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Huckabee says Iran nuclear deal 'marching the Israelis to the door of the oven'

WASHINGTON –  GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is sticking with his controversial criticism of the Iran nuclear deal as "marching the Israelis to the door of the oven," a reference to the Holocaust.
The former Arkansas governor made the tweet Sunday, a day after first making the comparison when denouncing President Barack Obama for his role in the agreement reached by the United States and other world powers.
Responding, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Huckabee's statement was "grossly irresponsible" and called on him to apologize.
But a Huckabee spokeswoman said Sunday his comments reflect a longstanding position that "the Iran deal is a bad deal, bad for America and bad for Israel." Huckabee's tweet called on Congress to reject the nuclear deal.
"This president's foreign policy is the most feckless in American history," Huckabee said in an interview with Breitbart News broadcast on Sirius/XM radio Saturday. "He's so naive he would trust the Iranians and he would take the Israelis and basically march them to the door of the oven."
Huckabee said that "this Iran deal should be rejected by both Democrats and Republicans."
"We forget Iranians have never kept a deal in 36 years under the ayatollah. There's no reason to think they will suddenly start doing it."
Huckabee said of the deal: "I read the entire thing. We gave away the whole farm. It's got to be stopped."
Huckabee's comments come as the GOP presidential candidates struggle to break through with 16 presidential candidates already in the GOP field, and one of those, New York businessman Donald Trump, getting more attention than most.

Satanic Temple unveils goat-headed statue in Detroit

A crowd of several hundred gathered Saturday night to see Detroit’s newest resident: A 9-foot, 2,000-pound statue of a goat-headed occult idol named Baphomet.
The Satanic Temple unveiled the bronze figure to an estimated 700 attendees at an undisclosed location. The group’s initial venue canceled after local religious groups protested.

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A statue of occult symbol Baphomet was unveiled at a Satanic Temple event in Detroit on July 25. (Chris Switzer)

The group’s approach to secrecy with the second venue led to little opposition on Saturday, Director of the Detroit Satanic Temple chapter and national spokeswoman Jex Blackmore told Fox News.
“Protesters arrived for a short time at our first ticketing location, but retreated after only about 30 minutes,” Blackmore said. “One woman attempted to block the event entrance and was removed by the police in cooperation with the building's owner. “
Guests were washed in red light shining down from the rafters at the venue as “dark punk” bands played and DJs performed from a stage located beneath a lighted, upside-down crucifix. Satanic Temple officials delivered speeches and a pair of shirtless men held candles on either side of the statue, prior to its unveiling.

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The Satanic Temple wants to place the Baphomet statue next to a monument of the Ten Commandments. (Matt Anderson)

Despite the dark pageantry, however, the Temple says its concept of Lucifer is as a literary figure. “The mission of The Satanic Temple is to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people,” the group’s website states.
The statue will now be stored out of public view until the Temple can find it a permanent home. The group hopes to display it at the Arkansas State Capitol, next to a monument of the Ten Commandments.

Senate takes rare Sunday votes, but real drama is GOP leaders' rebuke of Cruz

The Senate held a rare Sunday session to cast key votes, but the real drama was several of the chamber’s senior Republicans chastising fellow GOP Sen. Ted Cruz for criticizing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and John Cornyn of Texas each rose to counter a stunning floor speech Cruz gave on Friday accusing McConnell, R-Ky., of lying.
Cruz, from Texas and a 2016 presidential candidate, was never mentioned by name but was clearly the focus of the senators’ remarks.
"Squabbling and sanctimony may be tolerated in other venues and perhaps on the campaign trail, but they have no place among colleagues in the United States Senate," said Hatch, the Senate's president pro tempore.
Cruz then defended himself for making the accusation that McConnell had lied when he denied striking a deal to allow the vote to revive the Export-Import Bank.
"Speaking the truth about actions is entirely consistent with civility," he said while also acknowledging that he agreed with Hatch's calls for civility and that he was "not happy" about giving the floor speech Friday.
The drama preceded the upper chamber defeating a procedural vote to repeal ObamaCare and taking a step toward reviving the federal Export-Import Bank, both amendments on a must-pass highway bill.
Cruz also reiterated his complaint about McConnell.
"No member of this body has disputed that promise was made and that promise was broken," he said.
Cruz's floor speech Friday had brought nearly unheard-of drama and discord to the Senate floor. But the responses to it were just as remarkable, as senior Republicans united to defend an institution they revere and take down a junior colleague of their own party whom the appear to think has gone from being an occasional nuisance to a threat to the Senate's ability to function with order.
Another one of the votes Sunday defeated Cruz’s attempt to overturn a ruling made Friday that blocked him from offering an amendment related to Iran.
McConnell has said that given support for the Export-Import Bank, no "special deal" was needed to bring it to a vote.
The little-known bank is a federal agency that helps foreign customers to buy U.S. goods. Conservatives oppose it as corporate welfare and are trying to end it. They won an early round, when congressional inaction allowed the bank to expire June 30 for the first time in 81 years.
But on Sunday, senators voted, 67-26, to advance legislation  to revive the bank across a procedural hurdle, making it likely that it will be added to the highway bill.
The bill was introduced by GOP Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk and North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp. A vote on final passage could come as early Monday.
On a separate vote, the legislation to repeal ObamaCare failed to advance over a procedural hurdle. Sixty votes were needed but the total was 49-43.
The action came as the Senate tries to complete work on the highway bill ahead of a July 31 deadline. If Congress doesn't act by then, states will lose money for highway and transit projects in the middle of the summer construction season.
With the Export-Import Bank likely added, the highway legislation faces an uncertain future in the House, where there's strong opposition to the bank as well as to the underlying highway measure.
The Senate's version of the highway bill sets policy and authorizes transportation programs for six years.
The House has passed a five-month extension of transportation programs without the Export-Import Bank included, and House leaders of both parties are reluctant to take up the Senate's version.
Complicating matters, Congress is entering its final days of legislative work before its annual August vacation, raising the prospect of unpredictable last-minute maneuvers to resolve the disputes on the highway bill and the Export-Import Bank.

Judge orders Obama administration to release illegal immigrants from 'deplorable' facilities

A federal judge in California has ruled that hundreds of illegal immigrant women and children in U.S. holding facilities should be released, another apparent setback for President Obama’s immigration policy, according to The Los Angeles Times.
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee said Friday that the conditions in which the detainees are being held are “deplorable” and violate parts of an 18-year-old court settlement that put restrictions on the detention of migrant children.
The ruling also raises questions about what the administration will do with the estimated 1,700 parents and children at three detention facilities, two in Texas and one in Pennsylvania.
Last year, tens of thousands of women and unaccompanied minors from Central America arrived at the Southwest border, with many believing a rumor that unaccompanied children and single parents with at least one child would be allowed to stay.
More than 68,000 of them were apprehended and detained while officials decided whether they had a right to stay.
Many were being released and told to appear at immigration offices until the administration eventually opened new detention centers.
Gee said in her ruling that children in the two Texas facilities had been held in substandard conditions and gave the administration until Aug. 3 to respond.
“We are disappointed with the court's decision and are reviewing it in consultation with the Department of Justice,” Marsha Catron, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said in a prepared statement given to The Times.
Many of the Central Americans who crossed the Southwest border illegally last summer said they were fleeing poverty and escalating gang violence.
The Texas facilities are run by private companies, while the one in Pennsylvania is run by a county government.
In February, a federal judge blocked Obama's 2012 executive action to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from being deported.
And a federal appeals court in New Orleans refused three months later to allow the program to go forward, denying an administration request to lift the lower court decision.
Gee’s decision is also seen as a victory for the immigrant rights lawyers who brought the case.
The ruling upholds a tentative decision Gee made in April and comes a week after the two sides told her that they failed to reach a new settlement agreement as she had requested.
The 1997 settlement bars immigrant children from being held in unlicensed, secure facilities. Gee found that settlement covered all children in the custody of federal immigration officials, even those being held with a parent.
The Justice Department had argued it was necessary to modify the settlement and use detention to try to deter more immigrants from coming to the border after last year's surge. The department also said it was an important way to keep families together while their immigration cases were being reviewed, but the judge rejected that argument in her decision.