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'Repeal every word': Potential GOP 2016 rivals hammer ObamaCare, IRS at Iowa summit

DES MOINES, Iowa –  Conservative heavyweights joined with up-and-comers in hammering President Obama Saturday over everything from the health care law to his immigration policies as they played to a sold-out Iowa crowd in what amounted to the opening bell of the Republican presidential campaign.
They spoke at the Iowa Freedom Summit in Des Moines, held in the first-in-the-nation caucus state at a time when big-name Republicans are getting close to announcing whether they’ll seek the presidency.
While nobody at the summit has definitively declared a 2016 bid, nearly a dozen of the summit’s speakers are flirting with one. Testing their message on the conservative Iowa crowd, they took a hard line in their prescriptions for the country.
“The most important tax reform we can do is abolish the IRS,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told the fired-up audience.
The firebrand senator compared the EPA to a locust and got a huge reaction when he demanded to “repeal every word of ObamaCare.”
Sarah Palin, too, after telling reporters she’s thinking about a 2016 run, laced her speech with snappy one-liners as she lit into the current president.
Of Obama, she said: “America, he’s just not that into you.” The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee also knocked the idea of a Hillary Clinton run.
“Hey Iowa, can anyone stop Hillary? To borrow a phrase, yes, we can!” she said.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry – who was interrupted by immigration protesters – helped closed out the daylong event. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum spoke earlier. 
Christie also was interrupted by a protester in the crowd. Unlike Perry, who kept talking through it, Christie couldn’t resist. “Don’t they know I am from New Jersey? This stuff doesn’t bother me one bit,” he said. He went on to dismiss the notion he’s too blunt for Iowa.
“If that was the case, why would you keep inviting me back and why would I keep coming back?” he asked, to applause.
The summit, which included a packed schedule of speeches back-to-back, served as the unofficial kickoff to the 2016 Republican presidential race.
It included big names like Cruz and Christie, but also some rising stars, like Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon who has reinvented himself as an outspoken conservative and won an enthusiastic following in the process.
Drawing some of the biggest applause of the day, Carson took on the thorny subject of immigration, saying fixing the country's immigration issues should rest on Congress' shoulders and not the president's – in a dig at Obama’s executive actions.
Carson, who has been flirting with the idea of a 2016 presidential run, told the crowd the next president should "make it their goal to seal the border within a year."
He said part of the problem is that the United States is too attractive to illegal immigrants.
"We have to reverse the magnet," he said. "We should not be employing illegal immigrants. Do we have the ability to seal the border? Yes. We don't have the will."
Carson suggested adopting a guest-worker program similar to the one Canada has and said anyone applying for guest-worker employment should do so while in another country. 
Carson also took on the Affordable Care Act and said "even if it worked, I would oppose it."
Carson warned the crowd that health care should not be put in the hands of the government and said ObamaCare fundamentally changes America.
Donald Trump, too, told a revved-up audience he'd build an impenetrable wall to keep illegal immigrants out. “I’m Trump. I build things,” he said, while saying he’s “seriously thinking” of running for president.
Freshman Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, who gave the GOP response to the State of the Union address, also had tough words for the president’s record on fighting terrorism. Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore told the crowd he was “ashamed” of that record and said the president should have gone to Paris to join the unity rally after the attacks in that city this month.
The summit was sponsored by Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King and Citizens United.
King, in his opening remarks, called for abolishing the IRS and going after Obama’s “executive overreach,” while largely sidestepping the broader immigration issue.
King, known for controversial statements on immigration, recently called a 21-year-old illegal immigrant who was Michelle Obama’s guest at the State of the Union address “a deportable.” He told an Iowa radio station Friday he was being “kind and gentle” with that description.
The incident became quick fodder for Democrats eager to cast Republicans attending as “extreme” on immigration. Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, in a press conference across the street from the summit in Des Moines, called it an “extremist ring-kissing summit masquerading as a political forum.”
King, though, did not fuel the immigration fire in his opening remarks. Instead, he focused on the future and said the next president of the United States must “restore that separation of powers.”
He also took a jab at those in his party who declined to attend. (2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul were among those not in attendance.)
“Do you believe that the next president of the United States is going to be speaking from this stage to you today?” he asked, to applause. “As do I.”
King said he wants Americans to elect a new president who is ready to sign legislation that will “rip ObamaCare out by the roots.” He also told the crowd he has penned a 40-word bill to make ObamaCare “as if it had never been enacted.”

Immigration protesters arrested at Iowa summit, Christie spars with one

Two protesters were arrested Saturday after they interrupted speeches by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at the Iowa Freedom Summit.
The summit was a gathering of high-profile conservatives, many of them weighing a 2016 presidential bid, in Des Moines.
The first interruption was during Perry’s speech. Marco Malagon, a Texas resident who came to the country illegally when he was young and benefited from the Obama administration’s “dreamer” reprieve, shouted: “Governor, do you stand with King, or do you stand with us and our families? Do you think I’m deportable?” A dozen other protesters stood up with signs that read, “DEPORTABLE?”
The signs were in reference to the event’s organizer, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, and a tweet he sent out during the State of the Union speech where he referred to a guest of Michelle Obama as “a deportable.”
“We are here today sending a message to the GOP presidential candidates, like Perry, that if they are serious about 2016, they need to stay as far as possible from Steve King and his hateful actions towards us,” Malagon told reporters.
He and Cesar Vargas, who interrupted Christie, were arrested.
While Perry did not acknowledge any of the protesters, Christie wisecracked back.
“Don’t they know I am from New Jersey? This stuff doesn’t bother me one bit,” he said.
Vargas told reporters that immigration is a “central issue” for Republicans.
“Events like the Freedom Summit further illustrate how out of touch the Republican Party is with the growing Latino and immigrant population in the United States. Do they really want to deport me and my mother?" Vargas asked.

Palin rips Michael Moore, PETA at Iowa summit

DES MOINES, Iowa –  Sarah Palin had choice words Saturday for director Michael Moore following his criticism of the movie “American Sniper” and its subject, the late Navy SEAL Chris Kyle.
At the Iowa Freedom Summit, a gathering of high-profile conservatives in Des Moines, she said the director deserved the backlash he got.
The former Alaska governor recently posed for a photo with Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer who held up a sign that read, “F--- you Michael Moore.” Palin, chuckling, told the Iowa audience that “what the poster said is what the rest of us are thinking.”
The sign was in response to a tweet in which Moore called snipers cowards: “My uncle killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. “
Since then, Moore clarified his comments on his Facebook page and said his comment was in reference to snipers, but that he was not specifically commenting on the film “American Sniper.”
Palin also took PETA to task for recent criticism against her for posting a picture of her son stepping on the family’s dog to reach the kitchen sink.
“The usual suspects, they just went loco,” Palin said. “Barking their tired old death threats against us. And I’m thinking, get in line!”
She referred to the organization as “a bunch of weasels” and joked that at least her son Trig did not eat the family dog.

Japan PM left 'speechless' after video claims hostage dead

Japan's prime minister said Sunday he was "speechless" after an online video purportedly showed an Islamic State militant killing one of the two Japanese hostages.
Shinzo Abe told Japanese broadcaster NHK the government is still reviewing the video, but it was likely authentic. Abe offered his condolences to the family and friends of 42-year-old Haruna Yukawa, who was taken hostage in Syria last year.
Abe did not comment about the message in the latest video that demanded a prisoner exchange for the other hostage, journalist Kenji Goto.
"I am left speechless," he said, stressing he wants Goto released unharmed. "We strongly and totally criticize such acts."
Yukawa's father, Shoichi, said he hoped "deep in his heart" that the news of his son's killing was not true.
"If I am ever reunited with him, I just want to give him a big hug," he told a small group of journalists invited into his house.
President Obama condemned the "brutal murder." He said in a statement that the United States stands by Japan and calling for Goto's release.
The U.S. National Security Council said it has seen the video and that the intelligence community is working to confirm its authenticity.
“The United States strongly condemns (Islamic State’s) actions, and we call for the immediate release of all the remaining hostages,” said agency spokesman Patrick Ventrell.
The CIA also has confirmed it is aware of the video and is reviewing it.
The video message claims one hostage has been killed and demands a prisoner exchange for the other.
The Associated Press could not verify the contents of the message, which varied greatly from previous videos released by Islamic State, which now holds a third of both Syria and Iraq.
Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said the audio was still being studied, but there was no reason to deny the authenticity of the video.
One militant on the Islamic State-affiliated website warned that Saturday's new message was fake, while another said that the message was intended only to go to the Japanese journalist's family.
A third militant on the website noted that the video was not issued by al-Furqan, which is one of the media arms of the Islamic State group and has issued past videos involving hostages and beheadings. Saturday's message did not bear al-Furqan's logo.
The militants on the website post comments using pseudonyms, so their identities could not be independently confirmed by the AP. However, their confusion over the video matched that of Japanese officials and outside observers.