Joinin today's show are Kasie Hunt, Miguel Almaguer, John Heilemann, Harold Ford Jr., Al Hunt, Josh Green, Carly Fiorina, Mark Halperin, Rebecca Traister, Mike Barnicle, Andrea Mitchell, Joel Benenson, Mary Katharine Ham, Guy Benson, Mitt Romney, William Shatner and more.
New York convicts may have rehearsed their escape route at night, DA says. Two murderers meticulously planned their New York state prison break, possibly sneaking out of their cells under the cover of darkness to rehearse their escape in tunnels, authorities said.
Richard Matt and David Sweat planned to drive seven hours in the night to a predetermined location, together with the woman who allegedly helped them, said Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie.
But Joyce Mitchell, who allegedly provided them with the tools to cut through prison walls, got cold feet and decided not to pick them up, he said.
Mitchell told investigators she planned to run off with the men after picking them up last week near a manhole where they'd emerge from a network of tunnels, Wylie said.
"They were going to meet down by the power plant, drive -- I'm not going to say into the sunset, because it was after midnight and it was dark out -- but they were going to drive, potentially to an area that was about seven hours away," Wylie said.
But she backed out.
DA: Convicts had a destination in mind
Mitchell told authorities that Matt and Sweat picked the destination.
She did not say where the trio planned to head to after the two prisoners broke out of Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, officials said.
"That was the information that she was told by Matt and Sweat -- that it was about seven hours away," Wylie said.
After her change of heart, she began cooperating with police.
"She did indicate one of the reasons why she didn't show up was because she did love her husband and she didn't want to do this to him," Wylie said.
She is now sitting in jail, accused of aiding in the brazen prison escape. The two convicted killers she allegedly helped are free, but on the run.
She pleaded not guilty Friday night to a felony charge of promoting prison contraband and a misdemeanor charge of criminal facilitation. Her next court appearance is Monday.
If convicted, Mitchell faces up to eight years behind bars.
Inmates saw them with cell phones
Interviews with prison inmates indicated that Matt and Sweat were seen with cell phones before they escaped, according to Wylie.
"But we have no proof of these cell phones," he said.
Wylie said authorities have been in contact with relatives and friends of Matt and Sweat who live elsewhere in the United States, but all of them said they hadn't heard from the convicts since they broke out of their maximum-security cells. Matt and Sweat were discovered missing on June 6 during a 5:30 a.m. bed check at Clinton Correctional Facility.
While making their escape, they slipped through holes and cut into a steel plate and a steam pipe, then got out through the manhole and onto the street.
Mitchell supplied them with hacksaw blades, chisels, a punch and a screwdriver bit, according to court records.
In the weeks leading up to the escape, Wylie said, they may have been sneaking into the wall in the middle of the night to plan their escape route.
And, he said, the manipulation of Mitchell may go as far back as 2013, when the trio met.
Mitchell has told investigators that Matt made her feel "special," a source familiar with the investigation said.
Her husband and prison co-worker, Lyle Mitchell, is also under investigation, but has not been arrested or charged, authorities said. He worked in the maintenance department at the tailoring block where his wife was employed, Wylie said.
State Department of Corrections officials had received a complaint about the relationship between Joyce Mitchell and one of the two escapees. The department didn't find enough evidence to support the complaint, but that does not mean there was no relationship, Wylie said. More than 800 state, local and federal law enforcement officers are searching for the escapees, New York State Police said. They have been following more than 700 leads developed in the weeklong manhunt.
Sweat was serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for the murder of a Broome County sheriff's deputy in 2002. Matt was sentenced to 25 years to life for the kidnapping and murder of a man in 1997.
The manhunt for the convicts has expanded in Plattsburgh, in upstate New York, where authorities have shut a portion of state Route 374.
Tracking dogs picked up their scent last week at a gas station in the town, where authorities believe they were rummaging through trash at a sandwich shop.
Wylie said earlier sightings have not led to any new clues.
Search Expands in Hunt for Escaped Killers David Sweat and Richard Matt. Authorities said Sunday they were expanding their search in the manhunt for two escaped killers who continue to elude hundreds of police officers searching woodlands in upstate New York.
More than 800 law enforcement officers have been involved in the search for David Sweat and Richard Matt, and more than 700 tips have come in, state police said.
Police have been focusing on an area southeast of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora and expanded farther east Sunday — the ninth day of the manhunt.
"You follow up every tip. You follow up every lead. You are as conscientious as you can be on every lead, because you never know which one is going to be the one," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday. "We don't know if they are still in the immediate area or if they are in Mexico by now." The convicted killers sawed through the walls of their cells and climbed through an underground steam pipe to escape the maximum-security prison in the early morning hours of June 6.
Police with search dogs and assisted by aircraft have blanketed the area near Dannemora, a rural area near the Vermont border not far from the Canadian border.
Police said they would continue searching along Route 374, which remained closed between General Leroy Manor and Rand Hill roads, while the search would expand toward the east side of Trudeau Road.
"I just mowed some fields, and I kept looking over my shoulder. It's scary," Jason Hamel, who lives with his wife and three young daughters in West Chazy five minutes from one of the many roadblocks set up in the manhunt, told The Associated Press. "I won't let the kids outside." "My wife and I love to be outdoors," he told the AP. "We haven't done any of that, and when we do go outside now, we're armed."
Students of the nearby Saranac School District won't be allowed outside Monday, but they will be in class for the first time since Wednesday, according to the district, which had called off school because of the manhunt.
A prison worker charged with providing material assistance to Matt and Sweat planned to pick the men up on the night of the escape but got cold feet, District Attorney Andrew Wylie said.
"At the last moment that Friday afternoon or Friday evening, she bailed out," Wylie told NBC News. "Hopefully, that means they [the escapees] are still out here in close proximity to the facility."
The prison worker, Joyce Mitchell, 51, is charged with promoting prison contraband, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. She pleaded not guilty Friday and is due in court Monday morning.
"To the extent any state employee was involved in facilitating the escape, that is a crime in and of itself, and that will be fully prosecuted as a crime in and of itself," Cuomo said. "We will have zero tolerance for that."
Matt, 48, was sentenced to 25 years to life in 2008 for killing and dismembering a businessman whose torso was discovered in the Niagara River by a fisherman. He had also escaped from prison once before, in 1986.
Sweat pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life without parole in the shooting death of Kevin Tarsia, a sheriff's deputy in Broome County, New York, on July 4, 2002
Reports: Plan was for escaped convicts to kill Joyce Mitchell's husband, go to Vermont. Clinton Correctional Facility employee Joyce Mitchell told investigators that she agreed to a plan where she would pick up killers David Sweat and Richard Matt following their escape, and then they would kill her husband and head to a cabin in Vermont, according to a report in the Albany Times-Union.
The Times-Union attributed the report to an unnamed law enforcement source who did not have direct access to the interrogation, but was told about two 10-hour interviews that New York State Police conducted with Mitchell.
The New York Daily News is also reporting that the plan was to kill Mitchell's husband, also citing an unnamed law enforcement source.
Mitchell, 51, was arraigned late Friday night on the felony charge of promoting prison contraband and misdemeanor count of criminal facilitation. Her lawyer entered a not guilty plea on her behalf.
District Attorney Andrew Wylie said on Sunday that Mitchell had agreed to pick up Sweat and Matt up in her car and drive off with them, but backed out at the last minute because she still loved her husband and felt guilty.
"Basically, when it was go-time and it was the actual day of the event, I do think she got cold feet and realized, 'What am I doing?'" Wylie said. "Reality struck. She realized that, really, the grass wasn't greener on the other side." Joyce Mitchell is arraigned in City Court on Friday, June 12, 2015, near Plattsburgh, N.Y. Mitchell is accused of helping two convicted killers escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting that Matt and Sweat cut their path out of the prison using tools routinely stored at the prison by contractors. The two apparently worked many nights between midnight and 5 a.m. and then returned the tools to toolboxes.
"They had access, from what we understand, to other tools left in the facility by contractors under policy and were able to open the toolboxes and use those tools and then put them back so nobody would notice," Wylie said.
Sweat, 35, was serving a life sentence without parole for killing a sheriff's deputy. Matt, 48, was doing 25 years to life for the 1997 kidnap, torture and hacksaw dismemberment of his former boss. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Hillary Clinton's rivals dig in day after campaign kickoff. Hillary Clinton is joined by Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky at a campaign rally in New York City. (Photo: Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
A day after Hillary Clinton formally kicked off her 2016 presidential campaign with a speech at a rally on New York’s Roosevelt Island, current and would-be rivals on both sides of the political aisle took aim at the former secretary of state on Sunday morning talk shows.
“First off, I thought that Elizabeth Warren wasn’t running for president,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday. “But when I listened to Hillary yesterday, it sounds like liberal political consultants put together that speech.”
Christie also criticized Clinton for not taking questions from the press.
“I’ve done 146 town hall meetings in the last five years in New Jersey and around the country,” Christie said. “Mrs. Clinton doesn’t hear from anybody. She doesn’t talk to anybody. She doesn’t take questions from anybody. How would she know what real Americans are really concerned about?
"Is it, you know, when she’s out giving paid speeches?” the Republican governor continued. “I don’t understand when she would know what she was saying yesterday about real Americans.”
On CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders slammed Clinton for refusing to take a stand on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that President Barack Obama is trying to fast-track through Congress.
“I would hope very much that Secretary Clinton will side with every union in the country, virtually every environmental group and many religious groups and say that this TPP policy is a disaster, that it must be defeated and that we need to regroup and come up with a trade policy which demands that corporate America starts investing in this country rather than in countries all over the world,” Sanders said. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says Clinton has been quiet on the Keystone pipeline. Sanders also touts his votes on Iraq and the Patriot Act.
“There is no question that what our trade policy has been for many years is to allow corporate America to shut down plants in this country, move abroad, hire people at pennies an hour and then bring their products back to the United States,“ the independent senator and Democratic presidential candidate continued. "It is a failed trade policy, and I would hope that the secretary joins Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown and the vast majority of Democrats in the Congress in saying, ‘No. We’ve got to defeat this piece of legislation.’”
On "Fox News Sunday,” Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and TPP proponent, called Clinton’s silence on the trade deal “mystifying.”
“It’s about global leadership,” Ryan, the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee, said. “Surely, a person who was secretary of state understands a little bit about leadership.“
Hillary Clinton's rivals dig in day after campaign kickoff
Hillary Clinton waves to the crowd after delivering her speech on Roosevelt Island in New York City. (Photo: Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
Sam Frizell in Time Magzine wrote last week how Hillary Clinton Launches Her Campaign as Economic Populist. "It's your time".
Hillary Clinton on Saturday laid out a broad vision of economic and social inclusion in the U.S., calling for middle-class economic policies that help restore income equality and telling a crowd, “it’s your time.”
“Prosperity can’t just be for CEOs and hedge fund managers. Democracy can’t just be for billionaires and corporations,” Clinton told a packed group of more than 5,000 people on an island in the East River of New York City, in her first major campaign rally. “Prosperity and democracy are part of your basic bargain. You brought this country back and now it’s time—your time to secure the gains and move ahead.”
“That is why I am running for president of the United States,” the former secretary of state said to a crowd that chanted her name.
In her remarks, Clinton ticked off a wish list of Democratic reforms, including rewriting the tax code and eliminating loopholes for large corporations, expanding clean energy, establishing universal pre-kindergarten, mandating paid family leave, passing a constitutional amendment to end Citizens United, and providing relief for indebted college students.
Clinton placed herself in a long line of staunch Democrats, establishing herself as the inheritor of a leftist legacy. She paid homage to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for whom the island where she gave her remarks is named, and she noted her husband’s presidency, saying he presided over the longest peacetime economic expansion in history. She also tipped her hat to President Obama, who she said brought the country back from the brink of a depression.
Building on themes she’s developed working with voters in the early states for the last nine weeks, Clinton spoke directly to the “everyday Americans” who she has been courting on the trail.
“I’m running to make our economy work for you,” Clinton said. “For factory workers and food servers who stand on their feet all day. For the nurses who work the night shift, for the truckers who drive for hours and the farmers who feed us, for the veterans that serve our country.”
Clinton has adopted a tone of economic populism during her campaign, endorsing the fight to raise the minimum wage and regulate Wall Street banks, and criticizing the tax code for favoring the ultra-rich. But on most economic issues, she has yet to lay out specific policy plans beyond broad strokes. She has not, for example, said whether she supports a $15 minimum wage, as do the other Democratic candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
Her aides say that Clinton plans on releasing policy proposals on a rolling basis throughout the summer.
Clinton delivered her speech in personal terms, speaking of her mother’s abandonment by her parents and subsequent adoption by her cold, unloving grandparents. Dorothy Rodham left to find work at the age of 14 but was helped along the way by caring neighbors and friends.
“I wish my mother could have been with us longer,” Clinton said. “I wish she could have seen the America we’re going to build together.”
Her campaign has said that her mother’s emergence from a deprived childhood and the kindness she experienced from neighbors are key to understanding Clinton’s bid for president.
She delivered her remarks before a crowd of 5,500 on the southern tip of Roosevelt Island, a 2-mile-long island in New York City’s East River. Clinton’s campaign has been reaching out to immigrants by endorsing a full path to citizenship for those who are undocumented and coming out in broad support of deportation relief, a topic she spoke about on Saturday. Support among Hispanics will be crucial for any Democrat in a general election. Gov. O’Malley, one of Clinton’s rivals for the Democratic nomination, has heavily courted Hispanic voters.
Many of New York’s notable politicians, including Rep. Caroline Maloney and Rep. Charles Rangel, appeared to cheer on Clinton. “I’m here because I want to be on the right side of history and I’m a big proponent of girl power,” said New York City public advocate Letitia James.
Notably missing, however, was the progressive New York mayor Bill de Blasio, who worked on Clinton’s 2000 senatorial campaign but has so far declined to endorse her.
Whether those on the Democratic left, like de Blasio, wholeheartedly embrace Clinton could be a determining factor of her success in a general election. While many progressives have begun to warm up to her, she’ll have to work to dispel reservations on the left.
“This was a typical Democratic speech,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, who said he supported Clinton’s call for paid leave and universal pre-kindergarten. “It’s much better than what the Republicans offer Americans, but it’s not the bold economic populist vision most Americans want and need.”
I agree with the panel (and Willie Geist in particular) in that when Liz Warren speaks against the banks and against the wall Street, Liz warren would not be having a donor dinner or speech with any of them. Hillary would but then again, Liz Warren is NOT running for the POTUS. If she wanted to really push these issues, she would have ran. Remember too, Obama said he was not going to be for the banks and for Wall Street, and yet his main donor base were the companies and people from them. Obama took more money from Hedge funders and from bankers and from Wall Street than anyone had done at that time. Including people in that GOP.
Jeb Bush expected to announce run for president. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is expected to announce he will run for the republican nomination in the 2016 race for the White House. That announcement will take place at Miami Dade College at 3 p.m.
Before Monday's announcement, the 62-year-old Bush unveiled his campaign logo which features his firest name in red with an exclamation point. Critics speculate the republican didn't include his last name to distance himself from his family. Bush, the son of one president and the brother of another, announced in December that he would “actively explore” the idea of running for president.
He's one of 11 major Republican's running for the nomination. News Channel 8's Lauren Mayk is in Miami for the announcement. Stay with WFLA.com for updates.
eb Bush said in an interview aired Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that he believes he'll be in a better position to break away from the rest of the Republican field when he announces his presidential candidacy.
"I think this transition to a candidacy will allow me to be more direct about my advocacy of the leadership skills necessary for the next president to fix a few things," Bush told CNN's Dana Bash in Tallinn, Estonia, on Saturday.
"And as a candidate, contrary to someone who has been listening and learning along the way, I'll offer up alternatives to the path we're on as well, so I'll be more specific on policy," he said.
Bush, who has long been viewed as a likely presidential contender, is expected to announce his candidacy on Monday. But he believes it could take some time for him to break out of a crowded Republican pack, which already boasts 10 candidates. "People make up their minds in the last weeks of these primaries," Bush said. "My expectation is we'll have slow, steady progress. That's been the expectation all along."
Although Bush declined to go into specifics, he acknowledged that for him to be successful as a candidate, he'll have to differentiate himself from his brother. He's aided by the fact his "life story is different," Bush said.
"I've had a life experience that's full of warts, full of successes," he said. "I think that's something that's been lacking in the presidency, someone who's been tempered by life."
Aside from his brother, of course, there's another President Bush in the family, who celebrated his 91st birthday on Friday. Jeb Bush said his father's influence will hang heavily on him when he makes his big announcement on Monday.
"It's very emotional for me. I love my dad, and called him yesterday and wished him a happy birthday," Bush said. "He's just the greatest man alive, and I'll be thinking of him when I'm announcing my decision."
And, Yes. Joe is correct in that we (the people) want things to work. That is what we want with the people in our Government.
Regardless of politics and escaped convicts, lets read the Morning Papers today: US Airstrikes is trying to confirm whether a top leader in Al-Qaeda from Libya is dead. Libya says leader of Al-Qaeda-linked group killed in US airstrike. The U.S. military has carried out an airstrike on what it called an "Al-Qaeda-associated terrorist" in Libya, the Defense Department said Sunday. Libya's recognized government simultaneously released a statement acknowledging an American raid in which veteran Algerian fighter Mokhtar Belmokhtar was killed.
"The Libyan government in the east of Libya confirms that the U.S fighter jets conducted airstrikes last night in a mission which resulted in the death of the terrorist Belmokhtar," Libya's recognized government said in a released Sunday evening.
Belmokhtar has been charged with leading the 2013 attack on a gas plant in Algeria which resulted in the deaths of 35 hostages, including three Americans.
The Pentagon has released little detail on the operation but Libyan media is reporting that an airstrike targeted a meeting of Ansar al-Sharia fighters in Ajdabya in the country's east. The group has been linked to the 2012 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi.
At least seven people reportedly died in the raid.
"I can confirm that the target of last night’s counterterrorism strike in Libya was Mokhtar Belmokhtar," said Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren. "The strike was carried out by U.S. aircraft. We are continuing to assess the results of the operation and will provide more details as appropriate.”
Other officials said an "Al-Qaeda-associated terrorist" was likely dead. Authorities said there were no U.S. personnel on the ground for the assault. A U.S. official said two F-15 fighter jets launched multiple 500-pound bombs in the attack. The official was not authorized to discuss the details of the attack publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.
A source with with ties to Libyan fighters told the Associated Press early Monday that the airstrikes missed Belmokhtar who wasn't at the site but killed four members of Ansar al-Sharia in Ajdabya. The source who asked to remain unnamed due to fear of reprisals.
American officials have linked Ansar Shariah to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.The U.S. filed terrorism charges against Belmokhtar last year in connection with the Algeria attack. Officials have said they believe he remained a threat to U.S. and Western interests.
The charges filed against Belmokhtar by federal law enforcement officials in Manhattan included conspiring to support Al-Qaeda and use of a weapon of mass destruction. Additional charges of conspiring to take hostages and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence carry a maximum penalty of death.
At the time, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a release that Belmokhtar “unleashed a reign of terror years ago, in furtherance of his self-proclaimed goal of waging bloody jihad against the West.”
Belmokhtar left Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the North African offshoot of the armed group, then formed his own spinoff.
He has also been associated with various groups involved in attacks on governments in the region.
Known for his involvement with the lucrative abductions of tourists and U.N. officials, Belmokhtar has been declared dead on at least four occasions in recent years including in 2013 when he was believed to have died in fighting in Mali. If his death is confirmed, it is believed it would be a major strike against Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups in the region.
Authorities also offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Belmokhtar, who's also been known as "the one-eyed sheik" since he lost an eye in combat. His involvement with arms and cigarette smuggling earned him another name, "Mr. Marlboro."
"He's one of the best-known warlords of the Sahara," said Stephen Ellis, an expert on organized crime and professor at the African Studies Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands.
Libya has descended into chaos since a NATO-backed revolt unseated longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. It has rival governments and parliaments, and powerful militias are battling for influence and a share of its oil wealth.
Armed groups have exploited the lawlessness, which has also prompted a huge influx of migrants trying to make the dangerous crossing to Europe, with shipwrecks leaving hundreds dead and the EU straining to respond. Story taken from Al Jazeera and its' wire services.
Also, the Kurds in Syria Advance Toward Islamic State Territory in North. Offensive on city of Tal Abyad is step toward connecting up divided region.
Kurdish forces advanced on an Islamic State stronghold in northern Syria on Sunday in an escalating offensive that prompted thousands of residents to flee to the nearby Turkish border, carrying children in their arms and possessions on their backs.
On Saturday, black-clad and bearded Islamic State fighters with guns slung over their shoulders rounded up residents near the Akçakale border crossing and forced some back to their homes around the Syrian city of Tal Abyad. Some of them grinned as they mingled among the refugees within sight of Turkish soldiers on the frontier.
Turkish forces fired tear gas at the Syrian crowds on Sunday, and a local official said it was to prevent them from rushing the border. A day earlier, the Turkish troops sprayed them with water cannons. Images from the scene showed desperate refugees tearing a hole in the chain-link border fence topped with barbed wire and passing frightened women and children through it.
An official in the Turkish border town of Akçakale who oversaw refugee intake on Sunday said there were at least 20,000 Syrians from Tal Abyad and surrounding villages waiting at the crossing, many of them children.
An official in the Turkish border town of Akçakale who oversaw refugee intake on Sunday said there were at least 20,000 Syrians from Tal Abyad and surrounding villages waiting at the crossing, many of them children.
The Kurdish militia YPG, which is leading the new offensive against Islamic State in the area, said late Sunday they had begun battling the group inside Tal Abyad. The militia said it was being helped by the Western-backed rebel group Free Syrian Army and by the YPG’s female unit.
The forces “reached to the east of Tal Abyad, where fierce fighting is taking place between our combatants and terrorist groups,” a YPG statement said. The militia said its fighters were less than 3 miles from a strategic Islamic State supply route leading to Raqqa—the radical group’s main base of operations in Syria.
The Kurdish militia also claimed that a large number of Islamic State fighters had been killed in the battle.
The U.S. military’s Central Command said local ground forces composed of Syrian Kurdish fighters, Assyrian Christians, local tribes and elements of the antiregime opposition continued to advance successfully against Islamic State in the northeast of the country. The U.S.-led coalition conducting airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq continued to bomb Islamic State forces in the northeast, it added.
Most villages surrounding Tal Abyad were empty, said Ahmad Hisso, a spokesman for Jaish al-Thawra, a fighting group allied with the YPG.
Praised for its open-door refugee policy since the Syrian conflict began in 2011, Turkey has registered 1.7 million refugees in the past four years, according to the United Nations.
But earlier in June, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said it would temporarily close its doors to more refugees “unless a major humanitarian tragedy emerged.”
On Saturday, Turkish television showed the scenes of security forces firing water cannons at the refugees. One man was shown lifting his young daughter in the air, trying to persuade Turkish soldiers to allow them to cross the border.
The surge of refugees at the border appeared to have prompted Turkish officials to change course and open the gates again to refugees.
“The decision was reversed,” said Abdulhakim Ayhan, mayor of Akçakale, which faces Tal Abyad. “This is a tragedy now. We cannot leave these people to die.”
On Sunday, Turkish officials were shown bringing soup to the refugees, many who waited for days to cross. An official from Turkey’s disaster and emergency management authority confirmed that all refugees still at the border crossing near Akçakale on Sunday would be allowed in.
The offensive comes almost six months after the same Syrian Kurdish militia repelled a monthslong Islamic State offensive in the Syrian town of Kobani, also on the on the Turkish border farther west. The Kurds were backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.
Control of Tal Abyad would help the Kurdish militia clamp off a key Islamic State supply route. Since falling to the extremists in 2014, Tal Abyad has served as a transit point for both supplies and foreign reinforcements to militants coming through porous segments of the Turkish-Syrian border.
Taking the town would also bring Kurdish forces within about 60 miles of Raqqa, Islamic State’s self-styled capital in Syria.
Situated between Kobani and the majority-Kurdish city of Hasakah, where the YPG is under siege by Islamic State, a victory in Tal Abyad could open the way to connect Syria’s disjointed Kurdish-populated regions or cantons. Unlike in neighboring Turkey and in Iraq, where Kurds control a semiautonomous region, Syrian Kurds are scattered throughout the country’s north.
“It was very important for the YPG to connect the free Kurdish enclaves,” said Jamestown Foundation analyst Wladimir van Wilgenburg.
The YPG advanced swiftly to Tal Abyad after a 48-hour siege of Islamic State in the town of Salouk between Raqqa and Tal Abyad, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group that monitors the conflict via activists on the ground. The Observatory said they were backed in Salouk by airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition. But the Kurdish advance has been hampered by Islamic State’s use of roadside bombs and explosives, Mr. Hisso said. —Mohammed Nour Al Akraa in Beirut contributed to this article.
Carly Fiorina is on now ready to bash Hillary about her speech from yesterday. She is back on the Morning Joe show after that last interview she did with Mika. That was a rough one and so I am proud of Carly for showing her face back on the show let alone this soon after that interview. Actually, I stand correct because what she just said about Hillary was exactly true. She did have a good speech but she does contradict herself and she goes on to say how us people have lost faith in our Government. And, how stopping people at the borders is not the main issue with regard to immigration. She sates that the immigration laws are the problem. Because that is the fundamental issue with immigration. Carly speaks well about the important issues we face today and have faced for a while now. I always liked her because I always felt she was real. But most of my friends and people I know that are versed in politics do NOT really like her. I always thought it was cool that she did the Real Time show with Bill Maher and like I said here just now, she came back on this show after that last interview that went down last month.
Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric sat down with Carly Fiorina on Monday, just hours after Fiorina made her 2016 presidential plans official with an announcement on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” to discuss where she stands on some of the most pressing issues and why, exactly, she’s running.
“The nation is at a pivotal point,” said Fiorina. “The gulf between how people feel about their lives and what’s going on in Washington is huge. The disconnect between regular people and the political class is wide and growing.”
Fiorina made a name for herself in the tech industry, climbing the ranks at AT&T and becoming the CEO at Hewlett-Packard — and the first female head of a Fortune 500 company — in 1999, before being forced to resign in 2005. She told Couric on Monday that she plans to run on her record at Hewlett-Packard, crediting her role as a business leader with preparing her to make the decisions required of a world leader — no matter how tough they might be.
Fiorina held tight to this position when confronted with the question of Carlyfiorina.org, a domain registered by someone outside the Fiorina camp illustrating the 30,000 people laid off during her tenure at Hewlett-Packard. Though she said she “would have preferred we bought every conceivable domain name,” Fiorina stood by her choices as CEO, arguing that layoffs, as much as they are “a terrible decision to have to make,” were necessary to “transform a company from failing to succeeding.”
While she said the quote about the layoffs displayed on Carlyfiorina.org — “I wish I would have done them all faster” — was “clearly taken out of context,” Fiorina did say that “when I made the decision that an executive had to go, a lot of people came up to me and said, ‘I wish you’d done that sooner.’” Now the second woman in the 2016 presidential race, Couric noted that Fiorina hasn’t had the nicest things to say about her fellow candidate Hillary Clinton. Echoing the comments she made on “Good Morning America” earlier in the day, Fiorina said, “Hillary Clinton is a highly intelligent, very hard-working woman who has dedicated her life to public service. All these things are true. And yet, she doesn’t have a track record of trustworthiness.”
She pointed to Clinton’s handling of the 2011 terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, the revelation that she used her private email server as secretary of state, and the recent accusations of undisclosed foreign donations to the Clinton Global Initiative as examples.
Fiorina also dismissed the suggestion that serving in such roles as U.S. senator and secretary of state are accomplishments.
“In the world that I come from, a title’s just a title,” Fiorina said. “Why are we so impressed with political titles? A senator is a title. Secretary of state is a title. What has anyone accomplished with their title?”
During her 2010 primary Senate run, Fiorina gained national attention with an advertisement that showed one sheep with devilish red eyes amongst a flock of others, to make the argument that her opponent was “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Want to learn more about Carly Fiorina click here.
Couric asked Fiorina if she regretted the ad, given comments she has made against vitriolic campaigning, or if we can expect more ads like that as the primary progresses.
“I’m not sure I’d call it vitriolic,” Fiorina said of what’s now referred to as the “Demon Sheep ad,” insisting that a lot of people found it funny. The ad, she said, served a “specific purpose: to get attention on a limited budget.” As for demon sheep in the future? Fiorina said she won’t be “running any ads for a long time on this campaign.” Fiorina, who is a breast cancer survivor, recalled an interaction with her doctor during cancer treatment to explain why she is opposed to legalizing marijuana.
When she told her doctor she wasn’t interested in using medical marijuana, Fiorina says, her doctor told her, “Good,” because “we don’t know what marijuana is anymore. It’s a chemically complex compound, we don’t know how it interacts with other drugs, we just don’t understand this anymore."
Marijuana should be regulated like a medicine, Fiorina argued, but by legalizing it recreationally, “we are sending the signal to young people that marijuana is just like a beer, and it’s not.”
Fiorina joins a growing Republican primary field, with popular conservative neurosurgeon Ben Carson having thrown his hat into the ring. On “Good Morning America” Monday morning, Fiorina said her lack of political experience is part of what makes her a good candidate.
“Our nation was intended to be a citizen government," Fiorina told host George Stephanopoulos. “Somehow we've come to this place in our nation's history where we think we need a professional political class. I don’t believe that, and I will tell you, as I’ve been out there across the country, people don’t believe that either. They're kinda tired of the political class, and they believe we need to return to a citizen government.”
Later on in the show, Fiorina talked to host Robin Roberts about some of her personal battles, including overcoming breast cancer and losing her daughter, Lori, to addiction, which she addresses in her new book, “Rising to the Challenge.”
Note: Carly Fiorina stated that CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, talked about “boycotting Indiana.” In fact, Tim Cook has never discussed calling for a boycott of businesses in Indiana.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leads the Democratic primary field by a wide margin in three early nominating states — though any Democrat who captures the party’s presidential title could be saddled with an albatross named Barack Obama.
New polls conducted by Morning Consult show Clinton leading her Democratic rivals by huge margins, more than 40 points, in Iowa and South Carolina, two states she lost when seeking the Democratic nomination in 2008.
Clinton takes 54 percent of the vote in Iowa, compared with just 12 percent for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and 9 percent for Vice President Joe Biden. In South Carolina, Clinton leads Biden by a 56 percent to 15 percent margin, with Sanders trailing at 10 percent.
But in the state that provided Clinton her biggest boost in 2008, the margin is much closer: Among voters who say they will participate in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary, 44 percent choose Clinton, while 32 percent pick Sanders, who hails from neighboring Vermont.
In the New Hampshire survey, Biden takes 8 percent of the vote.
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), former Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee are still struggling to register in all three early states. O’Malley takes 3 percent of the vote in South Carolina, 2 percent in New Hampshire and 1 percent in Iowa.
No matter who captures the Democratic nomination, that candidate will have to contend with voters’ impressions of President Obama. And in New Hampshire and Iowa, two states solidly in the swing column, Obama’s approval ratings are worryingly low.
Just 43 percent of New Hampshire voters say they approve of the job Obama is doing, while 56 percent disapprove. In Iowa, 43 percent approve and 54 percent disapprove.
Only once in modern political history has a party won control of the White House in three consecutive elections, when George H.W. Bush won election after Ronald Reagan’s two terms. Even with an overwhelmingly popular Bill Clinton, whose approval rating stood at 57 percent in a Gallup survey taken just before Election Day 2000, Democratic nominee Al Gore just barely missed winning the White House.
Democratic voters are far less worried about security issues than their Republican counterparts, the surveys showed. Big pluralities say the economy is the most important issue they will consider when deciding how to vote, but just 6 percent of New Hampshire Democrats, 7 percent of Iowa Democrats and 10 percent of South Carolina Democrats said they see security as the most important issue — in all three cases, less than half the number of Republican voters who say it’s a top issue.
In New Hampshire and Iowa, Democratic voters are twice as likely to say education is the most important issue to their vote as those who cite security issues.
The Iowa poll surveyed 905 registered voters, including 313 who said they planned to participate in the Democratic caucuses. The New Hampshire poll surveyed 816 registered voters, including 279 who said they would vote in a Democratic primary. And the South Carolina poll tested 906 registered voters, including 309 who said they planned to vote in the Democratic primary. All three surveys were conducted online and by phone between May 31 and June 8.
The margin of error among all registered voters in each state is 3 percent. The margin of error for the Democratic samples in all three polls is plus or minus 6 percent.
'Jurassic World' rampages to global box office record. "Jurassic World" rampaged through box office records this weekend. Most notably, the Universal film brought in an estimated $511.8 million around the world, making it the highest-grossing global opening ever. That total beat the $483.2 million that "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2" made worldwide in 2011.
"Jurassic World" also made an estimated $204.5 million in the U.S. over the weekend.
That would put the dinosaur thriller behind only the $207.4 million U.S. total of "The Avengers" in 2012.
Final reports on weekend sales will be released on Monday.
That's not all.
"Jurassic World" also pulled in $44.1 million at giant screen IMAX theaters worldwide, beating the $28.8 million that "Iron Man 3" made in 2013.
The colossal debut for "Jurassic World" greatly exceeded the expectations of many Hollywood analysts, who believed the film would make about half as much as it did.
The U.S. audience for "Jurassic World" was split pretty evenly between male (52%) and female (48%) moviegoers, and 61% were over age 25, according to studio data.
Steven Spielberg's classic movie first took audiences to an island overrun with genetically created dinosaurs in 1993. Since then, the "Jurassic Park" series has hauled in over $2 billion worldwide.
"Jurassic World" opened in more than 4,200 theaters. It is the fourth installment of the franchise, and the first film since "Jurassic Park III" in 2001.
The long awaited sequel brought audiences back to the island from the first film, and looks to have benefited from marketing itself to the nostalgia of the original.
"'Jurassic World' has in the most perfect way reconnected the dots of the original film and effectively recreated the Spielbergian magic that made the first film such a quintessential touchstone," said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for Rentrak (RENT).
Away from stirring memories, it also helped that "Jurassic World" had Chris Pratt as its lead star.
Pratt is one of Hollywood's biggest actors. Last year, he starred in blockbusters "The Lego Movie" and Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy."
Thanks to the big premiere of "Jurassic World," Universal continues its hot streak. The studio's 2015 hits includes "Fifty Shades of Grey," "Furious 7" and "Pitch Perfect 2."
And the studio still has some heavy hitters to come: The Mark Wahlberg comedy "Ted 2" opens at the end of the month, and the "Despicable Me" sequel "Minions" opens in early July.
With a bad Memorial Day, the summer season slumped with three down box office weekends in a row. But the thunderous opening of "Jurassic World" might mark a turnaround.
'Willard' Mitt Romney should be on the show (Morning Joe) soon.
Coming off the Romneyfest that happened over the weekend at one of his houses located in Utah, former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants Republicans -- particularly those vying for the 2016 nomination for the White House -- to all just get along.
"It's harmful if you have Republicans attacking Republicans," Romney said Sunday on NBC News. "It's important to talk about our views instead of going back to one another."
"Going back to Reagan's 11th commandment makes sense for our party," Romney added, referring to an edict from Ronald Reagan's 1966 campaign for California governor that stated "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican."
After reports that the 2012 Republican presidential candidate wanted the GOP field to avoid any ugly primary fights similar to his own long road to the nomination, Romney chose to use his Sunday show appearance to encourage the "strong contenders" in his party.
"What surprised most folks this time is how many strong contenders there are in the Republican party," the former Massachusetts governor continued. "It's a good opportunity for Americans to see what the Republicans have to offer.
Romney also praised former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who is expected to announce his White House bid on Monday, for his "strong record."
"Bush is a person of real integrity who is well known," the former presidential contender said. "He has a strong record. He cut taxes, and improved education. He gave more choices for schools, particularly in grade schools, students were able to go other schools if there schools were failing. He doesn't need to speech his way through this campaign."
But just as Romney cautioned against GOP infighting in the 2016 race, some candidates took to the Sunday political talk shows to criticize some in their own party over their qualifications for the White House.
Republican presidential candidate and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, for instance, bashed the foreign policy credentials of fellow contender Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky.
When criticizing Hillary Clinton's "delusional" belief that the U.S. is well-positioned to deal with global threats, Graham added Sunday that any Republican in the 2016 field would handily trump her as commander-in-chief. Anyone, that is, except for the Kentucky senator.
"You would have to suspend disbelief to believe that America is well-positioned against Iran, against Syria, against ISIL, against Russia, against China. We're in terrible position," Graham told CBS News' "Face the Nation". "You'd have to suspend disbelief to believe her statement we're well-positioned. No, she would be beat by all of us, except Rand Paul."
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has not yet declared an Oval Office bid, also used his appearance on a Sunday talk show to tout his own political muscle over other 2016 Republican hopefuls.
When asked about his qualifications for the presidency, Christie said that as a governor, he's learned how to deal with a Democratic legislature -- a struggle Jeb Bush never faced.
"He had a legislature of his own party," Christie told ABC News of the former Florida governor. "It's a much different thing."
"I have great respect for Jeb," Christie added. "He was a very good governor. But if you're asking one of the things that makes me different is I think I'm combat-ready for Washington, D.C., and you need to be in order to know how to work with people, how to bring people together."
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