EPA Cartoon

Obama urged to retract statement comparing members of Congress to Iranian hardliners

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called for President Obama to retract a statement he made Wednesday saying members of Congress who opposed the Iran nuke deal had something in common with Iranians who chanted “Death to America” in the streets of Tehran.
Obama made the comments in a speech at American University in Washington while going after critics of the deal, who he said were “selling a fantasy” to the American people. He added that Iranian hardliners chanting "Death to America" don't represent all of Iran.
"In fact, it's those hardliners who are most comfortable with the status quo," Obama said. "It's those hardliners chanting "Death to America" who have been most opposed to the deal. They're making common cause with the Republican caucus."
McConnell, R-Ky., called the comments “bizarre and preposterous” in a statement released Wednesday afternoon, adding that “supporters and defenders” of the proposed deal should reject the president’s “offensive rhetoric.”
“Members of both parties have serious and heartfelt concerns about the Iran deal,” he said in a statement. “These Democrats and Republicans deserved serious answers today, not some outrageous attempt to equate their search for answers with supporting chants of 'Death to America.'”
The president's remarks were part of an intense lobbying campaign by the White House ahead of Congress' vote next month to either approve or disapprove the international agreement. Opponents of the agreement have streamed to Capitol to make their case, and have spent tens of millions of dollars on advertisements.
The White House is preparing for the likelihood that lawmakers will vote against the deal next month and is focusing its lobbying efforts on getting enough Democrats to sustain a presidential veto. Only one chamber of Congress is needed to sustain a veto and keep the deal in place.
Obama needs 146 Democrats in the House or 34 in the Senate to sustain a veto. As of Wednesday afternoon, 16 House Democrats and 11 senators had publicly declared their support for the deal.
The White House has said it is confident it can sustain a veto at least in the House.

Louisiana police officer dies in shooting, manhunt underway for suspect

A Shreveport, La. police officer has died after being shot while on duty, and a manhunt for the suspect is underway, authorities say.
Shreveport Police Cpt. Marcus Hines told a press conference late Wednesday that the officer, whose name has not been released, was shot at around 9:15 p.m. local time while responding to a report of a suspicious person inside a home. Hines says an armed man was apparently inside the residence, threatening to harm people.
Hines didn’t elaborate on the officer’s injuries and initially only said that he was in “very serious” condition at a hospital. Hines later told KTAL that the officer had died.
Hines said the Shreveport police, Caddo Parish deputies and canines are searching for a male suspect.
"Last night, we lost one of our brave, uniformed officers in the line of duty. Our hearts are saddened," Shreveport Mayor Ollie Tyler told KTBS. "We ask for the community’s prayers for this officer’s family and SPD as we grieve the loss of one of our own who paid the ultimate sacrifice while serving and protecting the citizens of this city."
The Shreveport Times and KTBS reported officers had surrounded a house near the shooting scene where they believed a suspect may be hiding. KTBS reported that police were searching cars and restricting access to the area.
The station reported that the last fatal shooting of a Shreveport police officer took place in October 2010. Shreveport is the third-largest city in Louisiana with a population of around 200,000 people. It is located in the so-called Ark-La-Tex region, where the borders of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas meet.

With Trump at center stage, GOP candidates ready to rumble at 1st debate

The spotlight is shining on Donald Trump right now, but nine other GOP presidential candidates are poised and eager to seize it from him as they head into Thursday night's prime-time debate in Cleveland. 
While Trump's high poll numbers landed him the top slot -- and a center-stage position -- at the Fox News debate, the lead-off showdown carries high risk and reward for the billionaire businessman.
Trump has by most accounts done a masterful job dominating media coverage over the last several weeks, and flipping the script on pundits who predicted his incendiary remarks -- about illegal immigrants, about Sen. John McCain -- would torpedo his bid.
But he's never been on the debate stage.
"My sort of my whole life has been a debate, but I have never debated before," he told Fox News' Bill O'Reilly.
In the run-up to the debate, Trump is trying to play that factor as an asset and part of his appeal as an outsider.

More on this...

• Huckabee on Clinton e-mail revelations, Republican debate

"These politicians, all they do is debate," he told Fox News, saying he's "not really" rehearsing.
"I think you have to be yourself," Trump said.
While the unscripted approach may work for Trump, the other candidates reportedly are preparing intensely, in a bid to prevent the forum from becoming the Trump show and capture some momentum from him.
Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said Trump's past positions -- once describing himself as pro-choice, donating to the Clinton Foundation and other actions -- indeed provide an opening to his primary opponents.
"The other Republicans on stage have an opportunity to challenge his conservative credentials," Bonjean told FoxNews.com's "Strategy Room."
There will be two debates on Thursday. The debates, hosted by Fox News and Facebook in conjunction with the Ohio Republican Party, will be held at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
The 9 p.m. ET debate will include the top 10 candidates in an average of recent national polls. They are Trump; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio; Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Kasich, who leads the state where the debate is being held, said in a statement, "As governor, I am glad to welcome my fellow debate participants to our great state and I look forward to discussing the issues facing our country with them on Thursday."
The seven who did not make the top 10 will be invited to a 5 p.m. ET debate. They are: former Texas Gov. Rick Perry; former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum; Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal; former HP head Carly Fiorina; South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham; former New York Gov. George Pataki; and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore.
Huckabee, speaking with Fox News, said it'll be important to prepare -- brush up on "the numbers, the figures" -- but also to "be authentic."
"I'm not going to spend all day Thursday, you know, focused on the materials. I am going to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I'm going to keep my mind free and loose," Huckabee said.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz rapped any candidates running toward "the mushy middle" and gave a preview of his approach Thursday.
"Every time we run as Democrat light, we lose. I'm convinced 2016 is going to be an election very much like 1980 and that we are going to win by following Reagan's dictum of painting in bold colors and not pale pastels," he said.
While Cruz has been one of the few Republican candidates not tangling publicly with Trump, the senator denied that he and Trump struck any deal to lay off each other. Cruz, though, said other candidates are "frightened" by what Trump is saying.
"Not only have I refused to [attack him] but I have commended Donald for having the courage to speak out and in particular to shine the light on the problem of illegal immigration," he said.

16 states ask Obama admin to put power plant rules on hold

WASHINGTON –  The campaign to stop President Barack Obama's sweeping emissions limits on power plants began taking shape Wednesday, as 16 states asked the government to put the rules on hold while a Senate panel moved to block them.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who is leading the charge against the rules, banded together with 15 other state attorneys general in a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Gina McCarthy requesting that the agency temporarily suspend the rules while they challenge their legality in court. The letter called for the EPA to respond by Friday.
The EPA and the White House both said they believe the limits are legal and have no plans to put them on hold. But by submitting the formal request anyway, the attorneys general are laying the groundwork to ask the courts to suspend the emissions limits instead.
"These regulations, if allowed to proceed, will do serious harm to West Virginia and the U.S. economy," Morrisey said. "That is why we are taking quick action to bring this process to a halt."
The 16 states and a handful of others are preparing to sue the Obama administration to block the rules permanently by arguing they exceed Obama's authority. Bolstered by a recent Supreme Court ruling against the administration's mercury limits, opponents argued that states shouldn't have to start preparing to comply with a rule that may eventually get thrown out by the courts.
The speedy opposition from the states came two days after Obama unveiled the final version of the rules, which mark the first time the U.S. has ever limited carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants. Obama's revised plan mandates a 32 percent cut in emissions nationwide by 2030, compared to 2005 levels — a steeper cut than in his earlier proposal.
Most of the attorneys general signing the letter Wednesday are Republicans. Yet they were joined by Jack Conway of the coal-producing state of Kentucky. Conway and Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear are both Democrats, but have joined the state's Republican leaders in denouncing Obama's power plant limits, which form the centerpiece of his plan to fight climate change.
Although the most serious threat to Obama's power plant rules is in the courts, lawmakers in Congress are also pursuing legislative means to stop them. The first vote came Wednesday in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, where a bill blocking the rules passed the GOP-controlled panel by a voice vote — but not without a bit of drama.
Over the protests of boycotting Democrats, the Senate GOP-controlled panel approved legislation designed to block the Obama administration from implementing the tough new standards.
Democrats walked out of the committee meeting in protest of a separate bill about pesticides, arguing it should have been the subject of a fact-finding hearing. Lacking the necessary quorum for a vote, Republican Chairman Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma reconvened the meeting in a lunchroom just off the Senate floor, where the aroma of a just-completed GOP lunch was still wafting in the air.
The voice vote approving the bill sends it to the full Senate, where a filibuster battle awaits. Obama has vowed to veto any such legislation, and Republicans have yet to prove they can muster the votes to override his veto.