Iran Claims to Have ‘Shooed Away’ a U.S. Warship That Was 7,000 Miles Away in Norfolk at the Time

A U.S. Navy warship which Iran claims to have chased away from a naval exercise in the Persian Gulf this week was at the time more than 7,000 miles away – in its home port of Norfolk, Virginia.
Iranian state media have been reporting that an Iranian Navy warship on Wednesday sent a warning to the USS Mtereyon, which Iran claims was sailing near its annual military exercises near the Strait of Hormuz, and that as a result of the warning the guided missile cruiser “left the region immediately.”
In the reports, some of which also carried photos of the Monterey, military officials claimed the U.S. vessel was evidently attempting to spy on the exercises.
But a spokesman for the Bahrain-based U.S. Fifth Fleet, Cmdr. Kevin Stephens, said not only was the Monterey not in the Gulf at the time of the alleged incident, it was “in her home port of Norfolk, Virginia.”
(The Monterey’s Facebook page features photos of a re-enlistment ceremony –in downtown Norfolk on Thursday.)
The semi-official Fars news agency reported that “a U.S. Navy warship on Wednesday morning received a serious warning from several Iranian destroyers to keep away from their drill zone near the Strait of Hormuz.”
“The USS Monterey (CG 61), a Ticonderoga-class cruiser, was sailing near the Strait of Hormuz where the Iranian forces were staging the main phase of the Velayat 94 massive wargames,” it said.
“According to the Iranian Army, the U.S. warship left the region immediately after receiving the warning.”
Fars quoted Iran Navy chief Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayari as saying the U.S. ship had evidently been trying “to come close to get informed of our moves and capabilities.”
The incident was reported by several other Iranian outlets, including the state news agency Tasnim, which said the Iran Navy “shooed away a U.S. warship and a fighter jet that had been approaching the drill zone.”
“He [Sayari] said the Americans were given warnings twice not to approach the drill area, once by a naval patrol aircraft and another time by the Navy’s Alborz destroyer,” said Tasnim, which did not identify the U.S. ship involved.
Fifth Fleet spokesman Stephens said Iran had given standard announcements about closing areas for live firing during its annual Velayat exercise but disputed the claims that any U.S. ship had changed course or conduct as a result.
“Iran has announced closure areas for live fire events associated with its exercise. This is a common practice for any navy conducting such training at sea,” he said. “Our forces similarly announce closure areas for our training events. We do not consider such announcements to be ‘orders.’
“No U.S. units took any action as a result of what the Iranian Navy might have characterized as a warning,” Stephens added. “We did have units who heard the closure area announcements but it did not cause them to alter their planned course or schedule.”
‘… recent events notwithstanding’
Stephens said the Fifth Fleet did not view Iran’s exercise as cause for concern.
“While the exercise may increase the probability for U.S. Navy forces to have interaction with Iranian warships, U.S. Navy forces are routinely approached by Iranian warships as they operate in the region, with the majority of all interaction by the Iranians conducted in a safe and professional manner recent events notwithstanding,” he said.
The Iranian claims came a fortnight after Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) personnel detained 10 U.S. Navy sailors and two small patrol vessels for around 14 hours, exploiting the incident for propaganda purposes by disseminating photos and video footage showing the sailors kneeling on a deck at gunpoint, hands clasped behind their heads.
The images were highlighted on supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s social media accounts, and a top military officials claimed later that U.S. military jets had been rapidly withdrawn from the area during the incident after being threatened with “hellfire.”
Secretary of State John Kerry engaged with his Iranian counterpart to ensure the incident was resolved quickly, and later was sharply criticized by some Republican senators after thanking the authorities in Tehran for their help.

Lawsuit: Public school forced my child to convert to Islam

A public high school has been accused of radical Islamic indoctrination by forcing children to profess the Muslim statement of faith, ordering them to memorize the Five Pillars of Islam and teaching that the faith of a Muslim is stronger than the average Christian, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday. 
Thomas More Law Center filed the lawsuit on behalf of John and Melissa Wood. They accuse La Plata High School in Maryland of subjecting their teenage daughter to Islamic indoctrination and propaganda. And when Mr. Wood complained – the school banned him from campus.
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“Defendants forced Wood’s daughter to disparage her Christian faith by reciting the Shahada, and acknowledging Mohammed as her spiritual leader,” Thomas More president Richard Thompson said.
The Shahada is the Islamic Creed, “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”
The Thomas More Law Center said that for non-Muslims, reciting the statement is sufficient to convert one to Islam.
“The course also taught false statements such as Allah is the same God worshipped by Christians and Islam is a ‘religion of peace,’” Thompson said.  
Good grief. It sounds as if somebody turned La Plata High School into a taxpayer-funded Madrassa.
A spokesperson for Charles County Public Schools told me they have not seen the lawsuit and declined to comment.
Also named as defendants were the Charles County Board of Education, principal Evelyn Arnold and vice-principal Shannon Morris.

Evelyn Arnold. earnold@ccboe.com.

Shannon Morris
Vice Principal
smmorris@ccboe.com

The lawsuit, filed in federal court, alleges that students spent only one day studying Christianity and two weeks studying Islam.
“During its brief instruction on Christianity, Defendants failed to cover any portion of the Bible or other non-Islamic religious texts, such as the Ten Commandments,” the lawsuit states. “Instead, the class included disparaging remarks about Christianity and the Pope.”
Students were also allegedly instructed that “the Islamic religion is a fact while Christianity and Judaism are just beliefs.”
“Such discriminatory treatment of Christianity is an unconstitutional promotion of one religion over another,” Thompson said.
“United States Supreme Court precedent does not create a double standard that allows for the promotion of Islam in our public schools while disallowing and silencing teachings of Christianity and Judaism,” the lawsuit states.
According to copies of classroom assignments, the school taught that “Most Muslims’ faith is stronger than the average Christian.”
They also instructed students that Islam is a peaceful religion and they treated conquered nations with kindness and respect.
On a side note, I’m sure there are plenty of Syrian and Iraqi Christians who would love to weigh in on that classroom lesson.
The school also served as apologists for the Islamic faith, according to a hand out titled, “Islam Today.”
“Nowhere in the Koran does it say you will go to paradise if you martyr yourself with a suicide bomb,” the handout stated. “Important: The majority of Muslims do not live this way.”
The school also instructed students on jihad “a holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty; a personal struggle in devotion to Islam especially involving spiritual discipline.”
If La Plata High School wanted to teach children about jihad, they should’ve replayed the video footage of what happened on September 11, 2001 – or the Boston Marathon bombing – or the San Bernardino massacre or the Chattanooga attacks.
The incidents alleged in the lawsuit occurred during the 2014-15 school year.
Wood, who is a Marine veteran, called the school on Oct. 22, 2014 to voice his alarm over his daughter’s assignments. He requested his daughter be allowed to opt-out of the lessons and be given an alternative assignment.
The following day the vice principal told Wood that his daughter was required to take the class and would receive “zeros” on any incomplete assignments even if the assignments violated the family’s religious beliefs and heritage.
It’s unclear what was said in the telephone conversations – but on Oct. 24^th Wood was notified by the school’s resource officer that he would no longer be allowed on school property – for any reason whatsoever.
Wood contends in the lawsuit that he never threatened any physical harm against the school or anyone in the school.  The lawsuit alleges the ban is unfounded and retaliatory.
Folks, our public schools have become indoctrination centers – promoting Islam and marginalizing every other religion. I’ve reported on similar incidents across the country.
Why hasn’t the Freedom From Religion Foundation weighed in? What about the American Civil Liberties Union? Their silence is peculiar.
I suspect their reaction would have been a bit different had La Plata High School been baptizing children and forcing them to memorize John 3:16.
Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. His latest book is "God Less America: Real Stories From the Front Lines of the Attack on Traditional Values." Follow Todd on Twitter@ToddStarnes and find him on Facebook.

Clinton email headaches grow as State Dept. confirms ‘top secret’ files, delays final release

FBI going directly to intel agencies in Clinton email probe

Hillary Clinton’s email headaches grew Friday as the State Department confirmed several emails under review contain information too “top secret” to release in any form – while at the same time delaying the release of thousands of other pages.
The department released roughly 1,700 pages of emails Friday evening. But the latest developments fueled Republican allegations – just three days before the Iowa caucuses – that Clinton was “irresponsible” in her email use, and that the department she used to lead is still trying to protect her by dragging out the process until after the start of primary contests.
Fox News first reported earlier Friday that some emails were “too damaging” to national security to release.
The State Department formally announced Friday afternoon that seven email chains, found in 22 documents, will be withheld “in full” because they, in fact, contain “Top Secret” information. In addition, a spokesman said another 18 emails between President Obama and Clinton will be withheld for now – but they are “not classified” and will be released eventually.
Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon pushed back, though, criticizing the intelligence community for flagging those emails.
"We firmly oppose the complete blocking of the release of these emails,” he said in a statement. "This appears to be over-classification run amok. We will pursue all appropriate avenues to see that her emails are released in a manner consistent with her call last year."
The more than 1,000 pages that were released, though, are a fraction of the total remaining number.
Among the 1,670 pages released Friday evening, 242 emails were upgraded to classified; 11 of which were considered 'secret'.
One email from January 2013 included intelligence from three other government agencies, the Defense Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. The NRO and NGA are both satellite and mapping agencies, with which the State Department does not have jurisdiction over classification of information.
The agency that generates the intelligence, owns the information, and therefore has final say on classification.
The latest batch of released emails also contained a few examples of some State Department employees not understanding the classification system and its protocols.
On April 25, 2012 Clifford Hart, then U.S. special envoy for six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program, sent an email that reads, "sensitive but unclassified" but is then heavily redacted and classified.
In a court filing Thursday night, the State Department said it would not make the Jan. 29 release deadline -- and about 7,000 pages still needed to be sent out for “interagency consultation.” The agency acknowledged these pages had been “missed” and not sent out for review earlier.
The filing drew Republican complaints.
“The notion that a months-long process could be hit with 11th hour delays reeks of political favoritism designed to hide the ball from voters on the eve of early state voting,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement. “Voters deserve to know the facts before they cast their ballots, not after.”
The Iowa caucuses are Monday, followed by the New Hampshire primary a week after that, and Clinton is locked in a tight race for the Democratic presidential nomination with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The first four contests will be over by the end of February.
The department, though, in part tried to blame the blizzard for the delay.
“Since discovering its oversight, State has moved diligently to process the documents and send them to the appropriate agencies for review, a process that was interrupted by the blizzard that struck Washington, D.C. over the weekend,” the agency noted in the filing, which asked for a 30-day extension.
The agency has produced some 43,000 pages of emails in last several months. There were two dumps totaling 6,000 in January. While hundreds of these documents were retroactively classified, Fox News first reported that this included emails classified at a level beyond “top secret.”
A Jan. 14 letter from Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III to senior lawmakers said a review identified “several dozen” additional classified emails -- including specific intelligence from “special access programs (SAP),” which indicates a level higher than “top secret.”
In an interview with NPR, Clinton claimed the latest IG finding doesn’t change anything and suggested it was politically motivated. She has claimed that the emails found on her private server and email were “innocuous” and never classified at the time.
But after the State Department confirmed some emails are so secret they’re being withheld in full, Republicans seized on the announcement.
“We now know Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email account during her tenure at the State Department wasn’t just negligent, it was completely dangerous,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said in a statement. “To put our country in danger for personal convenience is arrogant and irresponsible — and it’s illegal.
She should face the same consequences that any federal employee who behaved similarly would face, including criminal prosecution.”
An FBI investigation remains underway into Clinton’s email practices.
Asked Friday whether Clinton would not be indicted, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said it does not appear the investigation is headed in that direction.
But a law enforcement source close to the DOJ investigation pushed back on those remarks, telling Fox News the investigation is still very much ongoing – and a decision has not been made on the matter one way or the other.
Meanwhile, State Department spokesman John Kirby reiterated Friday that the 22 documents in question were “not marked classified at the time they were sent.”
But he said the State Department will look at “whether they were classified at the time they were sent.”
He said: “These emails will be denied in full, meaning they will not be produced online on our FOIA website. In response to a FOIA request, it is not unusual to deny or withhold a document in full. We are not going to speak to the content of these documents.”

Disgust for Debbie Wasserman Schultz Ignites Wave of Election Year Bipartisanship

Debbie Wasserman Schultz speaks to reporters in the spin room after the democratic presidential debate on January 17 in Charleston, S.C.

Democrats and Republicans are beginning to agree on one thing: their disdain for Democratic National Committee Chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
On The Kelly File, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly recently confronted Ms. Wasserman Schultz over allegations that South Carolina Republican Governor Nikki Haley was chosen for the State of the Union response because she’s a woman.
“Why couldn’t she have been picked because she’s smart, she’s savvy, she presents well, she’s articulate and she’s a great spokesman for the Republicans?” Ms. Kelly asked. Ms. Wasserman Schultz dodged the question—resorting to attacks Ms. Haley, alleging she is unpopular in South Carolina because of the damage she has done to the state.
“This woman is a terrible person. I watch her on television. She’s a terrible person,” Donald Trump said in an interview on Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Daily. “And in all fairness, she negotiated a great deal for Hillary [Clinton] because they gave Hillary all softballs… Every ball was a softball. And in fact, the other candidates weren’t even allowed to talk up against her.”

Ms. Wasserman Schultz has assaulted her own party for years.

The “softball” to which Mr. Trump was referring is the obvious bias Ms. Wasserman Schultz has for Ms. Clinton—the former co-chair of Ms. Clinton’s 2008 campaign has been unable to maintain the impartiality during the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries. The debate schedule Ms. Wasserman Schultz established has been criticized by both Sanders and Clinton supporters for the lack of exposure it provides candidates. The second Democratic debate, airing on a Saturday night in November, drew the lowest ratings of any primary debate this campaign cycle—that is, until the third Democratic debate (also on a Saturday night) which had even lower ratings.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz defended the limited number of debates and their schedule as a strategic effort to garner maximum exposure for candidates. In an interview with CNN, she explained, “I did my best to make sure—along with my staff and along with my debate partners—to come up with a schedule that we felt was going to maximize the opportunity for voters to see our candidates.” If doing her “best” means ignoring complaints from DNC vice chairs that there were too few debates (scheduled on nights when they competed with popular football games), then her “best” is not good enough.
Thanks to Ms. Wasserman Schultz’s schedule, the second debate aired at the same time the nationally ranked and undefeated Iowa Hawkeyes played the Minnesota Golden Gophers, and the third debate aired while the Dallas Cowboys faced off against the New York Jets. Great strategy.
Criticism for Ms. Wasserman Schultz was further elevated when she suspended the Sanders campaign’s access to voter databases as punishment for a data breach. After the Sanders camp filed a lawsuit, she rescinded the suspension.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz has assaulted her own party for years. In 2013, Politico reported she planned to accuse President Obama with allegations of sexism and anti-Semitism if he attempted to replace her as DNC chair. According to White House staffers, Mr. Obama has avoided Ms. Wasserman Schultz since she assumed position as DNC chair in 2011. Tim Kaine, the previous DNC Chair, has a monthly lunch with the President.
Pressure is rising from her own party—particularly Mr. Sanders’ supporters—to resign. In the last Democratic debate, as he walked on stage, Mr. Sanders’ tense and insincere greeting with Ms. Wasserman Schultz said everything.
Despite the lack of debate exposure, Mr. Sanders is polling to win the Democratic presidential nomination against Ms. Clinton—whom Ms. Wasserman Schultz expected no one to even run against. In April 2015, she told the Sun-Sentinel, “Secretary Clinton is arguably one of the most qualified people—assuming she announces her candidacy—who have ever run for president. I was proud to support her in 2008. Of course, as DNC chair, I will neutrally manage our primary nomination contest, assuming we have one.”

Fox News Debate Cartoon

Trump overshadows Republican debate even as he sits it out

Even in boycotting a debate with his Republican rivals, front-runner Donald Trump managed to upstage the event on Thursday with a typical dramatic flourish.
Instead of attending a seventh debate, the former reality TV star held a competing event across town that he said raised $6 million for U.S. military veterans. In doing so, he cast a shadow over his rivals, who frequently tossed barbs his way.
Trump's gamble that he could leave the battlefield to his rivals for one night appeared to pay off, with just days to go before Iowa holds the first nominating contest of the 2016 election season. No one appeared to emerge as a central challenger to him during the two-hour face-off in Des Moines.
Trump's refusal to participate in the debate out of anger that Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly was a moderator prompted a flurry of last-minute phone calls with Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes that failed to resolve their dispute.
A Fox News (FOXA.O) statement said Trump requested that Fox contribute $5 million to his charities in exchange for his attendance, which the network turned down.
The debate was the type of event Republicans would routinely have without the flamboyant Trump on stage, and it lacked the electricity that he brings to the party's search for a nominee for the Nov. 8 election.
Without Trump on stage, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie found themselves with more room to make their case to voters seeking a more mainstream candidate.
Both men have an eye on the Feb. 9 first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire, which comes on the heels of the Iowa caucuses on Monday and where an establishment Republican like them might have a better chance of standing out.
Senator Ted Cruz from Texas and Senator Marco Rubio from Florida, the two top challengers to Trump in Iowa, engaged in squabbles over immigration and national security and did not appear to threaten Trump's lead. He holds the edge over Cruz in polls of Iowa Republicans.
Trump's rivals mocked his decision to sit out the debate and found ways to criticize him.
"I’m a maniac and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly, and Ben, you're a terrible surgeon," Cruz told his rivals, including Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, as the debate opened. His next sentence began: "Now that we’ve gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way."
Bush, who has been a frequent target of Trump's attacks, turned a question about religious tolerance into an attack on Trump's proposed temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.
"Donald Trump, for example — I mentioned his name again if anybody was missing him — Mr. Trump believed in reaction to people’s fears that we should ban all Muslims. Well, that creates an environment that’s toxic in our own country," Bush said.
Cruz, after a series of questions, said: "If you ask me one more mean question, I may have to leave the stage."
In a swipe at both Trump and Cruz, Rubio chimed in: "Don't worry, I'm not going to leave the stage no matter what you ask me."
SOCIAL MEDIA FAVORITE
With his veterans' event drawing live TV news coverage on Fox News competitors CNN and MSNBC, Trump absorbed plenty of media attention.
He clung to his insistence that Fox News had treated him badly. He has complained that Kelly insulted him at a debate in August and that a statement from the network earlier this week had belittled him.
Two other Republican candidates, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee, joined Trump on stage after participating in a debate of low-polling candidates.
Not so former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore.
"I’m not about to go across town tonight to carry the coat for some billionaire," he said at the "undercard" debate.
There was some mystery as to which veterans' groups would receive the money raised at the event, which included $1 million from Trump himself. His campaign did not say which group was getting the funds.
Trump, with just one day's notice on a weeknight, was able to fill to capacity a hall at Drake University that holds 700.
"I didn’t want to be here, to be honest, I wanted to be about five minutes away" at the debate, Trump told the crowd. "When you’re treated badly, you have to stick up for your rights - whether we like it or not."
Trump dominated social media during the debate, leading the entire Republican pack in Twitter mentions throughout the first half of the debate, according to data from social media analytics firm Zoomph.
Trump was by far the most-searched-for candidate on Google during the first half of the debate, at one point outpacing the second-most-searched-for candidate, Rubio, by nearly four-to-one, according to Google Trends data.
Trump's support in opinion polls, much of it from blue-collar men, has not wavered for months despite him insulting Mexican immigrants and Muslims and clashing with Republican establishment figures like Senator John McCain.

Trump leads polls in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina

Donald Trump holds a strong lead over the Republican field in three states while the race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders continues to remain close, according to three new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/ Marist polls out Thursday.
In Iowa, Trump has the support of 32 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz follows seven points behind with 25 percent and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has 18 percent. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has 8 percent and Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has 4 percent. All other candidates have 2 percent.

In the same poll less than three weeks ago, Cruz led Trump, 28 to 24 percent.
On the Democratic side, Iowa remains a tossup: Clinton leads Sanders by 3 percentage points among likely Democratic caucus-goers, 48 percent to 45 percent. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is at 3 percent.
But in New Hampshire, Sanders leads Clinton among likely Democratic primary voters by 19 percentage points — 57 percent to 38 percent. O’Malley had just 2 percent. Last month, the Vermont senator led the former secretary of state by just 4 points, 50 percent to 46 percent.
On the Republican side in New Hampshire, Trump keeps his strong lead (31 percent). The next-closest competitor is Cruz with 12 percent. Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are tied at 11 percent, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has 8 percent and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie holds 7 percent, with everyone else below 5 percent.
But there’s good news for Clinton in South Carolina, where she has the support 64 percent of likely Democratic voters while Sanders has just 27 percent.
South Carolina is also a good state for Trump, who has the backing of 36 percent of likely Republican primary voters, Cruz follows him with 20 percent and Rubio has 14 percent. Bush, despite the backing of Sen. Lindsey Graham, has 9 percent and Carson has 8 percent. No other candidate has more than 2 percent.
The Iowa telephone survey was conducted Jan. 24-26. Of the respondents, there were 450 likely Republican caucus-goers and a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percentage points. There were 426 likely Democratic caucus goers with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points. The New Hampshire telephone survey of 612 likely Republican primary voters was taken Jan. 17-23, with a margin of error of 4 percentage points. There were 568 likely Democratic primary voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. The South Carolina telephone poll was also conducted Jan. 17-23. There were 718 likely primary voters with a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points; with the subsample of 446 likely Democratic primary voters, there is a margin of error of 4.6 percentage points.

At Trump rally, a rare spotlight on Huckabee and Santorum

Donald Trump invites former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania to the podium at his campaign event Jan. 28 in Des Moines. (Khue Bui for Yahoo News)

DES MOINES, Iowa — They had seen a crowd like this before: a few hundred Iowans, up on their feet, hands in the air and cheering wildly. Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee, two former winners of the Iowa Republican presidential caucus (in 2012 and 2008, respectively) stood in the warm glow of the stage lights, clearly thrilled at the reception. But their smiles soon turned wistful. The audience wasn’t there for them.
The Republican presidential hopefuls, now political long shots in their second bids for the GOP nomination, stood in the shadow of the man to beat, Donald Trump, who had enlisted his rivals in his counter-programming for the GOP debate Thursday night — a fundraiser for military veterans that was alternately sincere and surreal.
Taking the stage at an auditorium on the campus of Drake University, a few miles from where his Republican rivals were participating in the last debate before Monday’s caucus, Trump told the crowd that Fox News had been “extremely nice” to him that afternoon, calling him and asking up until the last minute if he’d change his mind and come to the debate. But he refused, because, he said, they hadn’t been fair to him.
“You have to stick up for your rights,” Trump said, comparing his feud with Fox News to the tempestuous relationship between the United States and Iran.

A supporter with an anti-Fox News sticker listens to Donald Trump at a campaign event Jan. 28 in Des Moines. (Khue Bui for Yahoo News)
In the front row sat Huckabee and Santorum, fresh from their appearance in the so-called “undercard” debate, awkward smiles on their faces as Trump rambled through a version of his stump speech. At one point, he suddenly seemed to remember that he’d invited two of his rivals to join him to honor military veterans, and he summoned Huckabee and Santorum to the stage, reminding his audience that they had just come from a debate.
“I heard they did really well, these two. I mean, who the hell knows? I didn’t get to see very much of it,” Trump said. Turning to his rivals, who wore frozen smiles, he said, “I think if they had booed, you probably wouldn’t be here right now. You’d go back and be depressed, right?”
Trump pushed his rivals to speak, and Santorum walked to the microphone first, standing awkwardly to the left of the podium. “Not to be offensive,” the former Pennsylvania senator said, “but I am going to stand a little bit over here so I am not photographed with the Trump sign.”
As the audience laughed, Santorum added, “Um, I am supporting another candidate for president, but that doesn’t mean we can’t work together when it comes to helping our veterans.”
When Huckabee spoke, he didn’t bother to hide from the Trump sign. “I figure you’re going to get the photo anyway, so I might as well just stand here,” he said. “I want to say how grateful I am for Donald Trump inviting us here. I think you would have let any of the other candidates come. But for reasons that maybe I don’t understand, they are not here. Maybe because they have a slot at 8 o’clock, but I had nothing to do at 8 o’clock tonight. This worked great for me.”
Behind him, Trump laughed.
In the crowd, nobody seemed to be sad about missing the last GOP debate here.
“It didn’t bother me a bit. I’ve watched the debates. After a couple of them,     there’s not a whole lot more they can ask,“ said Suellen Seaba, who came to the Trump event with her husband, a Vietnam veteran, and their friend Wesley Jacoby, a 90-year-old who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. "I thought this was a very good alternative.”