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.

Poor Black Hillary Cartoon

What will Francis say? DC in suspense over pope's address to Congress

Pope Francis will become the first religious leader to address a joint meeting of Congress Thursday morning, concluding what has been a wildly successful first leg of his six-day, three-city trip to America.
That this will not be an average speech by a typical foreign dignitary has been made clear by a letter to lawmakers from congressional colleagues sent earlier this week. The letter specifically asks legislators to refrain from attempting to shake hands or make conversation with Pope Francis when he arrives in the House chamber.
Lawmakers of all political backgrounds and religious affiliations have thrilled to the pope's arrival, pledging to pause from the bickering and dysfunction that normally divide them and hear him out Thursday morning. Tens of thousands of spectators will be watching from the West Lawn of the Capitol and many more on TV from around the world as the pope addresses a House chamber packed with Supreme Court justices, Cabinet officials, diplomats, lawmakers and their guests.
After the sergeant at arms announces him by bellowing "Mr. Speaker, the pope of the Holy See," Francis will enter the chamber and climb to the dais where the president delivers the annual State of the Union address and monarchs and heads of state have addressed Congress. Behind him will sit Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, the first and second in line to the presidency, both Catholics.
Ahead of Francis' remarks lawmakers of both parties have busily sought political advantage from his stances, with Democrats in particular delighting in his support for action to overhaul immigration laws and combat global warming and income inequality. One House Republican back-bencher announced plans to boycott the speech over Francis' activist position on climate change, which the pontiff renewed alongside President Barack Obama on Wednesday.
But Boehner, a former altar boy who invited Francis to speak after trying unsuccessfully to bring his two immediate predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, to the Capitol, has dismissed concerns that the politically engaged Francis will stir the controversies of the day.

More on this...

• Rick Santorum's take: Pope Francis's message to America

• Archbishop: Pope's Francis's trip about more than politics

• Pope issues pointed appeal to defend religious liberties

"The pope transcends all of this," Boehner said. "He appeals to our better angels and brings us back to our daily obligations. The best thing we can all do is listen, open our hearts to his message and reflect on his example."
For Congress and Boehner, the pope arrives at a moment of particular turmoil, with a partial government shutdown looming next week unless lawmakers can resolve a dispute over funding for Planned Parenthood related to the group's practice of providing fetal tissue for research. Boehner himself is facing a brewing revolt from Tea Party-backed members who've threatened to force a floor vote on whether he can keep his job.
Francis is certain to steer clear of such controversies, though his opposition to abortion could bolster Republicans in their efforts against Planned Parenthood. And for members of Congress his visit may prove little more than a brief respite from their partisan warfare, offering moments of unusual solemnity, uplift and pomp, but without fundamentally shifting the intractable gears of the U.S. political system.
Indeed there's little sign on Capitol Hill of significant action on the social issues dear to Francis' heart. But on Wednesday the pope said simply that in addressing Congress "I hope, as a brother of this country, to offer words of encouragement to those called to guide the nation's political future in fidelity to its founding principles."
Francis enjoys approval ratings that any U.S. politician would envy as he's singlehandedly remade the image of the Catholic Church toward openness and compassion, yet without changing fundamental church doctrine. Addressing a chamber full of elected officials Thursday, he may be the most adept politician in the room.
After speaking in the House chamber Francis will visit the Capitol's Statuary Hall and its statue of Father Junipero Serra, the 18th-century missionary whom Francis elevated to sainthood Wednesday in the first canonization on U.S. soil. He will then briefly step out onto a Capitol balcony to address the crowds on the West Front. From there he will stop at St. Patrick's Catholic Church and the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, and then depart for New York for more prayer services and a speech to the United Nations.

Iran deal open for debate? Tehran presses new ayatollah demand

Thanks Mr. President

The Iranian government is pressing the U.S. and others to give even more ground to Tehran in the already-sealed nuclear agreement, posing a new headache as the Obama administration and others try to implement the deal. 
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei earlier this month demanded that sanctions be lifted entirely, not just suspended. A top Khamenei adviser reiterated that demand over the weekend -- ahead of potential informal talks on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Secretary of State John Kerry plans meet in the coming days in New York with his Iranian counterpart, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. According to Iran's Fars News Agency, Iranian officials also plan to meet with all members of the P5+1 group, which negotiated the deal, in New York on Sept. 28.
These reported plans prompted one group, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), to question whether talks were being "reopened," in order to address Khamenei's concerns.
Asked about the speculation, a State Department official said there is no further negotiation and the U.S. expects the deal to be implemented "in good faith."
"We've long said that we're not going to comment on or react to every statement attributed to the Iranian leadership," the official told FoxNews.com. "Our focus is on implementing the deal, and verifying that Iran completes its key nuclear steps under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. There is no renegotiation, and the nuclear-related sanctions relief that Iran will receive once the IAEA verifies that it has completed its nuclear steps is clearly spelled out in the text of the [agreement]."
But at the least, the ayatollah's demands show the post-deal debate shifting now from Washington back to Tehran, leaving some uncertainty in the air as the U.S. and U.N. prepare to move forward.
In Washington, congressional critics have been unable to muster the votes to even send President Obama a resolution disapproving the deal. But in Tehran, the ayatollah on Sept. 3 renewed concerns about the nature of the deal's sanctions relief.
He said in a statement that sanctions should be lifted entirely, not just suspended -- and said "there will be no deal" unless this is done.
According to MEMRI's translation, he warned that if sanctions are only suspended, Iran, in turn, will only "suspend" nuclear activities cited in the deal. He also called for a parliamentary vote on the deal, though it's unclear whether that will happen.
Iran's Fars News Agency over the weekend quoted ayatollah adviser Ali Akbar Velayati saying Khamenei's views "should be materialized." He added: "It is understood from the Supreme Leader's remarks that balance is necessary in the two sides' measures and in case of imbalance, nothing will be done."
The text of the Iran nuclear agreement actually refers to the "lifting" of sanctions. But the White House has said that sanctions "will snap back into place" if Iran violates its end, indicating they indeed see the sanctions relief as reversible.
MEMRI wrote that the upcoming meeting could be a forum for all parties to "discuss the Iranian demand for further concessions." MEMRI, though, warned that outright lifting sanctions "would constitute a fundamental change" to the deal. "This is because lifting the sanctions, rather than suspending them, will render impossible a snapback [of sanctions] in case of Iranian violations."
The nature of the discussions being held next week is unclear.
On Sept. 20, Kerry said he planned to meet with his Russian and his Iranian counterpart, "regarding Iran and other things." But he indicated the meeting would cover a range of topics, including the Syrian civil war.
While Fars reported that the Iranians will meet with P5+1 representatives in New York on Sept. 28, the State Department has not announced such a meeting.
Earlier this month, after Iran's Supreme Leader spoke out against the process for sanctions relief in the deal, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest put the onus on Iran to follow through with its end before sanctions relief is even implemented.
"We've been crystal-clear about the fact that Iran will have to take a variety of serious steps to significantly roll back their nuclear program before any sanctions relief is offered," he said. "... And only after those steps and several others have been effectively completed, will Iran begin to receive sanctions relief.  The good news is all of this is codified in the agreement that was reached between Iran and the rest of the international community."

Watchdog: EPA official flew home nearly every weekend on taxpayer’s dime

An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official flew nearly every weekend from his office in San Francisco to his home in southern California, amassing $69,000 in “excessive trips,” according to the Office of Inspector General (OIG).
A new audit found that the former Region 9 Administrator also charged taxpayers nearly $4,000 for ineligible travel costs, as the official made 88 trips that he said were work related in just three years.
“The former Region 9 Administrator made excessive trips to Southern California and claimed ineligible travel costs,” the OIG said. “He made 88 trips in total from October 2006 through January 2009. For 51 of the 88 trips (58 percent), the former Region 9 Administrator traveled to Orange County/Los Angeles County (OC/LA), California, near the former Region 9 Administrator’s residence, at a cost of approximately $69,000.”
The former official lived in Aliso Viejo, Calif., in Orange Country, though he mainly worked out of the Region 9 headquarters in San Francisco. The audit found that the official “traveled almost every weekend” to Orange County.
“Our analysis noted that the former Region 9 Administrator traveled to the OC/LA area almost every weekend,” the OIG said. “Most of the time, his flight departed from Oakland International Airport (OAK) to John Wayne Airport (JWA), located approximately 11 miles from his Aliso Viejo residence.”
The official also claimed meal and mileage expenses while he was home. The OIG noted that junior employees were responsible for approving his travel and questioned whether “subordinates would adequately review their supervisor’s travel.”

Fox News Poll: Outsiders rule 2016 GOP field, support for Biden nearly doubles

Most Republicans feel betrayed by their party -- and show their displeasure by supporting outsiders over establishment candidates in the GOP presidential race. 
Real-estate mogul Donald Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson are the favorites in the Republican race in the latest Fox News national poll on the 2016 election.  Neither has held elected office before and yet the two of them -- together with businesswoman Carly Fiorina -- capture the support of more than half of GOP primary voters.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE POLL RESULTS
On the Democratic side, support for Vice President Joe Biden -- who is still considering a run -- has almost doubled since August.  But make no mistake: Hillary Clinton remains the frontrunner.
Trump stays on top with 26 percent among GOP primary voters, followed by Carson at 18 percent.  Fiorina and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio are next, tied at 9 percent.  All four have gained ground. After the August Fox News debate, Trump had 25 percent, while Carson had 12 percent, Fiorina 5 percent and Rubio 4 percent.
Trump holds his leader status even though he was once again rated in the poll as having done the worst job in the debate. Fiorina, Rubio and Carson receive positive marks for their performances.
The appeal of outsiders comes from significant dissatisfaction with the party establishment:  62 percent of Republican primary voters feel “betrayed” by politicians in their party, and another 66 percent say the recent Republican majorities in Washington have failed to do all they could to block or reverse President Obama’s agenda.  For comparison, 40 percent of Democratic primary voters feel betrayed by their party. 
Frustration with party leaders has been a recurring theme for one sitting GOP senator in the race, Ted Cruz of Texas, who is next in the poll at eight percent.  He was at 10 percent in August.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush garners seven percent, a new low for him in the Fox News poll.  He had 15 percent support as recently as early August.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is up a couple ticks to five percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich gets four percent.  Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee receives three percent and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul two percent.  All other candidates receive one percent or less.
The favorites among white evangelical Christians voting in the Republican primary are Trump (29 percent), Carson (21 percent) and Cruz (12 percent).
The top picks among self-described “very” conservatives voting in the GOP primary are Carson (23 percent), Trump (22 percent), Cruz (13 percent) and Rubio (11 percent).
Straight talk is part of Trump’s outsider appeal -- but does he go too far?  Not for GOP primary voters: 65 percent of them say Trump just tells it like it is, compared to 30 percent who think he is “too mean and blunt” to be president.  Trump’s style may be a liability in the general election, though. Overall, 49 percent of voters find him too mean and blunt, while 44 percent say we need his directness.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry dropped out of the race in the last two weeks.  In announcing his decision, Walker made clear his desire to oust Trump. He called on other Republicans to also get out so “voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive, conservative alternative to the current front-runner.”
But what would happen if the “current front-runner” aka Trump were out?  The Fox poll asks voters their second choice candidate, which allows us to look at what happens to the race if someone were to get out. For instance, if Trump gets out, Carson takes the top spot (24 percent), followed by Rubio (12 percent), Fiorina (11 percent), Cruz (11 percent) and Bush (10 percent).
Trump supporters go for Carson (23 percent), Bush (14 percent), Cruz (12 percent) and Rubio (10 percent) as their second-choice picks.
Among all GOP primary voters, the second choice favorites are: Fiorina (14 percent), Carson (13 percent), Trump (12 percent), Bush (10 percent) and Rubio (10 percent).
Clinton sits atop the Democratic pack with the support of 44 percent of primary voters.  Yet that’s a new low for her -- down five points since last month.  She was at 61 percent in June.  Clinton is holding on to her advantage despite 58 percent of all voters -- and 31 percent of Democratic primary voters -- believing she is lying about her emails.
Clinton’s closest rival is still Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who holds steady at 30 percent. Biden gets a record high 18 percent.  A month ago he was at 10 percent.
The remaining Democratic candidates are at two percent or less, including the newest entrant -- Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig -- who made it official September 9.
Without Biden in the race, it’s Clinton 56 percent and Sanders 32 percent.
Clinton also maintains her advantage over GOP front-runner Trump in a potential 2016 matchup: 46-42 percent.   Last month, it was Clinton over Trump by 47-42 percent.
Who do voters think will be the next president? When asked to name who will win next November, without the aid of a list, a plurality says Clinton (28 percent) followed by Trump (20 percent).  But the electorate isn’t always great at predicting the outcome (at least not this far out).  Eight years ago, by almost four-to-one, voters said Clinton would be the next president (44 percent), followed by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (12 percent).  Barack Obama came in third at six percent (October 2007).  The new poll finds Sanders third at five percent, with Biden and the remaining GOP candidates splitting the rest of the respondents.
This is fun: when all the names are tallied by party, about the same number of voters says the name of a Democrat they think will be the next president (37 percent) as says the name of a Republican (36 percent).

How many debates should there be?
Some of Clinton’s lesser-known competitors, as well as some high-profile Democrats like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, think there should be more Democratic Presidential debates than the six currently scheduled.  Yet Democratic primary voters seem fine with that number: 58 percent say that’s “about right,” while another 25 percent think it’s “too many.” Just 14 percent say six is “too few.” Sanders supporters (20 percent) are more likely than Clinton supporters (13 percent) to want more debates.
Republicans plan to hold at least nine debates and 50 percent of GOP primary voters thinks that’s “about right.”  Another 41 percent say that’s “too many” and 7 percent say “too few.”
The poll also asks voters who did the best and who did the worst in the September GOP debates hosted by CNN in California.  Debate watchers give the highest net performance score (best job minus worst job) to Fiorina (+34 points), followed by Rubio (+7), Kasich (+2) and Carson (+1).  These are the only candidates to receive net positive scores for their debate performance -- and they are the same four who garnered the highest scores after the first GOP debate last month.
The lowest scores among debate watchers go to Trump (-13 points), Paul (-7 points) and Bush (-4 points).  Trump also got the lowest net score after the first debate (-13 points).
Fiorina received a score of +12 points in August, even though she was in the early debate for second-tier candidates.  She participated in the top tier debate this month and improved her net score by 22 points.

Pollpourri
In this year of the outsider, the poll asks voters what would make them more worried about the state of American democracy:  a November match-up between another Clinton and another Bush or a race between upstarts Sanders and Trump?
By a 53-39 percent margin, voters say Sanders vs. Trump would be a worse sign for our democracy.
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,013 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from September 20-22, 2015. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters, and 5 points for Democratic and 4.5 points Republican primary voters.

Biden Cartoon

Biden’s running! (Or not!) But what is his rationale against Hillary?

Joe Biden is inching closer to a presidential run—or is he?
With media speculation raging out of control, perhaps the better question is: How would he fare against Hillary Clinton if he indeed jumps in?
I doubted the vice president would take the plunge, especially after he engaged in the public therapy of grieving for his late son and saying he didn’t have the emotional bandwidth for a White House campaign. Now it’s clear his team is setting up an operation that would give Biden the option of a late launch if he decides to hit the go button.
Perhaps the clearest indication is this leak to the moderator of “Meet the Press”:
“Jill Biden, sources tell NBC's Chuck Todd, is 100 percent on-board with a presidential run, despite reports indicating her hesitation is part of what's keeping Biden from jumping into the race.” The second lady’s office even put out a statement saying she is behind her husband if he chooses to make the race.
This followed a Wall Street Journal piece quoting “people familiar with the matter” as saying:
“Vice President Joe Biden’s aides in recent days called Democratic donors and supporters to suggest he is more likely than not to enter the 2016 race, and their discussions have shifted toward the timing of an announcement.” But there was a caveat: “Unless they change their minds.”
And that, in turn, followed a Journal piece in late August saying Biden “is increasingly leaning toward entering the race if it is still possible he can knit together a competitive campaign at this late date.”
But now Biden is telling the Catholic magazine America: “We’re just not there yet, and I may not get there in time to make it feasible to be able to run.”
So I’m a little dizzy. But I do know that Biden can’t wait much longer. A series of state filing deadlines is approaching, and if he’s going to run, he should be on stage at the first Democratic debate on Oct. 13.
A new CNN poll gives Hillary a nice bump to 42 percent among Democrats—maybe doing more interviews wasn’t such a bad move—with Bernie Sanders at 24 percent and Biden at 22. That’s impressive for a guy who isn’t running, but keep in mind it also reflects that he isn’t being attacked.
Let’s say Biden makes his third bid for the presidency. What is his rationale, other than that Hillary’s campaign is faltering?
As the veep complains about income inequality and the middle class getting screwed, how does he explain the Obama-Biden administration’s failure to do more for the last seven years?
Other than Hillary being a bit more hawkish, how does Biden differentiate his record from hers? Is he willing to personally attack the first potential female president—and if not, why is he running?
In a year when voters crave authenticity, Joe is the real deal, a great retail campaigner. But the flip side is that his big mouth has also gotten him into trouble again and again.
Biden knows the toll of the campaign ordeal, and he knows it’s time to decide. Either way it will be a BFD.

Clock controversy risks backfiring for Obama as critics cast doubt on narrative

President Obama’s public backing of a Texas high school freshman, who got national headlines last week when his homemade clock was mistaken for a bomb by teachers, could be causing a headache for the White House and other supporters as questions are being raised about the motives in the case. 
Fourteen-year-old Ahmed Mohamed’s father has said he now plans to withdraw the freshman from MacArthur High School, and said Monday that they intend to visit New York City where he says they will meet with dignitaries at the United Nations, before making a pilgrimage to Mecca and later visiting Obama at the White House, The Dallas Morning News reported.
It was not immediately clear which dignitaries had requested a meeting with Mohamed.
Mohamed had received praise and support from figures such as Obama and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the wake of the incident, in which Mohamed was arrested on bomb hoax charges after bringing the device to school.
However, amid huge support online for the family, there also has been growing criticism and doubts about the motive behind the incident.
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins linked to a video posted to YouTube by electrical expert Thomas Talbot, which closely scrutinizes a photo of the controversial clock.
In the video, Talbot argues the clock is actually a commercial alarm clock, removed from its casing. Features of the clock such as the printed circuit boards and ribbon cables are indicative of a manufactured product, he explained.
Dawkins asked, “If this is true, what was [Mohamed’s] motive?”
Mohamed’s father has a colorful history of his own. Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed announced in February that he planned to run for president of Sudan, as he also did in 2010, the North Dallas Gazette reported. In 2011, he defended the Koran when controversial pastor Rev. Terry Jones put the book “on trial."
On HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban also expressed concerns about the family’s involvement. While calling Ahmed a “super smart kid,” he said that when he spoke to Ahmed, "his sister, over his shoulder, you could hear, listening to the question, giving him the answer.”
Maher, a left-wing comedian, also expressed skepticism, saying “the people at the school thought it might be a bomb, perhaps because it looks exactly like a [expletive] bomb.”
Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Napolitano said that if the whole thing was a fraud, and the family was involved, they could be open to legal charges.
“It now appears as though this was a purposeful hoax," Napolitano told Fox News' Megyn Kelly Monday. “If the parents were involved now you have a fraud going on as you have funds going on for him right now,” he said, adding that the two funds to raise money for the family now amount to over $20,000.
Napolitano added that this could turn out to be a politically difficult issue for Obama.
"If this was part of a purposeful stunt and if the parents were involved in this and if everybody from Mark Zuckerberg to President Obama fell for this, this is not good," Napolitano said.
If so, it wouldn’t be the first time Obama has stepped into hot water after jumping into a local debate. In 2009, Obama reacted to initial media reports that black professor Henry Louis Gates had been arrested by Sgt. James Crowley for trying to get back into his own house after being locked out. Obama said at a press conference “the police acted stupidly” and cited a “long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately.”
It later turned out the arrest was much more complex than it initially appeared, with it being alleged that Gates made offensive comments about Crowley’s mother. Obama came under criticism and later held a “beer summit” with the two in the Rose Garden.
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin blasted Obama over his involvement in the clock controversy on Saturday, saying in a Facebook post his remarks were "about as presidential as a selfie stick."
"By the way, President Obama's practice of jumping in cases prematurely to interject himself as the cool savior, wanting so badly to attach himself to the issue-of-the-day, got old years ago," Palin wrote.

After the hype: Why Walker wilted in the media spotlight

Since Scott Walker called for a Stop Trump effort in bowing out of the presidential race, it’s easy to conclude that he was vanquished by The Donald.
And that’s not quite right. The Wisconsin governor vanquished himself.
In the harsh glare of the national spotlight, he just wasn’t a very good candidate.
Walker was prematurely hyped by the media, boosting expectations to a level he had no hope of meeting. He peaked too soon and could never find his footing.
Walker is a competent governor but a boring guy who found himself trying to compete in a Trumped-up atmosphere. By the final weeks, the man who shops at Kohl’s was shouting at a crowd that he was “unintimidated,” and just looked uncomfortable on the trail, as he did taking questions from the Fox and CNN moderators.
I’ve never seen a presidential candidate drop out and urge others to do so, but that was Walker’s plea—perhaps to give meaning to his move and lash out at the “personal attacks” by Trump. Don’t hold your breath waiting for others to follow.
Walker didn’t have to quit on Monday, even though he had dropped below 1 percent in national polls and his fundraising had dried up. He could have hobbled along and hoped for an upturn in his fortunes. But he has a day job—an actual state to run—and for him to turn into a punchline would have hurt him at home. So he chose a dignified exit.
I watched with amazement as the media utterly hyped Walker’s chances based on a single punchy speech he gave in Iowa last January. That led to rising poll numbers, which in turn produced more good press. It was the worst thing that could have happened to Walker.
He soon started ducking questions, such as his stance on evolution, and complaining about “gotcha” questions. Then he dialed way back on interviews, took two overseas trips and didn’t talk to reporters. That signaled to me a candidate who wasn’t confident.
When Walker reemerged, it was clear that he wasn’t ready for prime time, especially on foreign policy. It didn’t help that he compared fighting ISIS to battling public employee unions in Wisconsin. Asked on CNBC about Rudy Giuliani’s remark that he didn’t think Barack Obama loved America, Walker said: “I’m not going to comment on what the president thinks or not.”
I wrote this in July: “When I met Walker, he struck me as a meat-and-potatoes guy: Solid, disciplined, earnest, the son of a Baptist preacher was not at all flashy. That means he could wear well over a long campaign, but could also be overshadowed on a debate stage.”
Things soon reached the point where Walker had trouble giving straight answers to media questions. After Trump called for repealing birthright citizenship, Walker took three different positions in interviews over seven days. He was so eager to appear tough on illegal immigration that he allowed himself to muse about the possibility of building a fence along the Canadian border.
Of course, running on a governor’s record in a year of fierce anger at politicians and politics as usual didn’t help.
Liz Mair, the GOP strategist who briefly worked for Walker’s campaign before being dumped over past controversial tweets, ripped her former boss:
“Things he got wrong: Misunderstanding the GOP base, its priorities and stances. Pandering. Flip-flopping…
“Becoming so invested in winning, no matter what it took, that he lost sight of his real identity as a political leader.”
So what does Walker’s exit mean for other single-digit candidates, beyond the usual scramble for donors and organizers?
It leaves John Kasich as the only Midwestern governor; Chris Christie as the tough-talking governor; Jeb Bush as the ex-governor running on his record, albeit with far more money; Marco Rubio as the fresh young face, and Ted Cruz as the anti-establishment senator.
It means if one or two contenders follow the lead of Walker and Rick Perry, we’ll be done with the undercard debates.
It leaves Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, the non-politician brigade, at the head of the field, with Carson spending yesterday trying to explain away his comments about not advocating a Muslim for president.
Scott Walker was a strong candidate on paper. But elections, as we keep learning, aren’t won on paper.

FBI reportedly recovers deleted emails from Clinton server

Federal investigators reportedly have recovered work-related and personal emails from Hillary Clinton's time as secretary of state that the Democratic presidential front-runner claimed had been deleted from her personal server.
The recovery of the emails was first reported by Bloomberg News late Tuesday. The initial report, which cited a source familiar with the FBI investigation into Clinton's private email server, was corroborated by The New York Times, which cited two government officials.
It was not immediately clear whether all 30,000 messages Clinton said she had deleted from the server had been recovered, but one official told the Times that it had not been difficult to recover the emails that had been found so far.
The FBI is investigating whether classified information that passed through Clinton's so-called "homebrew" server during her time as secretary of state was mishandled. Clinton turned over approximately 30,000 copies of messages she deemed work-related to the State Department this past December. Clinton said earlier this year that the emails she deleted from the private server she kept at her Chappaqua, N.Y., home mostly pertained to personal matters such as her daughter Chelsea’s wedding and the secretary’s yoga routines.
An intelligence source told Fox News earlier this month that investigators were "confident" they could recover the deleted records. The source said that whoever had been deputized to scrub the server must "not be a very good IT guy.  There are different standards to scrub when you do it for government versus commercial."
It is not known when exactly Mrs. Clinton “wiped” her server, nor who was directed to do so. However, it seems the move came after October 2014,  when the State Department requested personal emails be returned as part of her business records.   
The source also told Fox News an FBI "A-team" is leading the "extremely serious" investigation into Clinton's server and the focus includes a provision of the law pertaining to "gathering, transmitting or losing defense information. The section of the Espionage Act in question is known as 18 US Code 793.
When asked about the report, Clinton’s presidential campaign spokesman Nick Merrill told Fox News that Clinton’s team “will always cooperate with the FBI,” and that Clinton and her staff “simply don’t know what the FBI has, and doesn’t have” in regard to the ongoing investigation.
Fox News’ Ed Henry said Tuesday that should the report of the newly-recovered emails prove true, some of the emails recovered would already be in investigators’ hands.
A separate source, who also was not authorized to speak on the record, said the FBI will further determine whether Clinton should have known, based on the quality and detail of the material, that emails passing through her server contained classified information regardless of the markings. The campaign's standard defense and that of Clinton is that she "never sent nor received any email that was marked classified" at the time.
It is not clear how the FBI team's findings will impact the probe itself. But the details offer a window into what investigators are looking for -- as the Clinton campaign itself downplays the controversy.

Walker Cartoon

Walker suspends 2016 campaign, urges party to find Trump alternative

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, once a leading candidate in the Republican presidential race, suspended his struggling 2016 campaign on Monday -- while issuing an appeal to his party to counter the rise of front-runner Donald Trump. 
At a hastily called press conference in Madison, Walker confirmed the news that by that point had leaked out: "I will suspend my campaign immediately."
But the governor also lamented that the contest has "drifted into personal attacks" and urged other contenders to consider following him out of the race, if only to help elevate those who can compete against the front-runner. Without naming Trump, Walker warned that he thinks the billionaire businessman could damage the party.
"I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive, conservative message can rise to the top of the field," Walker said. "... I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to consider doing the same so that the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive, conservative alternative to the current front-runner."
The decision marks a swift reversal in fortunes for Walker, who over the summer was seen as the candidate to beat in the key state of Iowa. But the governor who forged a national reputation on his record battling union power in his home state saw his position slide in recent months.
Walker was plagued by a series of missteps, and was seen as performing poorly in the first two primary debates, generally struggling to stand out amid a crowded and boisterous 2016 field.

More on this...

• The rise and quick fall of Scott Walker

The 47-year-old had told Fox News before last Wednesday's debate at the Reagan Library that he planned to "be aggressive" and show the kind of "passion" that brought him to victory in the past. Walker did have a few notable moments -- including telling Trump "we don't need an apprentice in the White House ... we have one right now.” But he was arguably outshined not only by Trump but Carly Fiorina and others.
For Walker, much was riding on his performance in that debate. In the aftermath, a CNN/ORC poll released Sunday showed Walker polling nationally at less than 1 percent.
Throughout his campaign, Walker cast himself as an "aggressively normal" conservative, campaigning as a fighter who had a number of victories in a state that hasn't voted for a Republican president since 1984.
Walker was elected governor in 2010, before winning a tough recall election in 2012 against a labor-backed effort to remove him from office, becoming the first governor to survive a recall election. Walker was elected to a second term in 2014.
However, when campaigning for president, he appeared to struggle in stating his policy positions. He appeared to flip-flop on whether he supported ending birthright citizenship in August, and showed interest in building a wall between the U.S. and Canada, only to later laugh it off as ridiculous.
Immediately after the decision to suspend the campaign was reported, fellow 2016 candidate Ben Carson called Walker "an outstanding leader with a strong record of fighting for conservative principles."
"I wish him the very best," Carson said.
Trump also praised Walker on social media ahead of the formal announcement.
While Walker may be leaving the race, his well-known feud with major labor unions showed no sign of fading away. AFL-CIO boss Richard Trumka released a scathing and brief statement: "Scott Walker is still a disgrace, just no longer national."
The move may have come to a surprise to supporters following Walker on Twitter, as he tweeted Monday he was "here to fight and win in Iowa."
A Walker donor told Fox News that even large donors were kept in the dark about the decision. A Monday afternoon conference call with donors gave no hint that this was coming, the donor said.
The announcement makes Walker the second GOP candidate to suspend his campaign, following former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Walker's exit leaves 15 major candidates remaining in the race for the Republican nomination.

Report: Obama administration seeking Vatican help on American prisoners in Iran

The Obama administration reportedly is seeking help from Pope Francis in negotiating the release of three American prisoners held in Iran. 
Politico reported Monday that Washington and the Vatican have had discussions in recent months about the prisoners. Pope Francis will visit Washington and other American cities this week, though it's unclear whether the Iranian matter will come up.
The purported discussions follow Pope Francis playing an integral role in the normalizing of relations between the United States and Cuba. The pope personally wrote letters to President Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro urging them to repair the broken bond between their countries. The Vatican later hosted talks, and played a role in the eventual release of American prisoner Alan Gross from Cuba.
Whether the Vatican, though, can exert that kind of influence in Tehran is a very open question. Cuba is a mostly Catholic nation, giving the Vatican some natural sway in the country and with the Castros. Pope Francis would hold no such influence in Tehran, run by Muslim theocrats.
Still, Politico noted that the pope met in February with a delegation of influential Iranian women. One of them, Shahindokht Molaverdi, told a Catholic-issues publication she'd be open to the pope helping improve ties between the U.S. and Iran as he did with the U.S. and Cuba.
"Certainly this pope has an ability to bring people together, which can also influence governments," Molaverdi, Iran's vice president for women and family affairs, told the publication Crux.

More on this...

• Pope Francis criticized for not meeting Cuban dissidents

Politico cited an unnamed source familiar with the cases in saying the U.S. and Vatican have been in contact regarding the American prisoners in Iran, and at least one prisoner's family has appealed to the pope for assistance.
The status of the imprisoned Americans has loomed over the talks over the Iran nuclear deal. While some lawmakers urged the Obama administration to demand their release as a condition of any agreement, the State Department and White House resisted -- saying they needed to keep the issues separate.
With the nuclear deal now expected to be implemented, though, the prisoners' fate remains unresolved. Iran continues to hold Christian pastor Saeed Abedini, former Marine Amir Hekmati and Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian on what their supporters say are bogus charges.

Drug's price changed overnight to $750 a tablet ... from $13.50

"This isn't the greedy drug company trying to gouge patients, it is us trying to stay in business. It really doesn't make sense to get any criticism for this." The "this" Martin Shkreli is referring to is the price hike his company instituted after it last month acquired Daraprim, a 62-year-old drug that the New York Times describes as "the standard of care" for treating those suffering from the potentially deadly parasitic infection toxoplasmosis.
The overnight change made by start-up Turing Pharmaceuticals: from $13.50 a tablet to $750 a tablet. USA Today points out that's a 5,000 percent increase. Shkreli justified the move by saying the overall impact will be a minor one as there are only 12,000 or so prescriptions for the specialized drug a year, and because the proceeds will go toward developing a newer treatment with fewer side effects.
A professor of infectious diseases at Emory University isn't so sure about that plan. She tells the Times that while the drug is accompanied by potentially serious side effects, they're manageable.
"I certainly don't think this is one of those diseases where we have been clamoring for better therapies," says Dr. Wendy Armstrong. The Times charts the drug's price history: Its 2010 acquisition by CorePharma saw its price hiked from $1 a tablet; that raised sales of the drug from $667,000 in 2010 to $6.3 million in 2011.
The most recent price increase could push those sales into the hundreds of millions. As for what Daraprim treats, the CDC describes toxoplasmosis as "a leading cause of death attributed to foodborne illness" in the US.
While some 60 million Americans are thought to carry the Toxoplasma parasite, it causes illness in those with weakened immune systems.