Fox News town hall: Trump blasts Cruz-Fiorina ticket roll-out as ‘waste of time’

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, at a Fox News-hosted town hall in Indianapolis, on Wednesday blasted rival Ted Cruz’s decision to announce a running mate even though he’s losing the nomination race – calling it a “waste of time.”
Shortly afterward, though, Cruz VP pick Carly Fiorina fired back, saying the race isn't over yet and "close doesn't count." 
The back-and-forth capped an unusual day on the campaign trail, even as the nomination seems within Trump's grasp. The billionaire businessman responded to Cruz’s campaign curveball, while also elaborating on a foreign policy speech he delivered earlier in the day, at the forum hosted by Greta Van Susteren.
“I think it’s really a waste of time, honestly,” Trump said of Cruz’s decision to name former presidential candidate and ex-HP CEO Fiorina as his VP pick. Of the race, Trump said, “It should be over.”
Cruz earlier acknowledged it was “unusual” to name a VP choice so early, but defended the decision. He claimed “nobody is getting to 1,237 delegates,” the number needed to clinch the nomination, and voters should “know what [they] will get.”
After Trump swept five states across the Northeast on Tuesday, the three remaining GOP candidates are looking next to Indiana’s primary on May 3 as a pivotal point in the race – one that can show whether Trump turns his winning streak into irreversible momentum, or whether Cruz and John Kasich still have a shot at preventing him from clinching the nomination before July.

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But Trump cast Cruz’s ticket roll-out Wednesday as a bid to distract from bad headlines, calling it “awfully early” for such an announcement.
“You have to first get the nomination. … He has zero chance,” he said.  
Trump declined to go into detail about his own potential running mate choices. “I have a lot of great people. I just don’t like to talk about it right now,” he said.  
In an interview Wednesday night on "The Kelly File" with Fox News' Megyn Kelly, Fiorina responded to Trump's comments over Cruz making her his VP pick.
"Donald Trump hasn't won this nomination yet, despite so many people in the media just wishing it would all be over," she said.
"This isn't over until someone reaches 1,237 (delegates) ... and no, close doesn't count," she added.
Fiorina told Kelly that parts of the Republican Party are uniting behind Cruz, with him receiving endorsements from former presidential candidates Gov. Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, in addition to Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
“A majority of Republican voters don’t want Donald Trump to be their nominee," Fiorina said Wednesday.
She also responded to a question by Kelly over her criticism of Cruz earlier in the presidential campaign.
"In the heat of a presidential campaign, like in a basketball game, you make some fouls," she said.
Trump spoke just hours after delivering what was billed as a major foreign policy address in Washington. In the speech, Trump called for a drastic shake-up in America’s foreign policy – including “getting out of the nation-building business” and demanding NATO allies pay their “fair share” or be left to “defend themselves.”
At the Fox News town hall, Trump questioned “at what point are we the guardian of the world,” saying countries have to protect themselves “or you have to pay us properly.”
“We have to be good to our allies, but they have to remember that we’re good, and they have to take care of us,” Trump said.
He also discussed his goals for bringing jobs back to America, and – when asked about Bernie Sanders’ plans for free college tuition – said he would like to look “seriously” at bringing down college costs. He said he would, if elected, work out a “deal” to address that, potentially to include giving students more time to pay back their debt.
Trump was joined onstage Wednesday by legendary Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight, now a Trump supporter, who called the candidate “far and away the best person to lead America back to where we all want to be.”
Trump sought to demonstrate his foreign policy chops Wednesday as he tries to present a more presidential image – while increasingly turning his attention on the campaign trail to a general election battle he presumes will involve him and Hillary Clinton.
The billionaire businessman declared himself the “presumptive nominee” Tuesday night, after winning primaries in Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Maryland. He hasn’t shelved the trash talk and provocative language on the campaign trail, not yet anyway – repeatedly accusing Clinton of playing the “woman card” and mocking remaining GOP rivals Cruz and Kasich.

Cruz says still 'doing everything' to win Indiana, as new poll shows Trump leading by double digits

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz admits he’s putting all his eggs into Indiana, but a new poll suggests a win Tuesday in the Hoosier State’s Republican presidential primary against front-runner Donald Trump may be too high a mountain to climb.
“I'm barnstorming the state,” Cruz said on ABC's "This Week." “I'm in a bus with my family, doing everything we can to earn the votes of the men and the women in this state. We are competing hard here. I hope we do well here.”
He made the comments the same day as a new NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll showing Trump leading him by 15 percentage points in Indiana, 49-to-34 percent.
Cruz suggested last week that Indiana will decide the GOP presidential contest among him, Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Amid the latest polls, Cruz still stopped short Sunday of saying he must win Indiana to stay in the race after suggesting last week that it was make-or-break. 
“It gives me great comfort that this primary is going to be decided by the Midwestern common sense of the Hoosier State,” Cruz told Fox News on Friday, though he did not say definitively whether he would drop out if he loses Indiana.

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To be sure, much is at stake before Cruz beyond the 57 delegates up for grabs Tuesday.
He has so far won 10 state contests, but nothing since the Wisconsin primary in early April, while Trump has since won convincingly in New York and in the five Northeast states that held primaries last week. 
Last week, Cruz tried to regain some momentum by naming former primary rival Carly Fiorina as his running mate and announcing an endorsement by Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. And his campaign has worked out a deal in which the Kasich campaign will allow Cruz to try to beat Trump one-on-one in Indiana.  
Cruz also attacked Trump, saying he talks about stopping the Carrier company from leaving for Mexico but has no plan.
“He has no economic policy to bring back those jobs,” said Cruz, who has increasingly argued that Trump, a billionaire businessman, is as much a Washington insider as Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, a former first lady and secretary of state. 

CIA director says secret 9/11 report pages full of hearsay, inaccurate info

CIA Director John Brennan said Sunday that 28 classified pages of a bipartisan commission's report on the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks contains "uncorroborated, unvetted information" that some could seize upon to claim Saudi Arabian involvement in the attacks.
Brennan, speaking on NBC's "Meet The Press," said such claims would be "very, very inaccurate."
The Obama administration may soon release at least part of the secret chapter, which some believe shows a Saudi connection to the Al Qaeda attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa. 
A groundswell to declassify the documents began last month, when former Florida Sen. Bob Graham told CBS' "60 Minutes" he believed the 19 hijackers "substantially" received support from officials in Saudi Arabia's government and prominent members of society.
"There are a lot of rocks out there that have been purposefully tamped down, that if were they turned over, would give us a more expansive view of the Saudi role," Graham said at the time.
The 28 pages were withheld from the 838-page report on the orders of then-President George W. Bush, who said the release could divulge intelligence sources and methods. In mid-April, the White House told Graham that it would decide whether to declassify the material within 60 days.
Brennan said Sunday that the pages were classified because "of concerns about sensitive methods, investigative actions, and the investigation of 9/11 was still underway in 2002."
Brennan added that he believed the pages contain "a combination of things that are accurate and inaccurate." He said the 9/11 Commission followed up on the preliminary information in the 28 pages and made "a very clear judgment" there was no evidence indicating "the Saudi government as an institution or Saudi officials individually" financially backed Al Qaeda."
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were citizens of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government says it has been "wrongfully and morbidly accused of complicity" in the attacks, is fighting extremists and working to clamp down on their funding channels. Still, the Saudis have long said that they would welcome declassification of the 28 pages because it would "allow us to respond to any allegations in a clear and credible manner."
Brennan's comments came as lawmakers are considering a bill that would permit terrorism victims to sue foreign states that helped fund or otherwise support attacks in the U.S. The legislation is opposed by the Obama administration and the Saudi government has threatened to sell off hundreds of billions of dollars in American assets if it passes.

Congress Cartoon

Congress heads out with no resolution on Zika, Puerto Rico

Congress accomplished relatively little in a short work period, missing deadlines on the budget and on helping Puerto Rico with its financial crisis as lawmakers began a weeklong break.
They left behind few clues about how they would address must-do items such as finding money to counter the Zika virus and a second, even scarier July 1 deadline for averting a fiscal disaster in cash-strapped Puerto Rico.
Democrats called upon House leaders to modify this spring's three-weeks on, one-week off legislative schedule to keep working, as Puerto Rico hurtles toward a half-billion-dollar default on Sunday.
"It's very, very hard to get anything done if you are a drive-by Congress," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Friday. "We're barely here. And these deadlines are coming." Hours later, however, Democrats joined Republicans in sprinting for the Capitol's exits.
Over the past month, the Senate finally passed a major energy bill -- the first in nearly a decade -- and made progress on providing help for Flint, Michigan, which is grappling with a water contamination crisis from lead pipes.
But an effort to revive the moribund process of passing more than $1 trillion worth of annual spending bills ran aground, while talks on a $1 billion-plus measure to fight Zika are looking less promising than previously hoped.
An update on Capitol Hill's unfinished agenda:
PUERTO RICO
Having blown a May 1 deadline to help the economically distressed U.S. territory, lawmakers are now focusing on a July 1 deadline, when around $2 billion in principle and interest payments come due.
Puerto Rico expects multiple lawsuits to be filed shortly after Monday's anticipated default.
The government is expected to keep operating as usual, but economists warn that its access to capital markets will shut down and that eventually this will curtail public services if a debt-restructuring mechanism isn't approved.
A House bill would create a control board to help manage the island's $70 billion debt and oversee debt restructuring. But the legislation has stalled in the Natural Resources Committee, as some conservatives and Democrats have objected to the approach.
Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has pushed the bill, saying the U.S. may eventually have to bail out the territory if Congress doesn't act soon.
Utah Rep. Rob Bishop, the Republican chairman of the Natural Resources panel, says he hopes the island's impending default will create more urgency among his colleagues.
Senators have done even less to aid the territory, saying they will wait to see what happens in the House first.
ZIKA
President Barack Obama's $1.9 billion request for emergency funding to combat the Zika virus, known to cause grave birth defects, has elicited a lukewarm response Republicans controlling Congress. Many GOP lawmakers insist plenty of money to cover the Zika costs is left over from the largely successful battle against Ebola.
The White House has already transferred almost $600 million in previously appropriated money to the Zika fight and would have little choice but to shift more if Congress remains gridlocked.
But the administration says new funding is urgently needed to control the mosquitoes that spread the virus, manufacture vaccines once they are developed and produce more accurate testing for Zika.
Congressional GOP leaders seem to realize that they face a political imperative to do something on Zika rather than expose themselves to attacks from Democrats -- and perhaps likely presidential nominee Donald Trump -- for failing to act.
Senate Republicans may succeed in attaching a smaller Zika package to an upcoming funding bill, and House Republicans are considering adding an even smaller measure to a spending bill next month. Whether this approach will work or not is uncertain at best, but tea party Republicans have dug in against granting Obama anything near his request.
BUDGET
The House and Senate missed an April 15 deadline for producing a budget blueprint, which was a particular embarrassment for Ryan. He produced four such measures as chairman of the Budget Committee, but conservatives have hamstrung his efforts in his first year in the House's top job.
Ryan made a last-ditch appeal on Friday in a closed-door meeting and may be closer to a resolution among Republicans when they return to Washington next month.
Meanwhile, the Senate has gone directly to the 12 annual spending bills in hopes of avoiding a year-end omnibus measure.
But the very first bill, funding popular energy and water programs, hit a snag when Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., unveiled an amendment to undercut the landmark nuclear deal with Iran. Cotton's amendment was germane to the overall bill, but Democrats mounted a filibuster.
It's too early to give up, but the imbroglio bodes poorly for a successful round of spending bills.
ENERGY/FLINT
Despite Senate approval of a sprawling energy policy bill, and approval by the Senate environment committee of a bill to help Flint, both measures are far from done and face significant obstacles before reaching the president's desk.
The energy bill must be reconciled with a House version that includes far fewer incentives for renewable energy and does not include money for a land and water conservation fund, as the Senate version does.
Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah singlehandedly stalled the Flint aid package for two months and remains opposed, saying Michigan does not need federal money to solve a problem it created.

Cruz wins majority of delegates at Virginia convention

HARRISONBURG, Va. –  U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has won the support of a majority of delegates up for grabs at a GOP convention in Virginia, delegates that could help decide the Republican presidential nominee if there's a contested national convention this summer.
Cruz supporters won 10 of the 13 at-large delegates elected Saturday at the Republican Party of Virginia's statewide convention at James Madison University in Harrisonburg.
Republican front-runner Donald Trump won the other three.
Cruz's victory will only matter if he can block Trump from clinching the nomination before the national convention in July. Virginia delegates will only be free to support whomever they choose after the first round of voting at the national convention.

Obama takes his last shots at White House Correspondents' dinner

He's been a Clown since day one.

WASHINGTON –  Even though President Barack Obama and his wife can't wait to get out of the White House, being a lame duck can hurt a guy.
"Last week Prince George showed up to our meeting in his bathrobe," Obama cracked at the White House Correspondents' dinner Saturday night. "That was a slap in the face."
Obama drew plenty of laughs with his barbed remarks to a ballroom filled with journalists, politicians, and movie and television stars. It was his eighth appearance at the event and his last as president.
"If this material works well, I'm going to use it at Goldman Sachs next year," Obama said. "Earn me some serious Tubmans."
The president waxed nostalgic at times. "Eight years ago I said it was time to change the tone of our politics. In hindsight, I clearly should have been more specific."
And he acknowledged that the years had taken their toll. "I'm gray, grizzled ... counting down the days to my death panel."
On the other hand, he pointed out that his approval ratings are up. "The last time I was this high," he said, "I was trying to decide on my major." When he said he couldn't explain the rise in his popularity, two photographs appeared on ballroom screens: Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
Obama took a few more swipes at the presidential race, noting that "next year at this time someone else will be standing here in this very spot, and it's anyone's guess who she will be."
After calling presidential candidate Bernie Sanders the bright new face of the Democratic Party, Obama contrasted the slogan "Feel the Bern" with one he said was rival Hillary Clinton's: "Trudge Up the Hill."
Republicans took most of Obama's humorous broadsides. "Guests were asked to check whether they wanted steak or fish," he told the diners, "and instead a whole bunch of you wrote in Paul Ryan."
Obama said of the billionaire businessman and real estate mogul leading the GOP race: "He has spent years meeting with leaders from around the world — Miss Sweden, Miss Argentina, Miss Azerbaijan."
He added: "And there's one area where Donald's experience could be invaluable, and that's closing Guantanamo — because Trump knows a thing or two about running waterfront properties into the ground."
Turning serious, the president thanked the White House press corps and praised a free press.
"I just have two more words to say: Obama out." With that, he held out the mic and dropped it.
Obama took a few hits, too. Preceding his remarks was a tongue-in-cheek video tribute to his seven-plus years in office that contained highlights of his verbal gaffes — his reference to "57 states" and misspelling 'rspect" among them — as well as light-hearted moments.
Comedian Larry Wilmore, the evening's professional entertainment, began by saying, "It's not easy to follow the president." Then he proved his point, offering a series of jokes about the president, different media organizations and various presidential candidates that often were racially tinged and drew a mixture of laughter and groans.
"Welcome to Negro night," Wilmore said, and added that Fox News had reported that "two thugs" disrupted an elegant dinner, also mixing in critiques of CNN's viewership and MSNBC's firing of black anchors.
Wilmore said the president is showing signs that his time in office has been hard on him. "You came in here looking like Denzel, now you're going out looking like Grady from 'Sanford and Son.'"
As usual the Washington Hilton ballroom was a celebrity-spotters dream. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders joined Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry and other government officials taking a seat. Also on hand were Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Trump, a regular in recent years, was absent this time, but a son and daughter-in-law, Donald Jr. and Vanessa Trump, were spotted on the red carpet.
Among the film and television performers at the event were Oscar winners Helen Mirren and Jared Leto, "Breaking Bad" actor Bryan Cranston, "Independence Day" stars Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum, actress Rachel McAdams, and "Night Manager" miniseries star Tom Hiddleston.
Proceeds from the dinner go toward journalism scholarships and reporting awards. This year's winners:
— Carol Lee of the Wall Street Journal, winner of the Aldo Beckman Memorial Award for excellence in White House coverage.
— Matt Viser of the Boston Globe, winner of the Merriman Smith Award for outstanding White House coverage under deadline pressure.
— Norah O'Donnell of CBS News, winner of the Merriman Smith Award for broadcast journalism.
— Terrence McCoy of The Washington Post and Neela Banerjee, John Cushman Jr., David Hasemyer and Lisa Song of InsideClimate, winners of the Edgar A. Poe award, which recognizes excellence in coverage of events or investigative topics of regional or national interest.

Trump backers furious over defeat at Arizona GOP convention

Backers of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump accused the Arizona GOP convention of cheating after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz pulled out a strategic victory Saturday.
Cruz won virtually all of the 28 at-large national delegates and roughly split the 27 delegates selected by congressional district. Cruz's Arizona campaign organizer says simple math led to the at-large victory. Cruz offered a nearly identical slate of candidates as John Kasich backers, and the combined votes led to a win.
State Treasurer Jeff DeWitt, who chairs Trump’s Arizona campaign, said a challenge is possible after calls for a revote were rejected by the party.
"The Trump campaign is very unhappy with the results," DeWitt told reporters. "We don't feel that this was a fair process. The Trump button got checked more than any other, so why do we have so few delegates?"
Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio blamed “back-room-dealing politics” for the loss Saturday, according to The Arizona Republic.
"This is what America hates. This is why the voters have turned to Trump," DiCiccio said. "They're turning to Donald Trump because they are tired of the backroom politics, and that's what occurred here today."

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Former Gov. Jan Brewer lost her bid to become a delegate and said afterward that she was cheated.
"I got cheated," Brewer told reporters. "And the people of Arizona got cheated."
State party Chairman Robert Graham said the election was run fairly, and the Kasich-Cruz slates just combined to get the win.
"Mr. DeWit is making a habit of making outlandish comments to try to crush the integrity of a great meeting," Graham said. "This was a very pronounced victory for the Cruz-Kasich slates. If it was close, then you might say 'Hey, one person here, one person there,' but this was a commanding victory."
Constantin Querard, Cruz’s Arizona campaign chair, struck back against claims from DeWitt.

2016 Arizona Presidential Primary Results | InsideGov

"They lost because of math, not because of malfeasance. If you take the people that want Cruz, and you add to them the people who don't want Trump, that's a majority in just about any room in America."
Saturday’s victory was mainly strategic for Cruz since all 58 Arizona delegates are required to vote for Trump on the first national ballot because he won the state’s primary. If there is a contested convention, the state’s delegates can switch to back Cruz. There are three automatic delegates, including Graham.
With Trump at nearly 1,000 national delegates out of 1,237 he needs to win the presidential nomination outright after recent sweeps of five eastern states, even Cruz's Arizona backers believe Saturday's effort is likely to be for naught.
"It's most likely that Trump will be the next president, but I'm trying my hardest for it to be Cruz," said state Rep. David Livingston, who is unabashedly backing Cruz.
The battle at Saturday's convention goes back weeks, when Cruz backers were wrangling at local party meetings to nail down delegates to the state party.
Gov. Doug Ducey opened the convention by calling on the party faithful to end Democratic control of the White House.
Ducey called the past eight years "the most futile in modern American history" and said that it's time to "put a Republican in the White House and Hillary Clinton in the Big House."

Carley Cruz Cartoon

US weighing under-the-radar routes for Syrian refugees?

The Obama administration appears to be bowing to international pressure and pursuing under-the-radar “alternative” ways to bring in more Syrian and other refugees -- as soon as this year.
The latest indication that the administration is preparing to take in more than the 10,000 Syrians this year it already has committed to follows a March 30 “high-level meeting” on Syrian refugee admission in Geneva, Switzerland -- convened by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
At the meeting, attended by State Department officials, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called for countries to pursue “alternative avenues” for refugees – such as student and work visas, and expanded family reunification programs.
“These pathways can take many forms: not only resettlement, but also more flexible mechanisms for family reunification, including extended family members, [labor] mobility schemes, student visa and scholarships, as well as visa for medical reasons,” Grandi said. This followed an adviser suggesting the U.S. ask universities to offer scholarships to Syrian students, and help Syrian-Americans bring in their extended families outside the “time-consuming” refugee resettlement process.
The State Department immediately issued a media note reaffirming the “commitment to resettle at least 10,000 Syrians in FY 2016 and increase the total number of resettled refugees from around the world to 100,000 by the end of FY 2017.”
Additionally, in a wordy statement, the State Department appeared to agree with many of Grandi’s conclusions.
“The United States joins UNHCR in calling for new ways nations, civil society, the private sector, and individuals can together address the global refugee challenge. The United States encourages other countries to consider expanding resettlement and other forms of admissions for all refugee populations, ensuring that more of those in need have the opportunity to start their lives anew in safety and with dignity,” the note said.
Nayla Rush, senior researcher at the Center for Immigration Studies, said she thinks the administration is “100 percent” behind the idea.
“My fear is they aren’t really going to let anyone know about it,” Rush said.
Unclear is whether the refugees can be properly vetted, especially if they come in through an array of different visa programs. The Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for lower immigration levels, reported on the U.N. meeting earlier this week.
In its media note, the State Department said the U.S. “has created a program to allow U.S. citizens and permanent residents to file refugee applications for their Syrian family members.”
Rush believes this is a sign the Obama administration is already expanding the family reunification program.
“Why create a family reunification program for Syrian refugees when refugees in the U.S. are already entitled to ask for their spouse and unmarried children under 21 to join them? Unless of course, the aim is to widen family circles to include aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, grandmothers and grandfathers,” Rush said in a blog post on the subject
The State Department did not say if it was looking at expanding the student visa or family reunification programs, but told FoxNews.com that Syrians being considered on non-immigrant and immigrant visa categories must be considered in accordance with U.S. immigration law.
The department has worked with the Syrian Consortium for Higher Education in Crisis since 2012 to help students and scholars impacted by the bloody civil war. A State Department official said this consortium includes U.S. colleges that have committed to hosting Syrian students and scholars. The official said “several immigrant visa options” are available to Syrians, including family-sponsored visas.
Shuffling potential refugees into other programs could prove problematic.
On one hand, standard immigration vetting often requires a higher degree of documentation, as officials are more likely to waive requirements for asylum-seekers or refugees who are assumed to have fled their homes quickly. However, the Obama administration repeatedly has heralded its two-year process for refugees as one of the most rigorous in existence. Standard immigration programs usually take much less time.
Any attempt to expand the process could encounter opposition from Congress. In November, the House passed a bill to enhance Syrian refugee screening, but the legislation stalled in the Senate amid Democratic opposition.
Last month, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who co-authored the bill, wrote in a FoxNews.com op-ed that the Syrian refugee crisis risked becoming a “terrorist Trojan horse.”