GOP candidates talk illegal immigration, slam Democrats at New Hampshire forum

MANCHESTER, N.H. –  The Republican Party's presidential class demanded aggressive steps to curb illegal immigration, seizing on a delicate political issue while facing off in New Hampshire on Monday night during a crowded and pointed preview of the 2016 primary season's first full-fledged debate.
All but three of the 17 major Republican candidates for president participated in what was essentially a debate lite, which -- unlike Thursday's nationally televised debate in Cleveland -- didn't have a cut-off for participation.
Without exception, the candidates aimed their criticism at Democrats instead of each other in a two-hour meeting where they had more in common than not. Not mentioned was the candidate making the most news headed into Thursday's debate: Donald Trump. The billionaire businessman declined to participate in Monday's gathering, but is poised to take center stage later in the week.
Monday's meeting offered a prime-time practice round for the GOP's most ambitious, appearing on stage one at a time, who addressed several contentious issues, immigration topping a list that also included abortion and climate change.
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who may not qualify for the upcoming debate as one of the GOP's top 10 candidates in national polling, called the flow of immigrants crossing the border illegally "a serious wound."
"You want to stanch the flow," he said as his Republican rivals watched from the front row of the crowded St. Anselm College auditorium. On those immigrants who have overstayed visas, Perry charged, "You go find `em, you pick `em up and you send `em back where they're from."
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum went further, calling for a 25 percent reduction of low-skilled immigrants coming into the country legally.
"Everyone else is dancing around it. I'm going to stand for the American worker," Santorum declared.
Just an hour before the forum began, the Senate blocked a GOP-backed bill to strip funding from Planned Parenthood, reviving a debate on social issues that some Republican officials hoped to avoid in 2016.
Three of the four senators participating in Monday's event --Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky -- did so via satellite from C-SPAN's Washington studio so they wouldn't miss the high-profile vote.
"We had to be here to vote to de-fund Planned Parenthood," Cruz said.
It's a welcome debate for Democrats who see women -- married women, particularly -- as a key constituency in 2016. Leading Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who would be the nation's first female president, lashed out at the attacks on Planned Parenthood in a web video released before the GOP forum.
"If this feels like a full-on assault for women's health, that's because it is," Clinton said in the video, criticizing by name former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Perry.
Democrats are also eager to debate Republicans on immigration.
GOP leaders have acknowledged the need to improve the party's standing among Hispanic voters. Yet while many Democrats favor a more forgiving policy that would allow immigrants in the country illegally a pathway to citizenship, most Republicans in the field instead focus on border security.
Rubio, once a lead salesman for a comprehensive immigration overhaul, said Americans want the border fence completed and more border security agents before there's any discussion of what to do with those 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.
Rubio, once a lead salesman for a comprehensive immigration overhaul, said Americans want the border fence completed and more border security agents before there's any discussion of what to do with those 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.
Others offered a softer tone. Ohio Gov. John Kasich said "law-abiding, God-fearing" immigrants should be allowed to stay. Those who break the law, he said, "have to be deported or put in prison."
Bush said fixing the nation's immigration system is a key part of his plan to help the economy grow 4 percent each year. He also called for reducing legal immigration, particularly the number of people allowed to enter the country to rejoin family.
President Barack Obama injected another contentious issue Monday when he unveiled new emissions limits on power plants designed to address climate change. He called it a moral obligation and warned anew that climate change will threaten future generations if left unchecked.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker called the move "a buzz saw to the nation's economy."
"I want to balance a sustainable environment with a sustainable economy," Walker said.
Several candidates involved Monday night won't make the cut for Thursday's debate. Those on the bubble include South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and former technology executive Carly Fiorina, who charged that Clinton has repeatedly lied during investigations into her use of a private email server and an attack on an American embassy in Libya while she was secretary of state.
"These go to the core of her character," Fiorina said.
Monday's participants included seven current or former governors, four senators, a businesswoman, a retired neurosurgeon and one former senator. Trump, who launched his presidential bid by calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, was among only three major candidates who didn't participate.
Monday's event was broadcast live on C-SPAN and local television stations in Iowa and South Carolina -- states that, along with New Hampshire, will host the first contests in the presidential primary calendar next February.
After the debate, Kasich was asked about Trump's absence.
"I never thought about him," the Ohio governor said. "It'd have been great if he'd have been here."

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Is Trump the one-man, 2016 Tea Party wave?

Donald Trump’s run for the Republican presidential nomination is channeling the kind of energy that helped 2010 Tea Party-backed candidates sweep establishment Republicans and Democrats alike out of Congress, Michael Needham, leader of the conservative Heritage Action for America group, suggested Sunday.
“There’s going to be a candidate who says it’s time for us to change,” Needham, the super-PAC’s executive officer, told “Fox News Sunday.” “That candidate is going to be someone who unites traditional Republicans, the Tea Party, all sorts of independents and former Democrats. … It’s not just Tea Partiers. For a lot of Americans right now, they feel disconnected from Washington.”
Needham and his group, the political arm of the long-influential Heritage Foundation, have frequently led the charge against the positions of GOP House and Senate leadership, most recently House Speaker John Boehner’s support of the Export-Import Bank, which critics say perpetuates "crony capitalism" by giving disproportionate government assistance to large corporations that don't need it.
The group also supported Tea Party-backed Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2013 successful attempt to partially shut down the federal government over funding ObamaCare.
The self-funded Trump, a billionaire New York real estate tycoon, now sits at or near the top of numerous polls.
He has eschewed the support of wealth political donors and the Washington establishment, including at times the Republican National Committee.
And he has repeatedly attempted to take down some of the Republican guard’s most established members, including senior Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a member of the Bush family political dynasty who also is at the top of most polls.
The Tea Party movement was a grass-roots effort based on the principals of less taxes and smaller government.
“People are sick of the establishment and hate their party,” said Needham, who is not a Trump supporter. “And that’s what needs to be addressed. The reason Donald Trump is generating a lot of enthusiasm is that he's ticking off the right people."

Hillary Clinton campaign launches first TV ads Tuesday in Iowa, New Hampshire

The first television advertisements in support of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign will air Tuesday in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire in a move to shore up support for the Democratic front-runner.
People close to the Clinton campaign told Fox News late Sunday that they felt it was time to enter the next phase of the 2016 campaign amid a strengthening challenge from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and increased speculation that Vice President Joe Biden will make a late entry into the race.
The ads will focus on Clinton's legal work on behalf of families and her relationship with her late mother Dorothy, central themes of her early campaign.
"After law school she could have gone to a big firm but instead went to work for the Children's Defense Fund. In Arkansas, she fought for school reform to change lives forever. Then as first lady she helped get health care for eight million kids," says a narrator in one of the ads. " You probably know the rest."
Though Clinton remains the heavy favorite for the 2016 Democratic nomination, recent surveys have show declines in her favorability and trustworthiness ratings amid ongoing controversy over her use of a private e-mail address to handle correspondence while secretary of state.
On Thursday, Fox News reported that Clinton aides were growing increasingly nervous about the possibility of a Biden run after the vice president’s White House chief of staff was spotted having breakfast recently with major Democratic donor Louis Susman, a Clinton friend who served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom under President Obama. The New York Times reported Sunday that Biden had discussed entering the race with friends, family, and Democratic donors.
Meanwhile, Sanders has drawn large crowds in early voting states with his left-wing populist economic message. However, the self-described socialist has resisted attacking Clinton, focusing instead on contrasting his more liberal views with hers on issues like Wall Street regulations and the Keystone pipeline.
"I have a lot of respect for Hillary Clinton," he ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday. But, he added: "She and I disagree on many issues."
Clinton aides, meanwhile, have been trying to lower expectations for her primary performance by arguing that both Iowa, where the state's caucuses bring out the most passionate party voters, and New Hampshire, next door to Sanders home state of Vermont, favor their competition.
The emphasis on family issues is a change in course from Clinton's failed White House bid in 2008, when her campaign focused on her experience and toughness. Though Clinton has spent decades on the American political stage, her team insists that voters don't really know much about her background. They've focused on reintroducing the former Secretary of State, presidential candidate, and New York senator as a grandmother-in-chief, highlighting her family relationships and embracing her role in history as the first potential female president.
A number of Republican candidates have already begun airing ads, attempting to distinguish themselves in a crowded primary field. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's campaign has invested more than $12 million in ads that start airing at the end of the year in Iowa, New Hampshire and other states. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has spent $1 million and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's presidential campaign nearly $500,000 on spots in New Hampshire.

Authorities identify suspect wanted in fatal shooting of Memphis police officer during traffic stop

A suspect has been identified in the search for a gunman who shot and killed a Memphis police officer during a traffic stop, the city's police director said Sunday night.
A warrant for first-degree murder has been issued for 29-year-old Tremaine Wilbourn, who is believed to be the shooter, Police Director Toney Armstrong said at a Sunday evening press conference.
Wilbourn is currently on supervised release for a 121 month sentence for robbery of a banking institution, Armstrong said.
Officer Sean Bolton, 33, may have interrupted an illicit drug transaction when he encountered a Mercedes-Benz illegally parked on a Memphis street Saturday night, according to Armstrong.
After Bolton illuminated the Mercedes with his spotlight, he approached the vehicle and was confronted by its passenger, who allegedly shot Bolton multiple times after a struggle, the director said.
Armstrong told reporters that 1.7 grams of marijuana was found inside the vehicle.
 "He's a coward," Armstrong said of the suspect, Wilbourn, "you gunned down, you murdered a police officer, for less than 2 grams of marijuana. You literally destroyed a family."
“Last night we lost an officer and a great man, a dedicated servant and family member,” Armstrong said.
The police director said that the White House has contacted the department and is aware of the incident.
The United States Marshals Service has offered a $10,000 reward for Wilbourn’s capture.
The driver of the vehicle turned himself in to authorities Sunday morning, and has since been released without charge, Armstrong said at the press conference.
Police were initially alerted about 9:18 p.m. Saturday that an officer had been shot multiple times. Armstrong said the officer was transported in critical condition to a hospital, where he died.
In a statement Sunday morning, Memphis Police said that a civilian had used Bolton's radio to notify police about the shooting.
Armstrong said police are using all available resources to find the shooter and that officers are grieving, adding that "this is just a reminder of how dangerous" the job is.
"Sadly to say, we've been here before," he said.
Bolton is the third Memphis officer to be fatally shot in slightly more than four years. Officer Tim Warren was killed while responding to a shooting at a downtown Memphis hotel in July 2011. In December 2012, Officer Martoiya Lang was killed while serving a warrant.
Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton Jr. said Bolton's death "speaks volumes about the inherent danger of police work" and asked others to "pray for the family and pray for our city."
"The men and women in blue have certain rules of engagement that they have to follow, but at any given minute in a 24-hour day they're dealing with folks who have no rules of engagement

Senate to vote Monday to defund Planned Parenthood, first step in renewed battle

The Republican-controlled Senate is set to vote Monday to halt federal aid to Planned Parenthood, a fast response to the series of unsettling videos exposing the group's little-noticed practice of providing fetal tissue to researchers.
The measure is not expected to pass because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the other 53 Republican senators will need support from several Democrats to reach the 60-vote threshold, with some moderates on both sides still apparently undecided.
However, the effort appears to be another step in the effort by pro-life groups and others to ban abortions and put an end to Planned Parenthood, which provides health services, family planning and abortions in clinics across the country.
"I think most Americans don't want their tax dollars going to this,” 2016 presidential candidate and Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “So I think when something is so morally repugnant to so many people, why should tax dollars go to this?”
Paul and other Republicans want the millions that go to Planned Parenthood given instead to community health centers across the country that provide similar services with the exception of abortions.  
"So it would be much less emotional for everyone if we just funded community health centers and didn't fund Planned Parenthood,” Paul said.
Democrats largely supported the group and argue the videos and the congressional Republican response is politically motivated and another attack on women.
"They're attacking women's health,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada.
The White House says it would block legislation to defund the pro-choice group.
Still, the furtively recorded videos -- with close-ups of aborted fetal organs and Planned Parenthood officials dispassionately describing how "I'm not going to crush that part" -- have forced the group and its Democratic champions into a defensive crouch.
The Center for Medical Progress, which recorded the videos and started releasing them late last month, accuses Planned Parenthood of profiting from selling fetal organs, which violates a federal criminal statute that lets providers recover only their expenses.
They also say Planned Parenthood is altering abortion procedures to better recover usable tissue.
Conservatives view the videos as a huge political opportunity to galvanize support for banning abortions and, some hope, prohibiting fetal tissue research. But the issue is cutting both ways, with both sides using it for fundraising solicitations.
Planned Parenthood has apologized for comments in the video but says it has broken no laws.
There are roughly 1 million U.S. abortions yearly. In its most recent annual report, Planned Parenthood said it performed 328,000 of them.
The group and its supporters have sought to shift the focus, saying abortions represent just 3 percent of the 10.9 million services the organization provides annually in nearly 700 clinics.
Group officials also says the yearly workload includes 4.5 million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases; 3.6 million contraception procedures and devices; 1.1 million pregnancy tests and 900,000 cancer tests and treatments.
Of Planned Parenthood's 2.7 million annual clients, mostly women, it says 4 in 5 earn 150 percent of the federal poverty level or less. Democrats say an attack on Planned Parenthood is an effort to keep women, many of them poor, from needed health services.
Planned Parenthood says of $1.3 billion in revenue last year, $528 million came from taxpayers, including state funds that help finance Medicaid.
Supporters of Planned Parenthood say cutting federal aid wouldn't affect the abortions it provides because federal money cannot be used for abortions except for cases of rape, incest or when a woman's life is in peril.
Opponents say squeezing money from Planned Parenthood makes it choose between spending its remaining funds on abortions or other services.
Republicans say the nearly 9,100 federally funded community health centers, more than 10 times the number of Planned Parenthood locations, could pick up the slack.
Planned Parenthood disagrees, saying their sites serve disproportionate numbers of low-income women and are often where no other alternatives exist.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is sponsor of the Senate bill, a female face Republicans hope will blunt repeated Democratic accusations that the GOP is waging war on women.
Underscoring the sensitivity, some of the moderates will likely cross party lines Monday. Sens. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, are among several saying little about how they will vote.
Some Republicans, include the more socially conservative members, say they won't vote for spending bills keeping the government open starting Oct. 1 with any Planned Parenthood funds.
 But GOP leaders are reluctant to force a shutdown fight that could haunt them in the 2016 elections, as are some of the party's presidential candidates.

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Big Labor defends Planned Parenthood, calls attacks 'extremist,' 'politically motivated'

Two of the country’s biggest and most powerful labor unions have come to the defense of Planned Parenthood, amid a series of recently released videos in which leaders of the group are seen bargaining for the sale price of fetal tissues and organs, according to Watchdog.org.
“We stand united with our allies at Planned Parenthood, champions of quality healthcare and a cornerstone of vital services to millions of Americans for decades,” Mary Kay Henry, Service Employees International Union president, said in a statement this week.
Henry made the statement after the release of at least two videos and after the Republican-controlled Congress began to take action to stop federal funding for the group, which provides abortions and other women’s medical services.
The for-profit sale of aborted body parts by Planned Parenthood for research is illegal. The group has apologies for the statements made in the videos but says the discussions were about the cost of covering expenses and that there has been no wrongdoing.
"Efforts in Congress to de-fund Planned Parenthood by anti-women, anti-choice extremists must be stopped,” Henry also said in the statement.
The union coalition AFL-CIO is also backing Planned Parenthood, which receives about $500,000 annually from the federal government.
Union President Richard Trumka called the stealthy recorded videos “doctored” and said efforts to defund Planned Parenthood are “politically motivated and wrong.”
The membership ranks of the AFL-CIO’s two largest affiliates -- American Federation of Teachers and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees -- include government workers. And many of AFT’s members are nurses.
None of the union groups contacted by Watchdog.org responded to a request to comment.
AFL-CIO, AFSCME and SEIU helped pass ObamaCare through Congress early in President Obama’s first term and continue to work together.
AFSCME, for example, paid Planned Parenthood’s political action wing $400,000 in 2014, $20,000 in 2013 and $20,000 in 2011. And the payments were reported to the Labor Department as a “political program support” expenses, according to Watchdog.org.

Billionaires bankrolling 2016 campaign to unprecedented degree

Billionaires are bankrolling the early days of the 2016 presidential campaign to an unprecedented degree, with at least 40 of the wealthiest Americans plowing $60 million into super PACs aligned with the top tier of candidates.
The torrent of super PAC money is revolutionizing presidential politics in the wake of a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that opened the door to unlimited contributions from corporations, unions and individuals into these outside groups.
Super PACs backing 17 presidential candidates raised more than $250 million in the first six months of this year, roughly doubling the $125 million raised by the candidates for their campaigns, disclosure reports filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission show
The proliferation of the committees also is transforming how presidential campaigns will be run. Some candidates are exporting to outside groups some core components of their operations, including voter-turnout programs and television advertising. Since federal law prohibits coordination with super PACs, the candidates won’t have direct control over some essential tasks, pushing the 2016 race into uncharted territory.
The broad engagement by wealthy donors also helps explain why the GOP field, in particular, keeps expanding. Almost every one of the primary candidates has a billionaire at his back, which means the life of their candidacies is now divorced from their ability to directly raise money from voters.
Renaissance Technologies executive Robert Mercer is the biggest donor in the presidential race so far: he wrote an $11 million check to a group backing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Diane Hendricks, the billionaire head of a roofing supply company, gave $5 million to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s super PAC, while auto dealer Norman Braman gave $5 million to a group supporting Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
Two super PACs supporting former Texas Gov. Rick Perry raked in more than $11 million from just two Texas billionaires. The super PAC backing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie counts about a dozen billionaires among its supporters. And a group aligned with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton received $7.5 million from at least eight billionaires, including financier Donald Sussman, investor George Soros and Haim Saban and his wife, Cheryl.
The committee backing Jeb Bush was the most aggressive in adapting to the less regulated political environment. Half of the 40 billionaires identified by The Wall Street Journal donated a combined $17.4 million to Right to Rise USA while it was on the way to raising an unprecedented $103 million. That super PAC far surpassed its rivals in a crowded GOP field as well as Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic front-runner.

Texas Attorney General indicted for felony securities fraud, prosecutor says

A grand jury has indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on felony securities fraud charges that accuse the Republican of misleading investors before he became the state’s top law enforcement officer, a special prosecutor said on Saturday.
Kent Schaffer, a Houston defense attorney appointed by a judge to the case, told The New York Times that a Texas grand jury indicted Paxton on two counts of first-degree securities fraud and a lesser charge of not registering.
Paxton also allegedly encouraged investment in McKinney-based tech startup company Severgy Inc., which is now under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Associated Press reported Paxton’s involvement with the company – and that a federal investigation was under way – last month.
Paxton was also fined last year for not disclosing to Texas securities regulators that he was getting commissions for soliciting investors.
Joe Kendall, Paxton’s lawyer, said in a statement on Saturday night saying the judge overseeing the case “has specifically instructed both parties to refrain from public comment on this matter and we are honoring the judge’s instructions.”
That came after Schaffer and his co-special prosecutor in the case, Brian Wice, issued a statement that only hinted at the indictment. The defense attorneys said they were dedicated to ensuring that anyone accused of a crime is guaranteed a presumption of innocence and a fair trial.
"Because our statutory mandate as special prosecutors is not to convict, but to see that justice is done, our commitment to these bedrock principles remains inviolate," they said.
Paxton’s aides have said the investigation in Collin County was politically motivated. That allegation has been rebuffed by Schaffer and Wice, the lead attorney in former Republic U.S. House Majority Leader Tom Delay’s successful appeal of his money laundering conviction.
Schaffer told The Times that the allegations regarding Servergy are first-degree securities fraud. He said Paxton is accused of encouraging investors in 2011 to put more than $600,000 into Servergy, while not telling them he was making a commission on their investment and misrepresenting himself as an investor. He said Paxton is expected to turn himself on Monday, the same day the new indictment is expected to be unsealed.
Conviction of a first-degree felony in Texas carries a punishment ranging from five years to life in prison.
Paxton is also accused to failing to register as a solicitor while taking commissions for referring law clients to a financial investor. That charge, a third-degree felony, could bring two to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Paxton accepted a $1,000 fine from the Texas State Securities board last year. At the time, the state board declined to pursue criminal charges. But the matter was revived after a complaint by the left-leaning watchdog group Texans for Public Justice, and a judge ultimately appointed the two special prosecutors.
"It is time for Paxton to face the consequences. This is yet another example of the corrupt culture that fester with one-party, unchecked Republican power," Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Manny Garcia said.
The cloud of a criminal investigation has shadowed Paxton while he emerged as a national Republican figure during his first six months as Texas' attorney general.
A tea party star in Texas, Paxton recently advised county clerks they could refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on religious grounds after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the unions nationwide.