Mexican Border Cartoon

Carson flanks Trump, floats drones for border wars

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson is going a step beyond rival Donald Trump in his hard-line proposals to curb illegal immigration, suggesting drone strikes along the southern border.

Carson first suggested last week, during a border tour in Arizona, that such efforts could eradicate border “caves” where smugglers hide illegal immigrants. He's since defended his comments, while also fighting back against any suggestion in the media that he wants to use drones to target actual border crossers.
Carson said in an interview on Sunday that the caves “can be eliminated” as “one of a number of possibilities” toward stopping the flow of illegal immigration.
However, he also told CNN, “In no way did I suggest that drones be used to kill people. … And I said to the media at the time, ‘Some of you are going to say Carson wants to use drones to kill people on the border.’ How ridiculous.”
On Monday, Carson communications director Doug Watts told FoxNews.com Carson was convinced after his border visit last week that a network of smuggler tunnels could be eradicated and acknowledged that the candidate has vowed to “do whatever it takes to protect the American people.”
But Watts also repeatedly said Carson, a retired pediatric neurosurgeon, has never intended to use drones against people.
“After hearing what he heard, seeing what he saw, [Carson] believes that the American people will stand behind what he said,” Watts told FoxNews.com. “We have a security crisis on the border. This is not about illegal immigrants. We’re at war with hardened criminals, drug smugglers and human traffickers.”
To be sure, Trump, who is now leading the GOP field, has forced essentially all 17 major GOP candidates to take a position on difficult illegal immigration issues, and Carson is no exception.
The billionaire businessman began his candidacy in June by vowing to build a wall along the southern border. And most recently, he suggested the country’s longstanding birthright citizenship policies are open to legal challenge -- effectively pushing the GOP field further to the right on the issue.
Carson spoke at a rally in Phoenix on Tuesday and gave two interviews on Wednesday during his visit to Arizona’s border with Mexico that included talks with sheriff officers and a helicopter tour of the region.
“I’d get rid of [smugglers'] hideouts,” Carson said Wednesday, as part of a larger plan that includes surveillance drones, the U.S. military, more border agents and a more formidable border wall to stop the flow of illegal immigrants.

Amid Biden deliberations, WH leaves door open to Obama primary endorsement

The White House left the door open Monday to President Obama endorsing a candidate in the 2016 Democratic primary, raising the tantalizing possibility of Obama choosing between two administration powerhouses as Vice President Biden mulls a run against Hillary Clinton. 

The prospect of a Biden-vs.-Clinton rerun already is said to be dividing current and former Obama administration staffers looking at whom to support -- and potentially work for -- in 2016. Clinton was the obvious choice until her personal email scandal and problematic poll numbers stirred talk about Biden, whose supporters already are pulling together a team for a possible run.
"He's going to collect all the information that he needs to make a decision," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday. Earnest, on the president's first day back in Washington from a Martha's Vineyard vacation, was peppered with reporter questions on the prospects for a Biden bid and where Obama would fall.
He told reporters Obama certainly would support the eventual Democratic nominee in the general election next year -- but hinted an endorsement could come earlier.
"I wouldn't rule out the possibility of an endorsement in the Democratic primary," Earnest said.
Earnest, speaking as Obama and his No. 2 held their weekly lunch meeting, reiterated that Obama believes picking Biden as his running mate was his smartest political decision. But he also said Obama has a deep appreciation for Clinton's service as secretary of state.
Without tipping his hand as to whether Obama is encouraging Biden to enter, Earnest said the VP is well-positioned to make the decision himself, as a two-time presidential candidate who's been on the Obama ticket twice.
"You could make the case that there's probably no one in American politics today who has a better understanding of exactly what is required to mount a successful national presidential campaign," Earnest said.
Biden remains undecided but wants to make a call soon.
The Wall Street Journal reports that he is increasingly leaning toward running against Clinton if he can pull together a robust campaign.
Biden stoked speculation further on Saturday by interrupting his own time off and reportedly holding a meeting with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a darling of the left who herself had been urged by grassroots supporters to run. She declined, but she has not yet endorsed anyone in the 2016 race.
Politico reports that the possibility of a Biden bid is dividing the Obama administration, where many had assumed Clinton was the candidate to back. Sources suggested Biden still has strong support. "I don't know what the official line will be," an unnamed White House official told Politico, "but you will have a lot of people in the building rooting for him."
Josh Alcorn, a ringleader in the effort to get Biden in the race, said Sunday that while Biden trails would-be competitors in money and organization, he could still win.
"We have a grassroots list of 200,000 people that's growing every day," Alcorn, senior adviser for Draft Biden 2016, told "Fox News Sunday." "He may not have the financial resources, but there is a groundswell of support."

Ohio mulls Down syndrome abortion ban, Kasich mum for now

Ohio lawmakers are considering a controversial bill that would ban abortions sought because the baby has Down syndrome, placing the swing state at the center of a new battle for anti-abortion advocates. 

The measure also has implications for the 2016 presidential race, as Ohio Gov. John Kasich seeks the Republican nomination and tries to walk a fine line between burnishing his pro-life credentials and positioning himself as a moderate member of the GOP field. He has not taken a position on the legislation.
"The governor is pro-life and believes strongly in the sanctity of human life, but we don't take a public position on every bill introduced into the Ohio General Assembly," Rob Nichols, a Kasich spokesman, told FoxNews.com.
The Ohio bill would ban a physician from performing an abortion if they know the woman is seeking the procedure solely because of a test indicating Down syndrome in the unborn child.
The bill would hold the doctor, not the mother, responsible for violating the proposed law, which carries a penalty of six-to-18 months in jail.
The legislation is unique, though not unprecedented. North Dakota passed a similar measure in 2013 that banned abortions motivated by the sex of the baby; a diagnosis for a genetic abnormality such as Down syndrome; or the potential for a genetic abnormality.

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• Kasich touts bipartisan approach, successes as governor

The proposal in politically purple Ohio, though, could have widespread implications, particularly if it spurs even more states to act. According to a 2012 study in the medical journal "Prenatal Diagnosis," U.S. women who receive a fetal diagnosis of Down syndrome choose to have an abortion between 50 and 80 percent of the time, down from 90 percent in 1999 from a study in the same journal.
The legislation is thought to have a good chance of passing. The bill recently passed out of committee in the state House of Representatives on a 9-3 bipartisan vote. Ohio Right to Life, which helped draft the bill, is hoping it will be voted on in a few weeks, when lawmakers return from recess, and reach Kasich’s desk by Christmas.
“What does that say of us as a society if we make decisions about who lives or who dies dependent on if they are going to be an inconvenience, or they are [costing] too much money for health care costs?” Ohio Right to Life President Michael Gonidakis told FoxNews.com. “Someday we are going to find a genetic marker for autism. Are we going to have a 90 percent abortion rate for people with autism? I hope not.”
Gonidakis says he thinks the legislation will pass and Kasich will ultimately sign it.
“We have a track record of being strategic and putting forth an incremental approach to all our initiatives,” Gonidakis said, adding that they have worked with Kasich on roughly a dozen pro-life measures, including a late-term abortion ban.
Republican state Rep. Sarah LaTourette, a co-sponsor of the bill, also told FoxNews.com she is confident the bill will pass.
"While I make no effort to conceal my pro-life convictions, I firmly believe this bill is about discrimination, not abortion. Choosing to end an individual's life simply because they are different, or might have Down syndrome, is discrimination," she said in an email. "There is simply no other way to look at it."
However, if Kasich chooses to back the bill, he is sure to face stiff opposition from pro-choice groups.
"We believe we should all work to ensure people with disabilities are treated with equality and dignity. However, we oppose this ban because it interferes with the medical decisions of Ohioans and does nothing to help people with disabilities or their families,” Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, told FoxNews.com.
Copeland said she believes it will be an “uphill battle” to oppose the legislation, but people have flooded her group's phone lines with calls offering donations to fight it.
“We have to make it clear to Gov. Kasich that this is not good health care, this is not what the people of Ohio want,” Copeland said. “This ban would encourage patients to keep information from their doctors and that is bad medicine.”
Gonidakis said he is “100 percent” confident the governor will sign the bill. “He is the most pro-life governor in our state’s history,” he said.
Copeland seemed to agree with Gonidakis: “He’s signed everything they slapped on his desk so far so I don’t see why this would be anything different.”

GOP leaders from two states reportedly plot strategy to slow down Trump

Republican leaders in two states reportedly are plotting to make presidential candidate Donald Trump’s quest for the GOP nomination a lot harder.

Party leaders in Virginia and North Carolina told Politico.com that they are considering a push to require candidates entering their respective Republican primaries to pledge their support for the eventual nominee and not run a third-party candidacy — a pledge Trump, the current frontrunner, would not make when asked to during the Fox News debate earlier this month in Cleveland.
“Anybody who wants to seek the Republican nomination should have to commit to supporting the ultimate Republican nominee,” Virginia’s former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli told Politico. “I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
Republican party officials in North Carolina announced a similar proposal, and told Politico they already are in talks with lawyers to draft language for a provision that asks each candidate to support the GOP nominee.
“Everything is on the table,” an official told Politico.
Party leaders in North Carolina and Virginia say they hope their ballot proposals will help convince the billionaire businessman to fully commit to the Republican Party.
The primary requirements must be submitted to the Republican National Committee by Oct. 1, Politico reports.
“Ballot access usually is regarded as a party function,” former RNC Chief Counsel Tom Josefiak told the website. “It definitely would be left up to the state party to decide how it’s going to operate.”