Washington (CNN)John Boehner, the Ohio Republican who steered his party to an overwhelming House majority in 2010, said in a news conference Friday afternoon he had decided only that morning to announce his plans to resign from Congress.

"Last night I started thinking about this and this morning I woke up and I said my prayers -- as I always do -- and I decided today's the day I'm going to do this. As simple as that," Boehner said during an emotional Capitol Hill press conference a day after he had a moving encounter with Pope Francis.

He will step down as Speaker and leave Congress at the end of October.

The Ohio Republican's tenure as Speaker has been marked by clashes with conservatives -- especially when it comes to fiscal policy. He's struggled to push through legislation to increase the debt ceiling and was facing another showdown next week to keep the government open. The Speaker has often relied on Democratic votes during these moments -- a strategy that has infuriated conservatives.

Boehner, who turns 65 in November, said Friday that he had planned to step down at the end of the year but turmoil within his caucus prompted him to resign earlier than planned.

"I got plenty of people following me but this turmoil that's been churning now for a couple of months, it's not good for the members and it's not good for the institution. If I was not planning on leaving here soon, I can tell you I would not have done it," Boehner said.

The abrupt decision comes amid heavy pressure from conservatives for Boehner to take a harder line on their causes, most recently over defunding Planned Parenthood as part of a package that would keep the government open. Boehner said he didn't want to put his fellow members through another vote to challenge his leadership.

Related: Speaker John Boehner's resignation sparks succession fight

Boehner, who has presided over the House since 2011, explained during a closed-door meeting with Republicans Friday morning that he had only planned to serve two terms as Speaker but decided to hold onto his post after then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his seat during a primary last year.

Boehner also told the lawmakers that Pope Francis' visit to Congress the day before was a crystallizing moment, according to the lawmaker. Boehner then read the prayer of St. Francis to the conference after announcing his decision.

Why now

Boehner said the main driver behind his resignation was concern for his conference, he also recalled emotionally when he and the Pope found themselves alone during the visit Thursday -- something Boehner, a devout Catholic, had sought since taking the helm of the House GOP caucus.

"The Pope puts his arm around me and kind of pulls me to him and says please pray for me. Who am I to pray for the Pope? But I did," Boehner said, struggling to hold back tears.

Boehner also drew on the Pope's words during his address to Congress on Thursday and said he hoped "we will all heed his call to live by the Golden Rule." He also stressed the importance for leaders to "find common ground to get things done."

He said he will not partake in the vote to choose his successor but said his deputy, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy "would make an excellent Speaker."

President Barack Obama said Friday at a previously scheduled news conference alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping that he called Boehner after learning of his resignation.

He did not say what he told Boehner, but praised him as "a good man" and "a patriot" who "cares deeply" about the country and always kept his word.

"We have obviously had a lot of disagreements and politically we're at different ends of the spectrum," Obama said. "He has always conducted himself with courtesy and civility with me. He has kept his word when he made a commitment. He is somebody who has been gracious. Most importantly he's somebody who understands that in government and in governance you don't get 100% of what you want."

Obama said he hoped Boehner's successor would recognize that political differences should not come at the risk of shutting down the government.

"There's no weakness in that. That's what government is in our democracy. You don't get what you want 100% of the time. So sometimes you take half a loaf, sometimes you take a quarter loaf and that's certainly something I've learned here in this office," Obama said.

Read: Obama calls Boehner 'a patriot'

Congressional leaders respond

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called Boehner's resignation "seismic for the House" and called it evidence of the far right's "hijacking" of the Republican Party. And she said the squabble to succeed Boehner will be "more than a distraction" to efforts to resolve the latest funding battle roiling the Hill.

"That resignation of the Speaker is a stark indication of the disarray of the House Republicans," Pelosi said during a Friday morning press conference.

Pelosi said she had not yet spoken with Boehner, but affirmed that she planned to continue negotiating directly with him to achieve her goal of funding Planned Parenthood.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid tweeted similarly that the ouster of "a good man like Speaker Boehner -- someone who understood the art of compromise" showed that "the party of Eisenhower and Reagan is no more."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also lamented Boehner's resignation, saying it is "very, very sad" that the tea party has "taken over control of the party."

"John Boehner, he ... is a conservative Republican, but his problem is that John Boehner has been pragmatic. He realizes that there come times when you have to make a deal," McConnell said, before pointing out that Reagan also "understood the art of compromise."

Boehner and McConnell have not always seen eye to eye as Boehner wrestled with hardline conservatives in his caucus, but McConnell said that throughout those disagreements, Boehner "never, ever misled me.

"His word was always good," McConnell said.

Syrian commander gives equipment to Al Qaeda affiliate, US military says

A U.S.-trained Syrian rebel commander has told the U.S. military that he surrendered six coalition-provided trucks and ammunition to an intermediary linked to the Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, known as the Nusra Front.
U.S. Central Command said late Friday that roughly a quarter of the equipment assigned to that unit was apparently turned over earlier this week in exchange for safe passage within the region. U.S. officials said Syrians continue to insist they haven’t relinquished actual weapons to the terror group and that all of their personnel are still accounted for.
A military official told the Washington Post that assurances regarding the trade had come from the deputy commander of the group. It was the unit leader who surrendered the equipment and who contacted U.S. officials correcting the information on Friday, the official told the Post.
The command is still looking into the matter, said Air Force Co. Pat Ryder, a U.S. Central Command spokesman. However, the report contradicts information the Defense Department provided earlier Friday, which said reports of U.S.-trained Syrian rebels defecting and missing equipment going to the Nusra Front was incorrect.
"In light of this new information, we wanted to ensure the public was informed as quickly as possible about the facts as we know them at this time," Ryder said. "We are using all means at our disposal to look into what exactly happened and determine the appropriate response."
The report underscores persistent problems with the U.S.-led coalition’s effort to train and equip Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State in the embattled region. The Washington Post report White House and Pentagon officials are considering providing more weapons to a wider range of rebel groups in Syria, but now it could come in question in light of the recent incident.
Ryder said the Syrians told the U.S. earlier Friday that no equipment or people were missing, but the U.S. found out later on that some of those assertions were wrong. He said providing equipment to the Nusra Front is a violation of the training and equipping program.
The commander who turned the equipment over to the Nusra Front was one of about 70 rebel fighters who were in the second U.S. training course. He had only recently returned to Syria to fight the Islamic State militants.
The training program has been criticized as offering too little too late and failing to provide enough protection for those trained rebels once back inside Syria. The selected rebels are said to undergo a thorough vetting process to ensure they focus on the fight against the IS.
U.S. officials have begun an overhaul of the effort, including suggesting that the newly trained fighters operate as the New Syrian Forces, or NSF, alongside Syrian Kurds, Sunni Arab and other anti-Islamic State forces.
The first batch of about 54 trainees has largely disbanded. Of the 54, one was killed; one is being held captive; nine are back in the fight; 11 are available but not in Syria; 14 returned to Syria but quit the U.S. program; and 18 are unaccounted for.

Officials: More work emails from Clinton's private account

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration has discovered a chain of emails that Hillary Rodham Clinton failed to turn over when she provided what she said was the full record of work-related correspondence as secretary of state, officials said Friday, adding to the growing questions related to the Democratic presidential front-runner's unusual usage of a private email account and server while in government.
The messages were exchanged with retired Gen. David Petraeus when he headed the military's U.S. Central Command, responsible for running the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They began before Clinton entered office and continued into her first days at the State Department. They largely pertained to personnel matters and don't appear to deal with highly classified material, officials said, but their existence challenges Clinton's claim that she has handed over the entirety of her work emails from the account. Republicans have raised questions about thousands of emails that she has deleted on grounds that they were private in nature, as well as other messages that have surfaced independently of Clinton and the State Department. Speaking of her emails on CBS' "Face the Nation" this week, Clinton said: "We provided all of them." But the FBI and several congressional committees are investigating. The State Department's record of Clinton emails begins on March 18, 2009 — almost two months after she entered office. Before then, Clinton has said she used an old AT&T Blackberry email account, the contents of which she no longer can access.
The Petraeus emails, first discovered by the Defense Department and then passed to the State Department's inspector general, challenge that claim. They start on Jan. 10, 2009, with Clinton using the older email account. But by Jan. 28 — a week after her swearing in — she switched to using the private email address on a homebrew server that she would rely on for the rest of her tenure. There are less than 10 emails back and forth in total, officials said, and the chain ends on Feb. 1.
The officials weren't authorized to speak on the matter and demanded anonymity. But State Department spokesman John Kirby confirmed that the agency received the emails in the "last several days" and that they "were not previously in the possession of the department."
Kirby said they would be subject to a Freedom of Information Act review like the rest of Clinton's emails. She gave the department some 30,000 emails last year that she sent or received while in office, and officials plan to finish releasing all of them by the end of January, after sensitive or classified information is censored. A quarter has been made public so far.
Additionally, Kirby said the agency will incorporate the newly discovered emails into a review of record retention practices that Clinton's successor, Secretary of State John Kerry, initiated in March. "We have also informed Congress of this matter," he added.
These steps are unlikely to satisfy Clinton's Republican critics.
The House Benghazi Committee plans to hold a public hearing with Clinton next month to hear specifically about what the emails might say about the attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Libya that killed four Americans on Sept. 11, 2012. And the Senate Judiciary Committee's GOP chairman said he wants the Justice Department to tell him if a criminal investigation is underway into Clinton's use of private email amid reports this week that the FBI recovered deleted emails from her server. The Senate Homeland Security Committee also is looking into the matter.
Clinton has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. "When I did it, it was allowed, it was above board. And now I'm being as transparent as possible, more than anybody else ever has been," she said earlier this week.
In August, Clinton submitted a sworn statement to a U.S. District Court saying she had directed all her work emails to be provided to the State Department. "On information and belief, this has been done," she said in a declaration submitted as part of a lawsuit with Judicial Watch, a conservative advocacy group.
The Clinton campaign didn't respond immediately to a request from The Associated Press for comment, but on Twitter, Brian Fallon, the Clinton campaign's press secretary, wrote Friday: "We always said the emails given to State dated back only to March 09. That was when she started using http://clintonemail.com."
Clinton has been dogged for months by questions about her email practices. She initially described her choice as a matter of convenience, but later took responsibility for making a wrong decision.
Separately Friday, State Department officials said they were providing the Benghazi-focused probe more email exchanges from senior officials pertaining to Libya. The committee broadened its scope after examining tens of thousands of documents more specifically focused on the Benghazi attack.

Kelly & Trump Cartoon

Faceoff: Trump rips media as pundits insist he’s in decline

I woke up early yesterday, flipped on the TV, and saw that Donald Trump was calling into MSNBC.
When he wrapped up 20 minutes later, I surfed over to CNN and Trump called in for a half-hour conversation.
Trump is still driving this campaign, even as the pundits are arguing that one of the wheels has come off his vehicle—many of the same commentators, of course, who have been predicting his imminent implosion for months. Maybe one of these days they’ll be right.
“Trump Momentum Shows Signs of Stalling,” declares Politico, adding that “rivals were taking heart that maybe, just maybe, the air has begun to seep out of the Trump balloon.” Quoted: an unnamed “strategist at a rival campaign.”

ABC’s The Note: “The frontrunner looks vulnerable -- and, perhaps oddly, it's not his policy positions or political history that matter in this equation. It's his very Trump-ness that has him now in this position, with rival campaigns seeing signs that its novelty is wearing off.”
New York Times:  Donald J. Trump was never exactly a happy warrior, but with some of his Republican rivals gaining on him, he is showing clear signs of discontent.
Washington Post: “Republican leaders who have watched Donald Trump’s summer surge with alarm now believe that his presidential candidacy has been contained and may begin to collapse.”
Oh wait, that one was from August.
Obviously, Trump couldn’t keep rising forever or he’d hit 100 percent. He’s down a little bit, perhaps because of the second debate. So let’s look at the numbers:
In the new Fox poll, Trump leads with 26 percent, followed by Ben Carson with 18 percent, and Carly Fiorina and Marco Rubio at 9.
In the Bloomberg poll, it’s Trump 21, Carson 16, Jeb 13 and Carly 11.
And Quinnipiac has it as Trump 25, Carson 17, Carly 12 and Jeb 10.
So not only are the media straining to find evidence of a sharp Donald decline, they have completely miscalculated Carson’s chances. After the doctor’s muted performance in the CNN debate, one pundit after another predicted he would start dropping. After saying on “Meet the Press” that he would not advocate a Muslim president, much of the media said he had gone too far and showed evidence of bigotry. But Carson remains a strong second-place contender.
Let’s review all the times the press proclaimed that Trump to be on the verge of sinking:
His comments about Mexican immigrants. His comments on John McCain’s war record. His comments on Megyn Kelly. His comments on Fiorina’s face. His failure to correct a questioner who called President Obama a Muslim.
So maybe media folks should get out of the prediction business. Of course the race will tighten eventually as other candidates follow Scott Walker’s lead. But no one knows how long that will take.
Trump is keeping busy with his attacks on the media, including his latest boycott of Fox News for what he deems unfair coverage. Fox has hit back by saying his attacks on the network’s anchors and hosts are getting stale and tiresome. (Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes spoke to Trump yesterday, a company statement says, and they plan what the network calls a “candid” meeting next week to address Trump’s complaints and any “misunderstandings” without compromising Fox’s standards.)
The Donald’s main complaints are that the network has too many Trump-bashers on and that Fox hasn’t shown polls that give the billionaire an even wider lead. These tend to be online polls, which I and many others regard as unscientific and worthless.
Trump also complained about CNN in his lengthy interview with Alisyn Camerota on “New Day.” He called CNN’s Sara Murray an “absolutely horrible reporter” and “terrible and disgusting reporter”—because, he said, she had reported there were empty seats at his South Carolina event the day before (as did other journalists). Trump told the anchor to report all this to CNN President Jeff Zucker.
And he tweeted that the “failing” Politico (which ran the aforementioned headline) “may be the most dishonest of the media outlets—and that is saying something.”
Of course, Trump can quickly revise his opinion. He spent months ripping Chuck Todd, but now, after a few “Meet the Press” appearances, says he likes the guy. And all the Sunday shows except “Fox News Sunday,” and all the morning shows keep letting him call in, unlike other candidates, because he is, well, good for ratings.
Trump’s broadsides against the fourth estate only help him with Republican voters who are fed up with the media establishment as well as the political establishment. The same is true when the pundits, especially the conservative pundits, keep pounding him. But however much they might wish it to be so, that doesn’t mean his campaign has peaked.

Audit finds slipshod cyber-security at HealthCare.gov

WASHINGTON –  The government stored sensitive personal information on millions of health insurance customers in a computer system with basic security flaws, according to an official audit that uncovered slipshod practices.
The Obama administration said it acted quickly to fix all the problems identified by the Health and Human Services inspector general's office. But the episode raises questions about the government's ability to protect a vast new database at a time when cyberattacks are becoming bolder.
Known as MIDAS, the $110-million system is the central electronic storehouse for information collected under President Barack Obama's health care law.
It doesn't handle medical records, but it does include names, Social Security numbers, birthdates, addresses, phone numbers, passport numbers, employment status and financial accounts of customers on HealthCare.gov and state insurance marketplaces.
"It sounds like a gold mine for ID thieves," said Jeremy Gillula, staff technologist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group focused on technology. "I'm kind of surprised that this information was never compromised."
The flaws uncovered by auditors included issues of security policy -- where mistakes can have bigger consequences -- as well as 135 database vulnerabilities, of which nearly two dozen were classified as potentially severe or catastrophic.
Among the policy mistakes: User sessions were not encrypted, contrary to standard practice on financial websites. "Not doing so is inexcusable for such sensitive data," said Michelle De Mooy, deputy director for consumer privacy at the Center for Democracy & Technology, an Internet rights group.
MIDAS is an internal system operated by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that administers the health care law. The acronym stands for Multidimensional Insurance Data Analytics System. Officials say it's an electronic backbone, essential to the smooth operation of the health care law's insurance markets.
Currently about 10 million people are covered through HealthCare.gov and state marketplaces offering taxpayer-subsidized private policies. But MIDAS also keeps information on many others, including former customers. Their data is retained for years.
Before HealthCare.gov went live in 2013, Obama administration officials assured Congress and the public that individuals' information would be used mainly to determine eligibility for coverage, and that the government intended to store the minimum amount of personal data possible. Things don't seem to have turned out that way.
Among the technical problems uncovered by the audit:
--Using a shared read-only account for access to the database that contained individuals' personal information. Gillula said such a shared account creates a serious vulnerability because if data is stolen, it's much more difficult to tell who was looking at what information, and when.
--Failure to disable "generic accounts" used for maintenance or other special access during testing, an oversight that can foster complacency about security practices when a system becomes operational.
--Failure to conduct certain automated vulnerability scans that mimic known cyberattacks and could reveal weaknesses in MIDAS and the systems supporting it.
--Database weaknesses. A total of 135 such vulnerabilities -- oftentimes software bugs-- were discovered by the inspector general's vulnerability scans. Of these, 22 were classified as high risk, meaning they could have potentially severe or catastrophic fallout, and 62 as medium risk.
"MIDAS collects, generates and stores a high volume of sensitive consumer information, and it is critical that it be properly secured," the inspector general's report reads. A summary omitting specific details of the vulnerabilities was posted on the IG's website this week.
In a written response to the audit, Medicare administrator Andy Slavitt said that "the privacy and security and security of consumers' personally identifiable information are a top priority" for his agency. Slavitt said all of the high vulnerabilities were addressed within a week of being identified, and that all of the IG's recommendations have been fully implemented.
The Medicare agency is conducting weekly vulnerability assessments of MIDAS, and an annual security review, Slavitt said.
However, the episode indicates how some technical and security issues from the program's chaotic rollout in 2013 may still linger. Back then, the consumer-facing side of HealthCare.gov went live without a completed security certification.
Gillula, the technology expert, said he doesn't question the administration's intentions. "I'm sure they wanted to do the right thing," he said. "But regardless of what they wanted, did they accomplish it? There certainly were some gaps."

Russians, Syrians and Iranians setting up military coordination cell in Baghdad

EXCLUSIVE: Russian, Syrian and Iranian military commanders have set up a coordination cell in Baghdad in recent days to try to begin working with Iranian-backed Shia militias fighting the Islamic State, Fox News has learned. 
Western intelligence sources say the coordination cell includes low-level Russian generals. U.S. officials say it is not clear whether the Iraqi government is involved at the moment.
Describing the arrival of Russian military personnel in Baghdad, one senior U.S. official said, "They are popping up everywhere."
The Russians already have been building up their military presence in Syria, a subject expected to factor prominently in a planned meeting between President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin in New York Monday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
While the U.S. also is fighting the Islamic State, the Obama administration has voiced concern that Russia's involvement, at least in Syria, could have a destabilizing effect.
Moscow, though, has fostered ties with the governments in both Syria and Iraq. In May, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi flew to Moscow for an official visit to discuss potential Russian arms transfers and shared intelligence capability, as well as the enhancement of security and military capabilities, according to a statement by the Iraqi prime minister's office at the time.
Meanwhile, a U.S. official described to Fox News how, over the weekend, the Russians were able to move 24 attack jets into Syria undetected.
The Russian military flew 12 Sukhoi Su-25 "Frogfoot" and a dozen Sukhoi Su-24 "Fencer" attack aircraft in "tight formations" under the "steady stream" of the large Russian An-124 cargo planes that have been ferrying supplies from bases in Russia through Iran before traveling on to Syria, the official said.
The large cargo planes appeared as "a big blip" on radar, but flying beneath them were "tight formations" of the smaller Russian fighter jets that used jamming pods and switched off their IFF, which would identify the aircraft to radar.
The large Russian cargo planes have the capability to fly directly from Russia to Syria, but the smaller attack aircraft do not.
"The Russian jets did not have the legs to make it directly from Russia to Syria, and needed a base to refuel," said the official, who spoke to Fox News under the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose sensitive information.
According to the Aviationist, the Russian cargo planes and fighter jets landed at an airbase in Hamadan, Iran, roughly halfway between Baghdad and Tehran on Sept 18-19.
Fox News also has learned from U.S. military sources that the Russians have begun flying some of the Sukhoi fighter and attack jets from Bassel al-Assad airport, in Latakia, now a Russian forward operating base along the Mediterranean.
The planes are not dropping bombs or conducting attack missions, but just flying around near the base, according to one official. The official also confirmed that Russian destroyers are in position off the Mediterranean coast.
On Thursday, State Department spokesman John Kirby denied a U.S. intelligence failure led to U.S. officials being caught unaware of the two dozen Russian warplanes arriving in Syria.
"I can tell you that we've been watching this very, very closely ... and we have not been ignorant of what the Russians have been doing," said Kirby.
Asked Thursday about Russia's military involvement in Syria, Defense Secretary Ash Carter cautioned that without Russian support for a "political transition" in Damascus, it could "pour gasoline on the ISIL phenomenon rather than to lead to the defeat of ISIL."
But just two days ago, Secretary of State John Kerry said the Russian build-up was consistent with defensive measures.
"For the moment, it is the judgment of our military and most experts that the level and type represents basically force protection, a level of protection for their deployment to an airbase given the fact that it is in an area of conflict,'' Kerry said at the State Department Tuesday.
This week, former CIA director Gen. David Petraeus testified on Capitol Hill, warning that inaction in Syria carries risks for the United States.
"Russia's recent military escalation in Syria is a further reminder that when the U.S. does not take the initiative, others will fill the vacuum -- often in ways that are harmful to our interests," Petraeus said.

Clinton signed off on change in job status for top aide Abedin

Weiner's Wife

Documents released by a conservative watchdog group Thursday show Hillary Clinton personally signed official forms in 2012 that allowed her top aide to attain status as a special government employee (SGE), despite the Democratic presidential frontrunner's denial of any involvement in the situation during a recent interview.
The arrangement enabled Huma Abedin to work both for Clinton at the State Department and the corporate consulting firm Teneo, as well as carry out duties on behalf of the Clinton Foundation. Abedin's  status has led some lawmakers to raise questions about the possibility of conflicts of interest during Clinton's time as secretary of state.
The document obtained by Judicial Watch as part of a Freedom of Information Act request shows that Clinton signed off on a title change for Abedin on March 23, 2012. The aide's dual role didn't go into effect until that June. The document's release was first reported by Politico.
The Clinton campaign and lawyers for Abedin have denied any wrongdoing. On Thursday, the Clinton campaign told Politico that the document signed by Clinton merely approved the title change brought about by Abedin's new status, not the status change itself.
In an interview with NBC's Andrea Mitchell that aired Sept. 4, Clinton was asked about the propriety of Abedin collecting a salary from the State Department and Teneo, which was founded by a longtime aide to former President Bill Clinton.
"Well, you know, I was not directly involved in that," Clinton answered. "But everything that [Abedin] did was approved, under the rules, as they existed, by the State Department."

More on this...

• Was Clinton's top aide improperly paid at State Department?

Late last month, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, raised questions about the intersection of Abedin's various job responsibilities, asking in a letter to the aide and Secretary of State John Kerry, "How can the taxpayer know who exactly SGEs are working for at any given moment? How can the ethics officer at the State Department know?"
Emails from Abedin's State Department account obtained by Fox News show that she discussed matters related to her work for the Clinton Foundation and Teneo through official channels. In his letter, Grassley wrote that the emails "raise a number of questions about the intersection of official State Department actions, private Teneo business, and Secretary Clinton’s personal interest in fundraising for the Clinton Foundation and related entities."
Abedin's close ties to Clinton has made her a key figure into the FBI investigation of classified information on Clinton's personal e-mail server. Fox News previously reported that an April 2011 e-mail from Abedin contained intelligence from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which oversees aerial imagery, including satellites. That e-mail was later declassified by the State Department, in possible violation of an executive order signed by President Barack Obama.