotiators had been hashing out for months, Lynch said.
"The residents of Ferguson have suffered the deprivation of their constitutional rights, the rights guaranteed to all Americans, for decades. They have waited decades for justice," Lynch said. "They should not be forced to wait any longer."
The lawsuit alleges a pattern and practice of unconstitutional police conduct in the city.
A city spokesman told CNN that officials will have no comment about the Justice Department's lawsuit until Thursday.
Ferguson officials have not seen the lawsuit, city spokesman Jeff Small said.
Negotiations over reforms to the city's police force and municipal court system began after a Justice Department investigation last year found the Ferguson Police Department had discriminated against African-Americans, targeting them disproportionately for traffic stops, use of force and jail sentences.
"These violations were not only egregious, they were routine. They were encouraged by the city in the interest of raising revenue," Lynch said Wednesday. "They were driven, at least in part, by racial bias and they occurred disproportionately against African American residents of Ferguson."
City officials have said their Tuesday vote wasn't a rejection of a deal with the Justice Department but was rather a push to return to the table and change some of the terms out of concerns over costs.
Lynch said the council knowingly voted against an agreement approved by the city's own negotiators.
"The city was well aware that by deciding not to accept it, they were choosing litigation," she said. "This was their choice."
City Council proposed seven amendments
In a unanimous vote Tuesday night, council members approved the deal -- but only if the Justice Department accepts seven amendments.
The Justice Department wasn't expecting any changes to the negotiated deal and wasted little time in responding.
"The Ferguson City Council has attempted to unilaterally amend the negotiated agreement," Vanita Gupta, head of the agency's Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. "Their vote to do so creates an unnecessary delay in the essential work to bring constitutional policing to the city, and marks an unfortunate outcome for concerned community members and Ferguson police officers."
The national spotlight on Ferguson began after the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson in August 2014. Brown, who was unarmed, was black, and Wilson is white. Brown's death prompted days of protests and riots in Ferguson and a national conversation about the role of race in police interactions with citizens.
Reaction to the City Council vote was mixed, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
One activist, Debra Kennedy, called the public hearings "a farce, because the DOJ is not going to go back and renegotiate," the newspaper reported. "It was like a 'no' vote."
Others chanted, "You can't amend justice," according to the Post-Dispatch.
Seven months of negotiation
The agreement that City Council wants to change was negotiated over seven months between the city and the Justice Department.
"Although we did not get everything we wanted in the agreement, we certainly made sure that what was agreed upon can be implemented in a timely and sufficient manner," Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III said of the consent decree the city received January 26.
"We're not trying to take away any safeguards," Knowles told CNN affiliate KMOV. "We're not trying to take away anything substantive out of the decree."
City Councilwoman Ella James agreed.
"There are some things in the consent decree that we're asking to be amended, but all in all I think we're moving forward, we're moving in a positive direction," she told CNN affiliate KTVI.
What City Council wants
The original agreement would require the city to hire additional senior staff dedicated to the implementation of the deal and in areas such as crisis intervention and community-police relations. Other costs to the city of Ferguson would include the creation of an electronic complaint tracking system, an early intervention system and training throughout various levels of the police department.
In its amendments, the City Council demanded the following changes in order for the decree to go into effect:
• That it contains no mandate for the payment of additional salary to police or other city employees.
• That it contains no mandate for staffing at the city's jail.
• That the deadlines set forth are extended.
• That the terms do not apply to other agencies that take over services currently provided by the city.
• That a provision for local preference in contractors and consultants is included.
• That goals for minority and women participation in consulting, oversight and third-party services are included.
• That monitoring fee caps are changed to $1 million over the first five years and no more than $250,000 in any single year.
'Just sign it'
Spirited public input preceded Tuesday night's vote.
"Black lives matter! Black lives matter!" chanted one community member.
Another suggested it was time to wrap up this chapter in the city's history.
"It's time to stop. Just go and sign the decree. You still haven`t settled the Mike Brown settlement," he said. "Get it done. Just sign it."
Brown's parents filed a wrongful death suit against the city in April.
Justice Department found pattern of discrimination
The 102-page report issued by the Justice Department last March said some Ferguson police officers saw residents as "sources of revenue," leading to practices that federal investigators said disproportionately targeted black residents.
It also found evidence of racist jokes sent by some Ferguson police officers and court officials.
The department made 26 recommendations, including:
• Ferguson police provide training to ensure officers aren't using bias in policing.
• Officers practice community policing by getting out of cars and getting to know communities.
• Focus police stops, searches and ticketing on protecting the public, as opposed to fund-raising for the city.
Also in March, the Justice Department declined to bring civil rights charges against Wilson in Brown's death. Justice Department investigators concluded Brown was moving toward the officer when Wilson fired.
A grand jury also declined to indict Wilson, who left the force in November 2014. CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet, Ed Payne, Steve Almasy, Sara Sidner, Dani Stewart and Sheena Jones contributed to this report.
Two Harford County sheriff's deputies shot to death in Abingdon. o longtime Harford County sheriff's deputies were shot to death in broad daylight Wednesday at a busy shopping center by a man officials believe was targeting police, according to authorities.
The 68-year-old suspect, whom officials described as a vagrant, was also killed in the confrontation in Abingdon, a closely knit community 30 miles northeast of Baltimore.
The mayhem erupted at a Panera Bread restaurant shortly before noon in the Boulevard at Box Hill shopping center.
Officials declined to name the two deputies who were killed. Sheriff Jeffrey R. Gahler said one had served on the force for 30 years and was assigned to the courts services division, and the other had served for 16 years and was assigned to the community services division.
Two longtime Harford County sheriff's deputies were shot to death in broad daylight Wednesday at a busy shopping center by a man officials believe was targeting police, according to authorities. "Today is a sad day for the Harford County sheriff's office and the citizens of Harford County, who we are sworn to serve," Gahler told reporters Wednesday afternoon, and bowed his head. "It is with great sadness that I tell you both deputies who were shot earlier today have succumbed to their injuries."
The suspect was identified as David Brian Evans. Gahler said there were two warrants for Evans' arrest — a criminal warrant for allegedly assaulting a police officer in Florida and a civil warrant issued in Harford County.
Gahler said he believed Evans targeted one of the deputies inside the Panera "because he was in a police uniform."
The deputies are believed to be the first in Harford to be killed by gunfire on duty in more than a century.
The incident Wednesday was the first time in 15 years that two Maryland law enforcement officers were killed in a single shooting. Two officers were shot to death in 2001 in a trailer park in Centreville on the Eastern Shore.
In Abingdon on Wednesday, deputies scoured multiple crime scenes for evidence hours after the shooting.
The incident took about 15 minutes, officials said. It began when a deputy was shot in the head inside the restaurant in the 3400 block of Merchant Blvd. about 11:45 a.m., officials said.
Gahler said the deputy was responding to a call from the restaurant. He said he was unsure of the nature of the call.
After shooting the deputy, the gunman fled the restaurant, officials said. Witnesses pointed other deputies toward the Park View apartments, a senior living complex next to the shopping center on Box Hill South Parkway.
A deputy found the suspect outside the complex, officials said. Both the suspect and a deputy were shot.
One of the wounded deputies was taken to University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air. The other was flown to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.
Gahler said he met with the families of both.
"Obviously, I don't think I have to tell anybody, there are no words to describe what they're going through right now," he said.
He said he knew the deputies well, and called them "outstanding" law enforcement officers.
Gahler said two other officers fired weapons at the scene. Both have been placed on administrative leave.
He said the investigation remains in the preliminary stages.
"We fully suspect that both deputies were shot by the same suspect," Gahler said. "We are not looking at anyone else. We believe it's an individual who's no longer a threat to the community."
No customers inside the Panera were injured.
Evans had an open criminal case in Florida for an alleged reckless-driving incident, according to online court records. The incident was alleged to have occurred last April. Evans then didn't show up for a court date.
Harford County Executive Barry Glassman said Evans was an "outsider," not a member of the community.
"What little we know of the suspect is that it looks like he was somewhat of a vagrant, someone who moved around a lot," Glassman said. "Whether you're serving a summons or warrant, a guy like that, who has a pistol on his body in a public place and is willing to go outside and shoot an officer, is a risk to all us."
Glassman said the two deputies showed "selfless dedication." He ordered Harford County flags to be lowered to half-staff.
"We are grateful that these deputies did give the ultimate sacrifice for all of us," he said. "We also want to celebrate, with their families, their lives and their dedication to service."
Gov. Larry Hogan called their deaths "nothing less than absolutely heartbreaking."
"The first lady and I send our most sincere thoughts and prayers to the families and loved ones of the brave deputies who made theultimate sacrifice today for the community they selflessly served," Hogan said in a statement. "It is my hope that their commitment and dedication to law enforcement and protecting otherswill be remembered and will forever serve as an inspiration to others."
He said state police were working closely with Harford County as needed.
A spokeswoman for Panera said the restaurant would remain closed during the investigation.
"Our thoughts and actions now are directed towards the victims and their families," the company said in a statement.
Former Harford County Sheriff L. Jesse Bane said he listened to the incident unfold on police radio.
The deaths will strike the department hard, he said, because law enforcement officers form tight bonds.
"You become part of a family," said Bane, the current town administrator in Bel Air. "That's what makes these things very difficult for law enforcement agencies to deal with."
"We've lost two brothers," he said.
Law enforcement in Harford County has suffered a series of losses in recent years.
The sheriff's office, composed of roughly 300 sworn officers, suffered the back-to-back deaths in September 2012 of Cpl. Charles Barton Licato and Sgt. Ian A. Loughran.
Licato, 34, was killed in an early-morning crash along U.S. 1 near the Conowingo Dam. His car left the road, slid down an embankment, and hit a pole and two trees before catching fire in a ravine.
Loughran, 43, had mentored Licato. He suffered a heart attack at Licato's funeral.
Also that month, the nearby Aberdeen Police Department endured the loss of Officer Charles N. Armetta, 29, who fell 47 feet to his death in an off-duty accident, and veteran Detective Mark A. Franklin, 55, who died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Baltimore Sun Media Group reporters David Anderson, Erika Butler, Colin Campbell, Tim Prudente, Kevin Rector, Sean Welsh and Bryna Zumer contributed to this article.
Law enforcement deaths in Md. since 2010
Dec. 10, 2015: Noah Leotta, 24, Montgomery County, hit by drunken driver during traffic stop.
March 7, 2015: Brennan Rabain, 26, Prince George's County, accident while attempting traffic stop.
Jan. 9, 2015: Craig Chandler, 27, Baltimore, mortally wounded in crash during pursuit.
Dec. 21, 2014: Jamel Clagett, 30, Charles County, single-vehicle crash driving home from work.
Aug. 28, 2013: Jason Schneider, 36, Baltimore County, shot and killed trying to serve a warrant.
Oct. 18, 2012: Kevin Bowden, 28, Prince George's, crash while off-duty in cruiser.
Sept. 13, 2012: Ian Loughran, 43, Harford County, heart attack within 24 hours of shift.
Sept. 6, 2012: Charles Licato, 34, Harford County, crash while likely driving home from work.
Aug. 29, 2012: Forrest Taylor, 44, Baltimore, mortally wounded in crash driving to aid fellow officer.
Aug. 20, 2012: Adrian Morris, 23, Prince George's, crash during pursuit.
Jan. 27, 2012: William "Bill" Talbert, Montgomery County, hit by drunken driver.
May 21, 2011: Shaft Hunter, 39, Maryland State Police, crash while thought to be chasing speeding motorcyclist.
Jan. 9, 2011: William Torbit Jr., 34, Baltimore, shot by fellow police while working in plainclothes.
Nov. 29, 2010: Teresa Testerman, 54, Harford County, heart attack after responding to overcrowded cell block.
Oct. 20, 2010: Thomas Portz Jr., 32, Baltimore, cruiser hit the back of a fire engine.
Sept. 27, 2010: James Fowler III, 61, Baltimore, crash during inclement weather.
June 11, 2010: Wesley Brown, 24, Maryland State Police, shot while working as security guard.
April 4, 2010: Hector Ayala, 31, Montgomery County, car crash responding to back up fellow officer.
March 9, 2010: Thomas Jensen, 27, Prince George's County, crash responding to a burglary.
Source: Baltimore Sun archives and police departments.
The Guardian Reports on Syria conflict finds 11.5% of population killed or injured. Exclusive Syrian Centre for Policy Research says 470,000 deaths is twice UN’s figure with ‘human development ruined’ after 45% of population is displaced. Syria’s national wealth, infrastructure and institutions have been “almost obliterated” by the “catastrophic impact” of nearly five years of conflict, a new report has found. Fatalities caused by war, directly and indirectly, amount to 470,000, according to the Syrian Centre for Policy Research (SCPR) – a far higher total than the figure of 250,000 used by the United Nations until it stopped collecting statistics 18 months ago.
In all, 11.5% of the country’s population have been killed or injured since the crisis erupted in March 2011, the report estimates. The number of wounded is put at 1.9 million. Life expectancy has dropped from 70 in 2010 to 55.4 in 2015. Overall economic losses are estimated at $255bn (£175bn).
The stark account of the war’s toll came as warnings multiplied about Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, which is in danger of being cut off by a government advance aided by Russian airstrikes and Iranian militiamen. The Syrian opposition is demanding urgent action to relieve the suffering of tens of thousands of civilians.
The International Red Cross said on Wednesday that 50,000 people had fled the upsurge in fighting in the north, requiring urgent deliveries of food and water.
Talks in Munich on Thursday between the US secretary of state, John Kerry, and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, will be closely watched for any sign of an end to the deadly impasse. UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva are scheduled to resume in two weeks but are unlikely to do so without a significant shift of policy.
Speaking in London on Wednesday, an opposition spokesman, Salim al-Muslet, said President Barack Obama could stop the Russian attacks. “If he is willing to save our children it is really the time now to say ‘no’ to these strikes in Syria,” he said. The Washington Post reported that Moscow had sent a letter to Washington proposing to stop bombing on 1 March.
Of the 470,000 war dead counted by the SCPR, about 400,000 were directly due to violence, while the remaining 70,000 fell victim to lack of adequate health services, medicine, especially for chronic diseases, lack of food, clean water, sanitation and proper housing, especially for those displaced within conflict zones.
“We use very rigorous research methods and we are sure of this figure,” Rabie Nasser, the report’s author, told the Guardian. “Indirect deaths will be greater in the future, though most NGOs [non-governmental organisations] and the UN ignore them.
“We think that the UN documentation and informal estimation underestimated the casualties due to lack of access to information during the crisis,” he said.
In statistical terms, Syria’s mortality rate increase from 4.4 per thousand in 2010 to 10.9 per thousand in 2015.
The UN high commissioner for human rights – which manages conflict death tolls – stopped counting Syria’s dead in mid-2014, citing lack of access and diminishing confidence in data sources.
The SCPR was based until recently in Damascus and research for this and previous reports was carried out on the ground across Syria. It is careful not to criticise the Syrian government or its allies – Iran, Hezbollah, Russia. And with the exception of Islamic State, it refers only to “armed groups” seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. But despite the neutral tone the findings are shocking.
In an atmosphere of “coercion, fear and fanaticism”, blackmail, theft and smuggling have supported the continuation of armed conflict so that the Syrian economy has become “a black hole” absorbing “domestic and external resources”.Oil production continues to be an “important financial resource” for Isis and other armed groups, it says.
Consumer prices rose 53% last year. But suffering is unevenly spread. “Prices in conflict zones and besieged areas are much higher than elsewhere in the country and this boosts profit margins for war traders who monopolise the markets of these regions,” it says. Employment conditions and pay have deteriorated and women work less because of security concerns. About 13.8 million Syrians have lost their source of livelihood.
“The common characteristics across all regions are lack of security, the allocation of all resources to the fighting, the creation of violence-related job opportunities and imposition of authority by force.”
The shrinking of the population by 21% helps explain the waves of refugees reaching Turkey and Europe. In all, 45% of the population have been displaced, 6.36 million internally and more than 4 million abroad. Health, education and income standards have all deteriorated sharply. Poverty increased by 85% in 2015 alone.
The report notes that the rest of the world has been slow to wake up to the dimensions of the crisis. “Despite the fact that Syrians have been suffering for … five years, global attention to human rights and dignity for them only intensified when the crisis had a direct impact on the societies of developed countries.”
The conflict “continues to destroy the social and economic fabric of the country with the intensification of international interventions that deepen polarisation among Syrians. Human development, rights and dignity have been comprehensively ruined.”
The report is entitled Confronting Fragmentation. Previous titles in the series track the unfolding of the world’s biggest humanitarian disaster: Syrian Catastrophe, War on Development, Squandering Humanity, and Alienation and Violence.
Dramatic Rescue of Syrian Refugee Stranded on Sinking Boat Caught on Video. Dramatic video released by the Turkish Coast Guard today captured the rescue of a lone Syrian refugee who had been clinging for several hours to a sinking boat in the Aegean Sea near Edremit, a city in eastern Turkey.
The helmet camera footage shows the Monday rescue of Syrian refugee Pelen Hussein from the perspective of Turkish Coast Guard Sgt. Tuncay Ceylan, according to international news agency Agence France-Presse.
The video shows Ceylan lowering himself from a helicopter and then swimming to Hussein, who can be seen desperately holding onto the bow of a vertically sinking boat nearly fully submerged in the water.
Ceylan then tells Hussein, "Jump into the water!" before getting a hold of him and hoisting him up back to the helicopter. Hussein was then flown back to land and immediately taken to a hospital, AFP reported.
Hussein "was on the verge of hypothermia, and in a state of shock," Ceylan told Turkish media, according to AFP. "I tried to calm him down."
Ceylan added, "When he came to himself a bit he started to cry. Probably his relatives came to his mind as there were a lot of corpses in the water."
Hussein was one of several dozen Syrian refugees who had set off by boat in the hopes of reaching the Greek island of Lesbos, which is near the Turkish eastern coast, AFP reported.
Twenty-seven migrants, 11 of them children, drowned, according to the Turkish Coast Guard.
Over 900,000 migrants and refugees entered Europe last year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Many of the migrants and refugees risk their lives trying to flee dangerous conditions in war-torn countries by crossing perilous seas in overcrowded boats.
From the beginning of 2016 through this past Monday, IOM recorded 409 fatalities on Mediterranean routes, the organization said in a news release Tuesday.
Bernie Sanders Dines With Al Sharpton In Harlem.
The morning after his New Hampshire primary victory, Bernie Sanders made a highly publicized visit to Harlem to dine with Al Sharpton, one of America's most prominent civil rights activists and media personalities.
The two dined at Sylvia's, the same New York City restaurant where Sharpton huddled with Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign.
Wednesday's meeting was a not-so-subtle recognition of Sanders' pivot to South Carolina and Sanders' effort to broaden his appeal to the state's decisive African-American voters.
Hillary Clinton has been heavily favored in polls to date to win South Carolina, in part due to Clinton support among African-American voters.
But Sanders' strong finish in New Hampshire and fresh appeal to younger voters will further test Clinton's perceived strength in the Feb. 27 primary.
More than half of South Carolina's primary voters were black in the 2008 contest pitting Clinton against Obama, the first competitive black candidate for president.
She lost by a 29 percentage point margin.
Now facing a white liberal from Vermont in 2016, Clinton has led by double-digits in South Carolina polls. But Sanders has 17 days to close that gap.
Clinton's strength among black and Latino voters is critical to her electability argument.
"It will be very difficult, if not impossible, for a Democrat to win the nomination without strong levels of support among African American and Hispanic voters," Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager, wrote in a Tuesday memo to reporters.
Speaking to reporters after breakfast, Sharpton said he also plans to meet with Clinton next week. An endorsement in the race would likely come after that, he said.
Sanders did not take questions from reporters waiting for him outside the restaurant.
Bernie Sanders continued his New Hampshire victory lap Wednesday night by making his second appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. And while he was still a major underdog when he visited Stephen Colbert last September, this time he was riding high.
The senator from Vermont began by crashing Colbert’s monologue. When the host protested that the show should begin with him alone standing on stage and telling jokes, Sanders replied, “That’s what the elites want you to think.
“You’ve got to go your own way, follow your own heart, the revolution is possible,” Sanders told Colbert before delivering the final line of the monologue. “Last night, Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire primary by 22 points. No joke!”
When Sanders entered as Colbert’s guest later in the show, he quickly faced questions about how he managed to win 86 percent of voters 18-24 in New Hampshire. “By definition, young people are idealistic,” he said. “And they look at a world with so many problems and they say, why not? Why can’t all people in this country have healthcare? Why can’t we make public colleges and universities tuition-free?”
Playing devil’s advocate in the vein of his former Colbert Report character, the host argued that Sanders was promoting “class warfare” and reasoned that the 1 percent is not going to give up their power and influence so easily. “And I’ll tell you how I know, I am in the top 1 percent,” he said.
When Bill O’Reilly was on Colbert’s show earlier in the week, he said Sanders and Donald Trump were essentially the same person with different haircuts. While Sanders acknowledged that his and Trump’s supporters share a certain anger, he criticized the “false message” that Trump is pushing that discrimination will somehow lead to a better America. Sanders also noted that O’Reilly has said he will move to Ireland if he becomes president, an outcome he referred to as a “two-fer.”
Moving on, Colbert challenged Sanders by bringing up Hillary Clinton’s critique that he is promising solutions to the country’s problems that can never be achieved, for example his plan to provide single-payer healthcare.
“The question is, do we have the ability to stand up to the private insurance companies and the drug companies?” Sanders asked the host, before answering his own question. “I believe that when people are aroused, when they’re organized, when they’re prepared to stand up and fight back, yes, we can take on the drug companies and the insurance companies.”
As a South Carolinian, Colbert asked Sanders to explain how he plans to break Clinton’s alleged Southern “firewall.” At first, the candidate launched into what sounded a lot like a rehearsed campaign speech. “Why do we have more people in jail than any other country on earth, disproportionately black and Latino?” he asked. “Why is it that we have a system today where our campaign finance system is now corrupt, where billionaires are literally buying elections?”
But when Colbert pressed him to provide an overarching solution to those troubling questions, Sanders came back to the “revolution” rhetoric that has driven his campaign. Asked how he plans to break up America’s “oligarchy,” Sanders said, “The only way that I know how to do it is the way change has always come about, in this country and in the world.
“We used to have a segregated society,” he continued. “African-Americans couldn’t go to schools, couldn’t drink at water fountains. Millions of people stood together and said, ‘Hey, enough is enough. That is not what America is supposed to be about.’”
Warning against the risks of revolution, Colbert quoted John F. Kennedy: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” But Sanders resisted the idea that his revolution could go that way.
“What the goal of this campaign is about is to look at the Civil Rights Movement, look at the women’s movement, look at the gay movement, understand that when people come together we can accomplish enormous things,” Sanders said. “But I think what people are saying is enough is enough. We need fundamental changes in our political system and our economic system.”
“Bernie Sanders, everybody, he’s running for president,” Colbert said by way of ending the interview. Not only is he running, but at this still early stage, he appears to be winning.
Sanders campaign raised $6.4 million after New Hampshire polls closed. Bernie Sanders raised $6.4 million in the 24 hours since the polls closed in New Hampshire, his campaign said Wednesday.
The large haul, which bests the $3 million he raised after his narrow loss to Hillary Clinton in Iowa, is further evidence of the digital fundraising juggernaut his campaign has built.
The Sanders campaign said Wednesday that $2.6 million of that haul had been raised in just the four-and-a-half hours after he was declared the winner in New Hampshire.
Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver sent an email earlier Wednesday setting a goal of $6 million, then sent a second appeal a little before 8 p.m. Wednesday pushing the new goal to $7 million.
"Well, you already crushed that goal in just a couple hours," Weaver wrote. "So, in the spirit of this campaign, we're going to reach for a bigger but difficult goal — raising $7 million by the end of the day today."
In the midst of his campaign speech Tuesday night, Sanders held an instant fundraiser, asking supporters while his speech was being carried live on-air to donate at his website. The burst of donations that followed spurred complaints that ActBlue, which processes Sanders donations, was crashing.
ActBlue executive director Erin Hill wrote in a blog post Wednesday afternoon that the site saw a peak of 26,000 contributions in 15 minutes Tuesday night and the spike contributed to a problem for some donors.
"We did hit one bump late yesterday though," Hill wrote. "Last night's spontaneous fundraiser (the one that raised $5.2 million in less than a day) broke our external processor's response systems."
But the Sanders campaign and ActBlue both said the service never went down.
The Sanders campaign said the average donation made after his New Hampshire win was $34, just a bit more than the average donation of $27 he has been touting for weeks. CNN's Tom LoBianco and Dan Merica contributed to this report.
He also put out a new campaign ad that somehow makes its points about his competitor (Hillary Clinton), they managed to do it in a positive way.
So, why not two?
Three months after Republicans brought their presidential road show to the Milwaukee Theatre, Democrats are staging their political fight Thursday night inside the Helen Bader Concert Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
And it's a big one.
Vermont independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, fresh off Tuesday's convincing triumph in the New Hampshire primary, meets former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a two-hour debate that starts at 8 p.m.
The debate dynamics post-New Hampshire will be interesting.
For Sanders, it's an opportunity to press his advantage before a nationwide audience that may not yet be fully focused on a politician who calls himself a democratic socialist.
For Clinton, it's a chance to reset the race after a staggering election blow as the primary calendar turns to states that appear to be more favorable for her brand of politics.
During a campaign season in which presidential debates have been filled with high drama — and scored impressive television ratings — this one might stay focused on the issues.
It's a "PBS NewsHour" debate in partnership with Facebook. The moderators are Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff. CNN will simulcast the event.
Only one break is scheduled.
"This is PBS. We don't do commercials," said Sara Just, executive producer of "PBS NewsHour."
This is the sixth Democratic debate of the campaign season but only the second two-candidate matchup. During their last meeting in New Hampshire, Sanders and Clinton clashed on the issues and their credentials as progressives.
"We're coming out to do a responsible, insightful, illuminating and thoughtful debate that will highlight the candidates' positions and differences. That's our goal," Just said.
She said her colleagues at the other networks have done very good jobs in presenting the previous Democratic and Republican debates.
"Debates are really exciting moments," she said. "They capture a moment in time, the candidates' mood and the mood of the electorate."
The stakes are high, not just in the fight for the nomination, but also in helping set the stage for the general election. Even though Republicans haven't won a presidential race in Wisconsin since Ronald Reagan in 1984, the state is seen as an electoral battleground.
Under Gov. Scott Walker, Republicans have total control of state government and have pushed through laws that have resonated nationally, including curtailing collective bargaining for most public workers. After dominating Wisconsin elections in nonpresidential years since 2010, Republicans are aiming to turn the state red in 2016 with a bolstered ground operation.
The timing for the debate, however, is curious since the Democrats' primary fight next heads to Nevada, for a Feb. 20 caucus, and South Carolina on Feb. 27. Wisconsin's presidential primary doesn't come until April 5.
Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Milwaukee was chosen as the site for this debate because of the importance of Wisconsin and the Midwest in a national race.
"In laying out our debate schedule for the primary, we were really focused on making sure to place these debates regionally so we could touch every corner of the country," she said. "We have a major reason to ceding no corner of this country. When we looked at the Midwest, we thought Wisconsin is a battleground state. There are other important battleground states in the Midwest that perhaps get a little more attention, but bringing our debate to Wisconsin is what we thought was the right move."
Wasserman Schultz said Democrats would perform strongly in the state in the fall.
"We're very confident, particularly because of how far to the right the Republican field is," she said.
Asked if she worried that Democrats might be in for a prolonged nomination fight, Wasserman Schultz said: "I think this nomination is going to continue through the next several months. To be honest with you, that gives us more opportunity to have both (Democratic) campaigns organize and mobilize."
The Republican Party of Wisconsin has planned a welcome, of sorts, for Clinton.
On Thursday, it will run a message on a billboard along I-94 near Mitchell International Airport that reads: "While National Democrats Debate in Milwaukee...The FBI is investigating Hillary Clinton. What's there to debate? We know Hillary Clinton Can't be Trusted."
How to watch
PBS is broadcasting the debate (MPTV-Channel 10 in the Milwaukee area) at 8 p.m. Thursday. It will also be streamed at pbs.org/newshour, and CNN will simulcast the broadcast.
Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin says that ‘there Are Now Tensions’ Between Hillary And Campaign Staff. Voters aren’t the only ones who lack trust in Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The former secretary of state’s campaign staffers are also losing faith in their boss, according to Bloomberg Politics’ Mark Halperin.
During the show he co-hosts daily with John Heilemann, Halperin laid out what he surmises is ailing the Clinton operation, which sustained a major blow in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primaries with a 22-point loss to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The problems, according to Halperin:
That she’s not a great candidate, that her message is still really muddy, and that she’s swimming upstream, that she’s running as the change candidate against a guy who is just always going to win on who represents change. And then the last thing is — this always happens in a Clinton campaign when things go bad — there are now tensions between her and her staff. They don’t trust her to do the right thing, she’s losing confidence in them. It’s not a dire situation, it can be turned around it, but it’s currently not so great.
“You saw that coming a mile away,” Heilemann said of the tension and looming shake up within Clinton’s camp. He said that when he first talked to Clinton officials after they signed up for the campaign they openly joked about when the would get fired “when the first shake up would be, or the first layering or whatever it was.”
Days before the New Hampshire primary, rumors began to surface that a campaign overhaul was brewing. The campaign has disputed the claim.
Republican Donald Trump basked in the glory of a win he promised would be the first of many, while a poor finisher in the Granite State, Marco Rubio, showcased a looser approach after an over-programmed debate performance raised questions about his readiness. One-time front-runner Jeb Bush was happy to still be fighting while New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former businesswoman Carly Fiorina suspended their campaigns.
Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, triggered a fundraising avalanche and plotted a nationwide campaign after his rout of Hillary Clinton, who was left with fundamental questions about her lack of appeal to young Democrats.
The New Hampshire primary has often acted as a winnower of presidential fields. But in 2016, by elevating anti-establishment crusaders like billionaire businessman Trump and self-described "democratic socialist" Sanders, it administered a sharp shock to the political elites and left more chaos than clarity in its wake.
The GOP establishment is no nearer finding a champion to halt Trump, whom many party leaders fear could cost them the White House, and Texas Sen. Cruz, who is viewed with deep disdain by many of his peers in Washington.
Former Secretary of State Clinton, for her part, must contemplate whether to make changes to her campaign structure and her message, or to place her trust in the Southern-state firewall her aides have long maintained that Vermont Sen. Sanders would be unable to crack.
With all Republican votes counted, Trump had 35%, ahead of Kasich at 16% and Cruz with 12%. Bush came next at 11%, just over 1,000 votes ahead of Rubio, who also hit 11% in a disappointing showing after his strong third place in Iowa last week. Christie was sixth at 7%, a finish that left him without an apparent path to carry on.
Sanders won the Democratic race by nearly 60,000 votes -- 60% to Clinton's 38%.
The next Republican contest is on February 20 in South Carolina, the same day that Clinton and Sanders clash in the Nevada caucuses. The following Tuesday, GOP voters make their choice in Nevada, while the Democratic primary in South Carolina is on February 27.
Clinton and Sanders meet for what is likely to be a contentious PBS "NewsHour" Democratic debate that will be simulcast on CNN Thursday night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, while remaining GOP candidates have their own showdown in Greenville, South Carolina, on Saturday.
Republican elites Wednesday were digesting the reality that Trump, a former reality TV star, had defied skeptics and turned his polling numbers in the primary into a thumping victory, a performance that offers new credibility to his wide leads in other states.
"I had these massive poll numbers but you never know if they're going to be real. You just have to say, 'Well, what does this mean?' But they turned out to be real," Trump said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
Trump was heading to South Carolina, the next stop in the GOP race, for an early evening rally.
The New Hampshire runner-up, Ohio. Gov. John Kasich, flew to South Carolina as well, but is also looking past the Palmetto State to contests in places like Michigan, Illinois and his own home base that vote in March and may be more receptive to his compassionate conservative message.
"I am starting to really think we are on to something," Kasich told reporters on his campaign plane. "I am starting to really think that the positive nature of a campaign can be very effective. I am starting to think it could be true."
Kasich backers said that the Ohio governor had given himself breathing room on Tuesday and did not need to do as well on February 20 as he did in New Hampshire.
"He doesn't have to go into South Carolina and do what he did here," Bruce Berke, a lobbyist who has been advising Kasich in New Hampshire, told CNN.
Rubio, a Florida senator, delivered another mea culpa for his poor debate performance and conducted a unusually long and free-wheeling 45-minute session with reporters on his plane, in which he took sharp shots at Trump and Bush.
"I don't think anyone is going to wrap this up in South Carolina or Nevada. This is a unique election," Rubio said, in a reflective and more personal appearance than has often been the case throughout this campaign.
An aide said events in New Hampshire would prompt a shift in tactics in the Rubio campaign, saying that it was time to "Let Marco be Marco."
Rubio's tormentor on Saturday night, Christie, was back home in New Jersey, where he suspended his White House effort on Wednesday afternoon, a source close to his campaign said.
Christie had little option after he failed to make a strong impression in New Hampshire, a last stand in a campaign in which he early on lost the mantle of tough talker to Trump.
Fiorina pulled the plug after failing to make an impression in either New Hampshire or Iowa. In a statement, she took an apparent swipe at those who say that young women should support Clinton because of her gender and also at Trump, with whom she clashed in debates.
"Do not listen to anyone who says you have to vote a certain way or for a certain candidate because you're a woman. That is not feminism. Feminism doesn't shut down conversations or threaten women. It is not about ideology. It is not a weapon to wield against your political opponent," the statement said.
Bush, in contrast, prepared to move on to South Carolina, where his brother, former President George W. Bush, will appear as a campaign surrogate. His controversial White House tenure remains a challenge, but the 43rd president remains popular in South Carolina, a state that helped to revive his own campaign in the 2000 GOP primary campaign.
The Bush camp also circulated talking points to surrogates and supporters to drive home the point that Bush is continuing to fight in a campaign that has proven to be far less "joyful" than he had anticipated.
"As it often does, New Hampshire has reset the race. Jeb is the candidate coming out of the Granite State with momentum, a great national ground game and path forward," the memo obtained by CNN said.
On the Democratic side, Sanders wasted little time after his stunning victory over Clinton in taking aim at her stronghold of southern states and minority voters, which pose a stiff challenge to his hopes of being a candidate with national appeal.
He raised $5.2 million in the 18 hours after polls closed in New Hampshire, his campaign announced.
Sanders also met civil rights activist Al Sharpton on Wednesday and discussed affirmative action, police brutality and the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
The meeting at Sylvia's, a famed New York City restaurant in Harlem, lasted about 20 minutes and was initiated by Sanders supporter and former NAACP head Ben Jealous, who told reporters there had never been any doubt about what Sanders stood for.
"There is no candidate in this race who is fiercer in standing up for those who need allies in the struggle than Bernie Sanders," he said.
Clinton, meanwhile, remained out of sight after her stinging defeat in New Hampshire, where both she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, previously had warm political memories.
Her campaign tweeted mid-morning: "You're the reason we're going to win this nomination and then win this election together."
Clinton also sent out a fundraising pitch to supporters.
"Last night's results in New Hampshire weren't what we hoped for. But I woke up this morning ready to keep fighting for the issues you and I believe in. Are you with me?" Clinton asked.
After New Hampshire and Iowa, Sanders now leads Clinton by 36 to 32 pledged delegates. But the former first lady has a wide lead among superdelegates -- senior party officials and office holders. Exactly 2,382 delegates are needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.
Trump has the most delegates among Republicans with 17, ahead of Cruz with 10, Rubio with seven, Kasich with four, Bush and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson with three and Fiorina with one. Six New Hampshire delegates remain to be allocated. Republicans need 1,237 delegates to claim the nomination. CNN's Stephen Collinson, Tami Luhby, Manu Raju, Ashley Killough and Sara Murray contributed to this report.
Cruz Interesting, Trump Inevitable in S.C. Focus Group. In a Bloomberg Politics/Purple Strategies focus group on Wednesday, South Carolina Republican voters praised Ted Cruz for being trustworthy and religious, while Donald Trump was described as “brave” but “crass.” Most of the participants, who said they were either undecided or could change their mind before Election Day, still said the New York billionaire had the best chance of winning their state's primary on Feb. 20.
Methodology: The participants were from the Columbia, South Carolina, area and represented a variety of ages and socio-economic and educational backgrounds. All respondents said they are registered Republicans and likely to vote in the state’s Republican presidential primary. When recruited, nine of the respondents said they were undecided, and the five remaining respondents reported leaning toward a candidate but said they could change their mind before the primary.
Qualitative research results cannot be statistically analyzed or projected onto the broader population at large. As is customary, respondents were compensated for their participation. See more from the Bloomberg Politics/Purple Strategies focus group on With All Due Respect Thursday at 5 p.m. ET on Bloomberg TV and BloombergPolitics.com.
Republican Elites Land in South Carolina With No Plan to Stop Trump. As the race moves south, GOP establishment candidates continue to fight each other as the billionaire enjoys his lead. Republican elites are 0-for-2 in presidential nominating contests this year, a rare and panic-inducing outcome for the party's leadership. Yet their preferred candidates continue to fight each other, and have begun the march to the next battlefield in South Carolina without a plan to stop Donald Trump.
Not only did the billionaire's 20-point blowout in the New Hampshire primary fail to cull the field enough to present a clear mainstream alternative, the three remaining establishment candidates—U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Ohio Governor John Kasich and Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor—spent Wednesday going after one another, as they have throughout the nomination fight.
“Enormous pressure is on the establishment wing to consolidate around one candidate soon or else it will hand the Republican nomination over to Trump,” said Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist and former senior congressional aide.
They're running out of time. With plenty of campaign cash to spare, Trump is pushing the kind of America-first message that resonates in South Carolina, a state that flew the Confederate flag on its Capitol's grounds until last year. The primaries beyond are just as southern and just as friendly to Trump's message. And he remains an extremely difficult candidate to beat in a war of words and media attention.
Cruz Interesting, Trump Inevitable in S.C. Focus Group
“As long as there's five of six people running, I think Donald benefits from that, no doubt about it,” Rubio said Wednesday on CNN.
The anxiety has grown more palpable as Trump has shattered predictions that his crowds and poll numbers wouldn't translate at the ballot box.
“Donald Trump has proven he can turn his rally-goers into voters, and now it’s time for his challengers to prove they’re capable of taking the steering wheel away from him,” said Rory Cooper, a Republican operative and former House leadership aide.
Cruz’s Formula
The GOP's best hope of stopping Trump may be Ted Cruz. The Texas senator has amassed a devoted following of Tea Party conservatives and evangelical Christians, a war chest worth $19 million at year's end, and an enviable ground game that led him to an unexpected victory over Trump in Iowa and a respectable third place finish in New Hampshire.
Exit polls in Iowa offer a glimpse of Cruz's formula: He bested Trump among evangelicals and self-identified “very conservative” voters, two key segments of the national Republican electorate that exist in large numbers in the cluster of Southern states that vote on March 1.
Meanwhile, exit polls in the party's center-right New Hampshire base revealed no obvious weaknesses for Trump. He won voters across age groups, income levels, gender, marital status and ideologies; he even won independents. National polls say Trump is dominating among self-identified moderate Republicans, the group that the establishment-friendly candidates are also gunning for.
“What Iowa and New Hampshire demonstrate is that the only person in this field who can beat Donald Trump is me,” Cruz Wednesday told radio host Mike Gallagher. “You can’t beat Donald coming from the left. It just doesn’t work.”
But the Republican establishment has resisted coalescing behind Cruz because he's the one candidate that some party leaders dislike even more than Trump.
‘Firing Squad’
With Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina quitting the race on Wednesday, Bush, Rubio, and Kasich are competing to become the establishment favorite to take on Trump ahead of the Feb. 20 primary South Carolina.
“If those three get into a circular firing squad, the one who benefits is Trump,” said David Winston, a Republican consultant who worked on Newt Gingrich's 2012 presidential campaign.
Bush attacked Kasich as a “one-state” candidate who has “nothing going on down here” in South Carolina. He also mocked Rubio's “coronation after a third place finish [in Iowa]—looks like they canceled it.”
On CNN, Rubio declared that “Jeb has no foreign policy experience—none.” Earlier, Rubio told reporters that he's “the only one running in this race who can quickly unite the Republican Party.”
Kasich said on CNN that he's “going to have to respond to some of this stuff” coming from Bush, acknowledging that his successful strategy to steer clear of the mud in New Hampshire may not work going forward.
‘Positive’ Results
Ken Langone, the co-founder of Home Depot Inc. and billionaire Republican donor who invested in Christie's bid, said the result Tuesday was “very positive” even though he hoped the New Jersey governor had done better.
“The overarching message that came out of New Hampshire last night is that the American people have had enough of the status quo. I think that’s wonderful,” Langone said in an interview before heading to a round of golf at the Seminole Golf Club in Florida.
He said he's not ready to back another candidate. “I'm going to sit tight,” he said. “I'm going to enjoy being on the sidelines, not having to make any calls or ask anybody for any money. I'm going to take a well-deserved vacation from political activity.”
Attacking Trump
Other Republican elites are eager to stop Trump, who enjoys leads in national surveys.
Doug Heye, a former Republican National Committee spokesman who has ruled out supporting Trump, said the New Yorker “can be taken out” with attacks over issues. Outside groups ran ads hitting him in Iowa for backing eminent domain and his past support of abortion rights.
“We saw how targeting Trump on issues worked in Iowa,” Heye said. By contrast, he added, the campaign reveals that “name-calling with Trump—calling him a cancer, a liar, a loser—doesn’t work.”
Anti-Trump Republicans remain short on answers, though.
“The Donald is very entertaining,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a former presidential candidate turned Bush surrogate, told a crowd of more than 200 people gathered to see Bush in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. “But he'll get us wiped out.” Sahil Kapur with assistance from Michael C. Bender, James Nash, Mark Niquette, John McCormick, and Zachary R. Mider.
Carly Fiorina and Chris Christie drop out of race. Everett RosenfeldGOP hopefuls Carly Fiorina and Chris Christie dropped out of the presidential race Wednesday.
Fiorina announced the suspension of her campaign via Twitter.
Carly Fiorina
Today, I am suspending my campaign. My full statement is here: https://www.facebook.com/CarlyFiorina/posts/10157165012225206 …
Promising to "continue to serve in order to restore citizen government to this great nation so that together we may fulfill our potential" in a statement, the former HP executive also reflected on feminism's role in politics.
"To young girls and women across the country, I say: do not let others define you," she said. "Do not listen to anyone who says you have to vote a certain way or for a certain candidate because you're a woman. That is not feminism. Feminism doesn't shut down conversations or threaten women."
Separately, NBC News confirmed Wednesday that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie plans to suspend his presidential campaign as well.
Kelly O'Donnell
BREAKING NEWS: NBC News has learns first from the @ChrisChristie campaign directly that he suspends his bid
Christie had said Tuesday night that he intended to go back home from New Hampshire instead of heading on to South Carolina for the next GOP test.
Christie performed worse than his campaign had hoped in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary: Businessman Donald Trump won the night as expected, but the tight competition for GOP runner-up went to Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Trump, Sanders sweep to victory in New Hampshire
The New Jersey governor's camp had hoped that a strong showing in the Granite State could catapult him into the top tier of the Republican pack. Instead, Christie came in sixth place — behind Trump, Kasich, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
"(My message) was heard by a lot of folks, and it was stood for by a lot of folks here in New Hampshire, just not enough. Not enough tonight," Christie said in a somber Tuesday speech.
"And that's okay...I have both won elections that I was supposed to lose and I have lost elections that I was supposed to win," he added. "And what that means is you never know, and it's both the magic and the mystery of politics that you never quite know when which is going to happen — even when you think you do."
Christie said he didn't have "an ounce of regret" for the time he spent in New Hampshire.
Perhaps his best remembered contribution to the presidential race will be Christie's criticisms of Rubio in Saturday's debate. Calling out the Florida senator's propensity for sticking to talking points, Christie apparently dealt real damage to his rival's chances — without gaining any ground for his own campaign.
Rupert Murdoch
Chris Christie, suicide bomber. Damages victim while blowing himself up!
Joe Scarborough: Rubio's 'Dirty--Um--Dark Money' Drove Christie Down. On today's show, Joe Scarborough forcefully sought to refute the notion that Chris Christie's takedown of Marco Rubio in the last GOP debate was an unprovoked attack. Scarborough painted a very different picture, one in which by dint of his town hall work, Christie had been steadily climbing in the New Hampshire polls--until Rubio unleashed a wave of negative advertising on Christie that drove his numbers back down. It was only then that Christie counter-attacked, suggested Joe.
Scarborough said pundits were either "ignorant" or "lying" to their readers if they portrayed Christie as "mean" for having exposed Rubio as he did, or that Christie's poor performance in New Hampshire was the result of a backlash against his attack. Noteworthy was Scarborough's statement that the funding for Rubio's attack ads against Christie was "dark" money. At one point, Scarborough called it "dirty" money, before correcting himself and repeating "dark" money.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: So there was a lot of -- there's a lot of talk about Chris Christie yesterday: oh, he's mean, he went after poor Marco, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. What people didn't get -- and I know you probably know the back story -- Christie actually was having a great run, he was doing well in town hall meetings, his numbers were going up and then Marco's team started trashing him in ads and they just started running non-stop ads and then the dark money came in and they started trashing Chris Christie with dark money ads and so all of the positive he was doing one town hall meeting at a time just got completely obliterated and he jumped up, he was up at 7%, 8%, 9%, going higher, then, boom, back down to 4%.
And so it's -- I would hope that the people commenting on Christie leaving the race saying he was mean to Marco and that's why he lost, I would hope that they were ignorant and not actually lying to their readers and viewers because if you're too ignorant to know that's what happened in New Hampshire, that it was Marco's dirty money -- dark money, Marco's dark money, and then it was his [inaudible as someone coughed] money that got Chris Christie down to the 4% where he started attacking Marco, then you shouldn't be covering politics, you're lying to your people.
Marco's reboot: How Rubio plans to turn things around. Coming soon: Marco Rubio 2.0.
The Republican candidate, who lost momentum this week after coming in fifth in New Hampshire, plans to take a more aggressive tone with some of his rivals -- especially if they attack him on the debate stage -- and is expected to showcase more of his affable personality in order to rebut criticism that he is a scripted candidate.
As one aide put it, "Let Marco be Marco."
In a shift, Rubio had a 44-minute free-flowing conversation with reporters on his campaign plane en route to Greenville. Relaxed, talkative and reflective, he spoke about his debate gaffe, criticisms of him being too scripted and his path to the nomination. His team hopes to show more of this side of him, including with more focus on his hardscrabble personal story and being the son of working-class Cuban immigrants.
And above all else, he vowed to bounce back.
"You want to have a president who went through adversity in a campaign," Rubio said.
READ: New Hampshire primaries: 5 takeaways
Despite his rivals' attacks that he comes across as scripted, Rubio argues it's better to be consistent than not. Voters don't pay as close attention to things as campaign reporters, he said.
"Just because it's the 80th time you heard it may be the first time someone else heard it," Rubio said of his speeches.
Rubio doesn't believe he needs to win any of the first four primaries. He just needs to stay in the top tier of candidates into March and then come in first in the winner-take-all states from March 15 on, adding that he has no "firewall" state unlike some of his foes.
"I don't think anyone is going to wrap this up in South Carolina or Nevada," he said. "Once you get to the winner-take-all states, then it's about winning."
READ: Presidential candidates: South Carolina, here we come
When it comes to his rivals, Rubio said front-runner Donald Trump lacks national security experience and must explain his views more thoroughly. Voters will want to know whether their nominee knows the difference between ISIS and al Qaeda and that Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to assert influence in the Middle East, among other things, he said.
"Once the race narrows, the pressure is going to be on him (to detail his views). I don't think you can keep saying 'trust me,'" Rubio said.
Rubio added: "I don't think he's shown any in depth understanding of the issues." While he said Trump has said some "entertaining stuff, some of it is not so entertaining."
As he heads into the South Carolina primary, Rubio is battling hard to become the alternative to Donald Trump. And his former mentor, Jeb Bush, is now his biggest hurdle standing in his way.
Rubio would not acknowledge that losing to Bush here would be detrimental to his campaign. But Rubio said the former Florida governor spent a historic amount of money in New Hampshire, but only finished 1,500 votes ahead and won the same number of delegates. He criticized Bush, saying the "party needs to turn the page" and describing himself as more attune to the needs of the 21st century.
"I have more experience in foreign policy and national security than he does," Rubio said. "I just do."
Clearly unafraid of John Kasich, Rubio called the Ohio governor "an impressive guy" whom he likes. Though he added that Kasich, a former congressman, hasn't dealt with foreign policy in a "long time."
And Rubio said he wasn't upset at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for going after him at Saturday's debate, when the Florida freshman repeated the same line three times -- despite being directly criticized for sticking to the script. But he said he learned a valuable lesson: To fight back "frontally" when he's being criticized.
"I don't need to start these fights, but if someone starts one in the future, we are going to point out the differences in our records in a sharper way," Rubio said.
Asked why he didn't attack Christie during the debate, Rubio called it a "strategic decision that turned out to be wrong" and that he didn't want to use "valuable" air time to attack the New Jersey governor.
"Obviously, we can't let that happen again," Rubio said.
Aboard his flight, Rubio spoke with reporters until they ran out of questions. It was unusual for the candidate, who has typically held media availabilities that last just minutes, with an aide hand-selecting reporters to ask one question at a time. This time, it was casual -- and he wasn't afraid to offer some self-deprecating humor.
When asked if his debate missteps were like then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry's infamous "oops" moment in 2012, Rubio said: "There's a big difference. He couldn't remember what he wanted to say. I remembered it too well."
In Other news Today, the Justice Department sues Ferguson over police conduct. The feds are suing Ferguson in a move to force police reform in the city.
"We intend to aggressively prosecute this case," Attorney General Loretta Lynch told reporters Wednesday, "and we intend to prevail."
Authorities had no choice but to file a lawsuit after the Ferguson City Council voted Tuesday to change the terms of a deal negotiators had been hashing out for months, Lynch said.
"The residents of Ferguson have suffered the deprivation of their constitutional rights, the rights guaranteed to all Americans, for decades. They have waited decades for justice," Lynch said. "They should not be forced to wait any longer."
The lawsuit alleges a pattern and practice of unconstitutional police conduct in the city.
A city spokesman told CNN that officials will have no comment about the Justice Department's lawsuit until Thursday.
Ferguson officials have not seen the lawsuit, city spokesman Jeff Small said.
Negotiations over reforms to the city's police force and municipal court system began after a Justice Department investigation last year found the Ferguson Police Department had discriminated against African-Americans, targeting them disproportionately for traffic stops, use of force and jail sentences.
"These violations were not only egregious, they were routine. They were encouraged by the city in the interest of raising revenue," Lynch said Wednesday. "They were driven, at least in part, by racial bias and they occurred disproportionately against African American residents of Ferguson."
City officials have said their Tuesday vote wasn't a rejection of a deal with the Justice Department but was rather a push to return to the table and change some of the terms out of concerns over costs.
Lynch said the council knowingly voted against an agreement approved by the city's own negotiators.
"The city was well aware that by deciding not to accept it, they were choosing litigation," she said. "This was their choice."
City Council proposed seven amendments
In a unanimous vote Tuesday night, council members approved the deal -- but only if the Justice Department accepts seven amendments.
The Justice Department wasn't expecting any changes to the negotiated deal and wasted little time in responding.
"The Ferguson City Council has attempted to unilaterally amend the negotiated agreement," Vanita Gupta, head of the agency's Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. "Their vote to do so creates an unnecessary delay in the essential work to bring constitutional policing to the city, and marks an unfortunate outcome for concerned community members and Ferguson police officers."
The national spotlight on Ferguson began after the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson in August 2014. Brown, who was unarmed, was black, and Wilson is white. Brown's death prompted days of protests and riots in Ferguson and a national conversation about the role of race in police interactions with citizens.
Reaction to the City Council vote was mixed, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
One activist, Debra Kennedy, called the public hearings "a farce, because the DOJ is not going to go back and renegotiate," the newspaper reported. "It was like a 'no' vote."
Others chanted, "You can't amend justice," according to the Post-Dispatch.
Seven months of negotiation
The agreement that City Council wants to change was negotiated over seven months between the city and the Justice Department.
"Although we did not get everything we wanted in the agreement, we certainly made sure that what was agreed upon can be implemented in a timely and sufficient manner," Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III said of the consent decree the city received January 26.
"We're not trying to take away any safeguards," Knowles told CNN affiliate KMOV. "We're not trying to take away anything substantive out of the decree."
City Councilwoman Ella James agreed.
"There are some things in the consent decree that we're asking to be amended, but all in all I think we're moving forward, we're moving in a positive direction," she told CNN affiliate KTVI.
What City Council wants
The original agreement would require the city to hire additional senior staff dedicated to the implementation of the deal and in areas such as crisis intervention and community-police relations. Other costs to the city of Ferguson would include the creation of an electronic complaint tracking system, an early intervention system and training throughout various levels of the police department.
In its amendments, the City Council demanded the following changes in order for the decree to go into effect:
• That it contains no mandate for the payment of additional salary to police or other city employees.
• That it contains no mandate for staffing at the city's jail.
• That the deadlines set forth are extended.
• That the terms do not apply to other agencies that take over services currently provided by the city.
• That a provision for local preference in contractors and consultants is included.
• That goals for minority and women participation in consulting, oversight and third-party services are included.
• That monitoring fee caps are changed to $1 million over the first five years and no more than $250,000 in any single year.
'Just sign it'
Spirited public input preceded Tuesday night's vote.
"Black lives matter! Black lives matter!" chanted one community member.
Another suggested it was time to wrap up this chapter in the city's history.
"It's time to stop. Just go and sign the decree. You still haven`t settled the Mike Brown settlement," he said. "Get it done. Just sign it."
Brown's parents filed a wrongful death suit against the city in April.
Justice Department found pattern of discrimination
The 102-page report issued by the Justice Department last March said some Ferguson police officers saw residents as "sources of revenue," leading to practices that federal investigators said disproportionately targeted black residents.
It also found evidence of racist jokes sent by some Ferguson police officers and court officials.
The department made 26 recommendations, including:
• Ferguson police provide training to ensure officers aren't using bias in policing.
• Officers practice community policing by getting out of cars and getting to know communities.
• Focus police stops, searches and ticketing on protecting the public, as opposed to fund-raising for the city.
Also in March, the Justice Department declined to bring civil rights charges against Wilson in Brown's death. Justice Department investigators concluded Brown was moving toward the officer when Wilson fired.
A grand jury also declined to indict Wilson, who left the force in November 2014. CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet, Ed Payne, Steve Almasy, Sara Sidner, Dani Stewart and Sheena Jones contributed to this report.
Two Harford County sheriff's deputies shot to death in Abingdon. o longtime Harford County sheriff's deputies were shot to death in broad daylight Wednesday at a busy shopping center by a man officials believe was targeting police, according to authorities.
The 68-year-old suspect, whom officials described as a vagrant, was also killed in the confrontation in Abingdon, a closely knit community 30 miles northeast of Baltimore.
The mayhem erupted at a Panera Bread restaurant shortly before noon in the Boulevard at Box Hill shopping center.
Officials declined to name the two deputies who were killed. Sheriff Jeffrey R. Gahler said one had served on the force for 30 years and was assigned to the courts services division, and the other had served for 16 years and was assigned to the community services division.
Two longtime Harford County sheriff's deputies were shot to death in broad daylight Wednesday at a busy shopping center by a man officials believe was targeting police, according to authorities. "Today is a sad day for the Harford County sheriff's office and the citizens of Harford County, who we are sworn to serve," Gahler told reporters Wednesday afternoon, and bowed his head. "It is with great sadness that I tell you both deputies who were shot earlier today have succumbed to their injuries."
The suspect was identified as David Brian Evans. Gahler said there were two warrants for Evans' arrest — a criminal warrant for allegedly assaulting a police officer in Florida and a civil warrant issued in Harford County.
Gahler said he believed Evans targeted one of the deputies inside the Panera "because he was in a police uniform."
The deputies are believed to be the first in Harford to be killed by gunfire on duty in more than a century.
The incident Wednesday was the first time in 15 years that two Maryland law enforcement officers were killed in a single shooting. Two officers were shot to death in 2001 in a trailer park in Centreville on the Eastern Shore.
In Abingdon on Wednesday, deputies scoured multiple crime scenes for evidence hours after the shooting.
The incident took about 15 minutes, officials said. It began when a deputy was shot in the head inside the restaurant in the 3400 block of Merchant Blvd. about 11:45 a.m., officials said.
Gahler said the deputy was responding to a call from the restaurant. He said he was unsure of the nature of the call.
After shooting the deputy, the gunman fled the restaurant, officials said. Witnesses pointed other deputies toward the Park View apartments, a senior living complex next to the shopping center on Box Hill South Parkway.
A deputy found the suspect outside the complex, officials said. Both the suspect and a deputy were shot.
One of the wounded deputies was taken to University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air. The other was flown to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.
Gahler said he met with the families of both.
"Obviously, I don't think I have to tell anybody, there are no words to describe what they're going through right now," he said.
He said he knew the deputies well, and called them "outstanding" law enforcement officers.
Gahler said two other officers fired weapons at the scene. Both have been placed on administrative leave.
He said the investigation remains in the preliminary stages.
"We fully suspect that both deputies were shot by the same suspect," Gahler said. "We are not looking at anyone else. We believe it's an individual who's no longer a threat to the community."
No customers inside the Panera were injured.
Evans had an open criminal case in Florida for an alleged reckless-driving incident, according to online court records. The incident was alleged to have occurred last April. Evans then didn't show up for a court date.
Harford County Executive Barry Glassman said Evans was an "outsider," not a member of the community.
"What little we know of the suspect is that it looks like he was somewhat of a vagrant, someone who moved around a lot," Glassman said. "Whether you're serving a summons or warrant, a guy like that, who has a pistol on his body in a public place and is willing to go outside and shoot an officer, is a risk to all us."
Glassman said the two deputies showed "selfless dedication." He ordered Harford County flags to be lowered to half-staff.
"We are grateful that these deputies did give the ultimate sacrifice for all of us," he said. "We also want to celebrate, with their families, their lives and their dedication to service."
Gov. Larry Hogan called their deaths "nothing less than absolutely heartbreaking."
"The first lady and I send our most sincere thoughts and prayers to the families and loved ones of the brave deputies who made theultimate sacrifice today for the community they selflessly served," Hogan said in a statement. "It is my hope that their commitment and dedication to law enforcement and protecting otherswill be remembered and will forever serve as an inspiration to others."
He said state police were working closely with Harford County as needed.
A spokeswoman for Panera said the restaurant would remain closed during the investigation.
"Our thoughts and actions now are directed towards the victims and their families," the company said in a statement.
Former Harford County Sheriff L. Jesse Bane said he listened to the incident unfold on police radio.
The deaths will strike the department hard, he said, because law enforcement officers form tight bonds.
"You become part of a family," said Bane, the current town administrator in Bel Air. "That's what makes these things very difficult for law enforcement agencies to deal with."
"We've lost two brothers," he said.
Law enforcement in Harford County has suffered a series of losses in recent years.
The sheriff's office, composed of roughly 300 sworn officers, suffered the back-to-back deaths in September 2012 of Cpl. Charles Barton Licato and Sgt. Ian A. Loughran.
Licato, 34, was killed in an early-morning crash along U.S. 1 near the Conowingo Dam. His car left the road, slid down an embankment, and hit a pole and two trees before catching fire in a ravine.
Loughran, 43, had mentored Licato. He suffered a heart attack at Licato's funeral.
Also that month, the nearby Aberdeen Police Department endured the loss of Officer Charles N. Armetta, 29, who fell 47 feet to his death in an off-duty accident, and veteran Detective Mark A. Franklin, 55, who died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Baltimore Sun Media Group reporters David Anderson, Erika Butler, Colin Campbell, Tim Prudente, Kevin Rector, Sean Welsh and Bryna Zumer contributed to this article.
Law enforcement deaths in Md. since 2010
Dec. 10, 2015: Noah Leotta, 24, Montgomery County, hit by drunken driver during traffic stop.
March 7, 2015: Brennan Rabain, 26, Prince George's County, accident while attempting traffic stop.
Jan. 9, 2015: Craig Chandler, 27, Baltimore, mortally wounded in crash during pursuit.
Dec. 21, 2014: Jamel Clagett, 30, Charles County, single-vehicle crash driving home from work.
Aug. 28, 2013: Jason Schneider, 36, Baltimore County, shot and killed trying to serve a warrant.
Oct. 18, 2012: Kevin Bowden, 28, Prince George's, crash while off-duty in cruiser.
Sept. 13, 2012: Ian Loughran, 43, Harford County, heart attack within 24 hours of shift.
Sept. 6, 2012: Charles Licato, 34, Harford County, crash while likely driving home from work.
Aug. 29, 2012: Forrest Taylor, 44, Baltimore, mortally wounded in crash driving to aid fellow officer.
Aug. 20, 2012: Adrian Morris, 23, Prince George's, crash during pursuit.
Jan. 27, 2012: William "Bill" Talbert, Montgomery County, hit by drunken driver.
May 21, 2011: Shaft Hunter, 39, Maryland State Police, crash while thought to be chasing speeding motorcyclist.
Jan. 9, 2011: William Torbit Jr., 34, Baltimore, shot by fellow police while working in plainclothes.
Nov. 29, 2010: Teresa Testerman, 54, Harford County, heart attack after responding to overcrowded cell block.
Oct. 20, 2010: Thomas Portz Jr., 32, Baltimore, cruiser hit the back of a fire engine.
Sept. 27, 2010: James Fowler III, 61, Baltimore, crash during inclement weather.
June 11, 2010: Wesley Brown, 24, Maryland State Police, shot while working as security guard.
April 4, 2010: Hector Ayala, 31, Montgomery County, car crash responding to back up fellow officer.
March 9, 2010: Thomas Jensen, 27, Prince George's County, crash responding to a burglary.
Source: Baltimore Sun archives and police departments.
The Guardian Reports on Syria conflict finds 11.5% of population killed or injured. Exclusive Syrian Centre for Policy Research says 470,000 deaths is twice UN’s figure with ‘human development ruined’ after 45% of population is displaced. Syria’s national wealth, infrastructure and institutions have been “almost obliterated” by the “catastrophic impact” of nearly five years of conflict, a new report has found. Fatalities caused by war, directly and indirectly, amount to 470,000, according to the Syrian Centre for Policy Research (SCPR) – a far higher total than the figure of 250,000 used by the United Nations until it stopped collecting statistics 18 months ago.
In all, 11.5% of the country’s population have been killed or injured since the crisis erupted in March 2011, the report estimates. The number of wounded is put at 1.9 million. Life expectancy has dropped from 70 in 2010 to 55.4 in 2015. Overall economic losses are estimated at $255bn (£175bn).
The stark account of the war’s toll came as warnings multiplied about Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, which is in danger of being cut off by a government advance aided by Russian airstrikes and Iranian militiamen. The Syrian opposition is demanding urgent action to relieve the suffering of tens of thousands of civilians.
The International Red Cross said on Wednesday that 50,000 people had fled the upsurge in fighting in the north, requiring urgent deliveries of food and water.
Talks in Munich on Thursday between the US secretary of state, John Kerry, and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, will be closely watched for any sign of an end to the deadly impasse. UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva are scheduled to resume in two weeks but are unlikely to do so without a significant shift of policy.
Speaking in London on Wednesday, an opposition spokesman, Salim al-Muslet, said President Barack Obama could stop the Russian attacks. “If he is willing to save our children it is really the time now to say ‘no’ to these strikes in Syria,” he said. The Washington Post reported that Moscow had sent a letter to Washington proposing to stop bombing on 1 March.
Of the 470,000 war dead counted by the SCPR, about 400,000 were directly due to violence, while the remaining 70,000 fell victim to lack of adequate health services, medicine, especially for chronic diseases, lack of food, clean water, sanitation and proper housing, especially for those displaced within conflict zones.
“We use very rigorous research methods and we are sure of this figure,” Rabie Nasser, the report’s author, told the Guardian. “Indirect deaths will be greater in the future, though most NGOs [non-governmental organisations] and the UN ignore them.
“We think that the UN documentation and informal estimation underestimated the casualties due to lack of access to information during the crisis,” he said.
In statistical terms, Syria’s mortality rate increase from 4.4 per thousand in 2010 to 10.9 per thousand in 2015.
The UN high commissioner for human rights – which manages conflict death tolls – stopped counting Syria’s dead in mid-2014, citing lack of access and diminishing confidence in data sources.
The SCPR was based until recently in Damascus and research for this and previous reports was carried out on the ground across Syria. It is careful not to criticise the Syrian government or its allies – Iran, Hezbollah, Russia. And with the exception of Islamic State, it refers only to “armed groups” seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. But despite the neutral tone the findings are shocking.
In an atmosphere of “coercion, fear and fanaticism”, blackmail, theft and smuggling have supported the continuation of armed conflict so that the Syrian economy has become “a black hole” absorbing “domestic and external resources”.Oil production continues to be an “important financial resource” for Isis and other armed groups, it says.
Consumer prices rose 53% last year. But suffering is unevenly spread. “Prices in conflict zones and besieged areas are much higher than elsewhere in the country and this boosts profit margins for war traders who monopolise the markets of these regions,” it says. Employment conditions and pay have deteriorated and women work less because of security concerns. About 13.8 million Syrians have lost their source of livelihood.
“The common characteristics across all regions are lack of security, the allocation of all resources to the fighting, the creation of violence-related job opportunities and imposition of authority by force.”
The shrinking of the population by 21% helps explain the waves of refugees reaching Turkey and Europe. In all, 45% of the population have been displaced, 6.36 million internally and more than 4 million abroad. Health, education and income standards have all deteriorated sharply. Poverty increased by 85% in 2015 alone.
The report notes that the rest of the world has been slow to wake up to the dimensions of the crisis. “Despite the fact that Syrians have been suffering for … five years, global attention to human rights and dignity for them only intensified when the crisis had a direct impact on the societies of developed countries.”
The conflict “continues to destroy the social and economic fabric of the country with the intensification of international interventions that deepen polarisation among Syrians. Human development, rights and dignity have been comprehensively ruined.”
The report is entitled Confronting Fragmentation. Previous titles in the series track the unfolding of the world’s biggest humanitarian disaster: Syrian Catastrophe, War on Development, Squandering Humanity, and Alienation and Violence.
Dramatic Rescue of Syrian Refugee Stranded on Sinking Boat Caught on Video. Dramatic video released by the Turkish Coast Guard today captured the rescue of a lone Syrian refugee who had been clinging for several hours to a sinking boat in the Aegean Sea near Edremit, a city in eastern Turkey.
The video shows Ceylan lowering himself from a helicopter and then swimming to Hussein, who can be seen desperately holding onto the bow of a vertically sinking boat nearly fully submerged in the water.
Ceylan then tells Hussein, "Jump into the water!" before getting a hold of him and hoisting him up back to the helicopter. Hussein was then flown back to land and immediately taken to a hospital, AFP reported.
Hussein "was on the verge of hypothermia, and in a state of shock," Ceylan told Turkish media, according to AFP. "I tried to calm him down."
Ceylan added, "When he came to himself a bit he started to cry. Probably his relatives came to his mind as there were a lot of corpses in the water."
Twenty-seven migrants, 11 of them children, drowned, according to the Turkish Coast Guard.
Over 900,000 migrants and refugees entered Europe last year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Many of the migrants and refugees risk their lives trying to flee dangerous conditions in war-torn countries by crossing perilous seas in overcrowded boats.
From the beginning of 2016 through this past Monday, IOM recorded 409 fatalities on Mediterranean routes, the organization said in a news release Tuesday.
Bernie Sanders Dines With Al Sharpton In Harlem.
The two dined at Sylvia's, the same New York City restaurant where Sharpton huddled with Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign.
Wednesday's meeting was a not-so-subtle recognition of Sanders' pivot to South Carolina and Sanders' effort to broaden his appeal to the state's decisive African-American voters.
Hillary Clinton has been heavily favored in polls to date to win South Carolina, in part due to Clinton support among African-American voters.
But Sanders' strong finish in New Hampshire and fresh appeal to younger voters will further test Clinton's perceived strength in the Feb. 27 primary.
More than half of South Carolina's primary voters were black in the 2008 contest pitting Clinton against Obama, the first competitive black candidate for president.
She lost by a 29 percentage point margin.
Now facing a white liberal from Vermont in 2016, Clinton has led by double-digits in South Carolina polls. But Sanders has 17 days to close that gap.
Clinton's strength among black and Latino voters is critical to her electability argument.
"It will be very difficult, if not impossible, for a Democrat to win the nomination without strong levels of support among African American and Hispanic voters," Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager, wrote in a Tuesday memo to reporters.
Speaking to reporters after breakfast, Sharpton said he also plans to meet with Clinton next week. An endorsement in the race would likely come after that, he said.
Sanders did not take questions from reporters waiting for him outside the restaurant.
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