Tax Sells? Sanders, Clinton both pitching tax hikes in Dem primary

Benjamin Franklin is credited with the observation that nothing is certain “except death and taxes.”
Bernie Sanders would probably agree, and then some. In an election season marked by populist anger, his plan to raise at least $19.58 trillion in higher taxes over 10 years -- almost 20 times the tax hikes Hillary Clinton proposes -- has not dulled his rise.
And, despite the anti-tax fervor of the Tea Party wave a few years ago, neither Democratic candidate seems shy about pushing an aggressive tax plan in their presidential primary battle.
"Raising taxes in the Democratic primary is a vote winner," said Grover Norquist, of the anti-tax Americans for Tax Reform.
Sanders, for one, was defiant about his proposed tax hikes at a CNN town hall on Monday.
"I start off with the premise that in the last 30 years ... there's been a massive redistribution of wealth in this country," Sanders said. "It's gone from working families, trillions of dollars, to the top one-tenth of 1 percent."
Sanders is beating Clinton by nearly 15 percentage points in New Hampshire, and is virtually tied with her in Iowa, in the latest RealClearPolitics polling average. His popularity largely is attributable to his message about the need for wealth redistribution.
The Vermont senator seemingly has tapped into a tried-and-true socialist formula in times of economic hardship -- blaming private-sector corporations and the wealthy. "What this campaign is about is to say to profitable corporations who, in some years don't pay a nickel in taxes, to the wealthiest people in this country who sometimes have an effective tax rate lower than truck drivers or nurses, yes, you are going to start paying your fair share of taxes," he said.
That message especially rings true for young Democrats, a demographic group burdened with college debt and poor job prospects, and heavily represented in the public sector.
"So much of the Democratic activist base are government employees or people who get government grants,” Norquist explained. “So when he talks about raising taxes, his enthusiasts ... are hearing they will not be paying higher taxes. They think they will be getting more money."
Clinton has steered clear of a broad-based policy to increase taxes on the middle class, while partially tapping into Sanders’ class warfare rhetoric. In a January Democratic debate, she tried to explain their distinctions on taxes: "I'm the only candidate standing here tonight who has said I will not raise taxes on the middle class. I want to raise incomes, not taxes, and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that the wealthy pay for debt free tuition, for child care, for paid family leave."
Kyle Pomerleau, of the Tax Foundation, said Clinton’s proposals are “closer to what the Obama administration has proposed."
"More targeted higher-end tax increases on investment income, also high-income earners rather than broad tax increases for all Americans," he said.
Here’s how the plans stack up.
Among Clinton’s proposals:

• The New College Compact to limit the cost and debt of a college education. Costing $350 billion over 10 years, she says it would be paid for by limiting certain tax breaks for high-income taxpayers.
• A $275 billion infrastructure plan, paid for through business tax reforms.
• Clinton also promises to expand ObamaCare. She wants to lower co-pays and out-of-pocket expenses, as well as reduce the cost of prescription drugs. But she has not spelled out specifically how such programs would be paid for.

Among Sanders’ tax proposals, many meant to help pay for a government-run health care system that replaces ObamaCare:

• Business health care premium tax: $6.3 trillion over 10 years
• Ending tax-free status of employer health insurance: $3.1 trillion
• Wall Street speculation tax: $3 trillion
• Individual health care premium tax: $2.1 trillion
• Social Security tax hike: $1.2 trillion
• Marginal income tax rate increase: $1.1 trillion
• Corporate offshore income tax: $1 trillion
• Capital gains tax hike: $920 billion
• Payroll tax hike: $319 billion
• Estate tax: $243 billion
• Ending tax deductions: $150 billion
• Energy tax: $135 billion
• Carried interest tax: $15.6 billion

Sanders says that while taxes would rise under his plan, health costs would drop.
Sanders’ home state of Vermont also had such a plan  for a state-run, single-payer system, but Gov. Peter Shumlin shelved it in late 2014 after learning how much it would cost in new taxes.

Megyn Kelly Cartoon

Wounded Warrior Project reportedly accused of wasting donor money

The charity for wounded veterans, the Wounded Warrior Project, is facing accusations of using donor money toward excessive spending on conferences and parties instead of on recovery programs, according to a CBS News report. 
Army Staff Sergeant Erick Millette, who returned from Iraq in 2006 with a bronze star and a purple heart, told CBS News he admired the charity’s work and took a job with the group in 2014 but quit after two years.
"Their mission is to honor and empower wounded warriors, but what the public doesn't see is how they spend their money," he told CBS News.
Millette said he witnessed lavish spending on staff, with big “catered” parties.
"Going to a nice fancy restaurant is not team building. Staying at a lavish hotel at the beach here in Jacksonville, and requiring staff that lives in the area to stay at the hotel is not team building," he told CBS News.
According to the charity's tax forms obtained by CBS News, spending on conferences and meetings went from $1.7 million in 2010, to $26 million in 2014, which is the same amount the group spends on combat stress recovery.
Two former of employees, who were so fearful of retaliation they asked that CBS News not show their faces on camera, said spending has skyrocketed since Steven Nardizzi took over as CEO in 2009, pointing to the 2014 annual meeting at a luxury resort in Colorado Springs.
"He rappelled down the side of a building at one of the all hands events. He's come in on a Segway, he's come in on a horse,” one employee told CBS News.
About 500 staff members attended the four-day conference in Colorado, which CBS News reported cost about $3 million.
Wounded Warrior Project declined CBS News' interview requests for Nardizzi, but instead sent Director of Alumni and a recipient of their services, Captain Ryan Kules, who denied there was excessive spending on conferences.
"It's the best use of donor dollars to ensure we are providing programs and services to our warriors and families at the highest quality," he said.
Kules added the charity did not spend $3 million on the Colorado conference, but he was not there and was unable to say what it did cost. He also told CBS News that the charity does not spend money on alcohol or engages in any other kind of excessive spending.

Full statement on Trump declining to participate in Fox News/Google Debate

If Trump is not going to be there I will probably not watch it. The ones that do will find it Boring.

As many of our viewers know, FOX News is hosting a sanctioned debate in Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday night, three days before the first votes of the 2016 election are cast in the Iowa Caucus. Donald Trump is refusing to debate seven of his fellow presidential candidates on stage that night, which is near unprecedented.
We’re not sure how Iowans are going to feel about him walking away from them at the last minute, but it should be clear to the American public by now that this is rooted in one thing – Megyn Kelly, whom he has viciously attacked since August and has now spent four days demanding be removed from the debate stage. Capitulating to politicians’ ultimatums about a debate moderator violates all journalistic standards, as do threats, including the one leveled by Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski toward Megyn Kelly.
In a call on Saturday with a FOX News executive, Lewandowski stated that Megyn had a ‘rough couple of days after that last debate’ and he ‘would hate to have her go through that again.’ Lewandowski was warned not to level any more threats, but he continued to do so. We can’t give in to terrorizations toward any of our employees.
Trump is still welcome at Thursday night’s debate and will be treated fairly, just as he has been during his 132 appearances on FOX News & FOX Business, but he can’t dictate the moderators or the questions.

Trump campaign says candidate won’t participate in Fox News/Google debate

Donald Trump’s campaign said Tuesday night that the Republican primary front-runner does not plan to participate in the upcoming Fox News/Google debate, shortly after the debate lineup was announced. 
Trump’s campaign confirmed the decision to Fox News.
The Republican presidential candidate already had said he probably would not be going, accusing Fox News of “playing games” with him. Trump has cited concerns with one of the debate moderators, Megyn Kelly – but apparently made his decision not to attend following press statements from Fox News.
Trump, though, took heat for his decision not to attend from his closest rival in the polls, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who accused Trump of being "afraid of Megyn Kelly."
“If Donald is afraid to defend his record, it speaks volumes,” Cruz said in a radio interview with Mark Levin, challenging Trump to a one-on-one debate.
The Fox News/Google debate is set for this Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa. It would mark the first GOP presidential primary debate that Trump has not attended.
His campaign put out a statement Tuesday night confirming the candidate “will not be participating in the FOX News debate and will instead host an event in Iowa to raise money for the Veterans and Wounded Warriors.”
Addressing the matter on “The Kelly File,” Kelly later said: “I’ll be there. … The debate will go on with or without Mr. Trump.”
Despite his complaints, he had easily qualified as one of the eight candidates in the prime-time event.
Fox News announced the candidate lineup for that debate earlier Tuesday evening, and the qualifying participants were:
Trump; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio; retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; Ohio Gov. John Kasich; and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.
The participants qualifying for the earlier, 7 p.m. ET debate were:
Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum; and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore.
The lineup reflects a polling boost for Paul, who did not qualify for the most recent Fox Business Network prime-time debate earlier this month, and declined to participate in that program’s evening event.
This time, Paul suggested he’ll attend, saying the campaign is “very excited” about qualifying for the main stage.
Meanwhile, Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes has defended Megyn Kelly amid the criticism from Trump. He issued a statement earlier to The Washington Post saying, “Megyn Kelly is an excellent journalist, and the entire network stands behind her. She will absolutely be on the debate stage on Thursday night."
Megyn Kelly has withstood Trump’s eruptions since the August debate, when he accused her of purposely attacking him. As part of Trump’s explanation for not participating in Thursday’s debate he called the “Kelly File” host a “lightweight” and “third-rate reporter.”
Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski even threatened to ramp up the vicious verbal attacks Trump has repeated since the first August debate.
“In a call on Saturday with a FOX News executive, Lewandowski stated that Megyn had a ‘rough couple of days after that last debate’ and he ‘would hate to have her go through that again,’” a Fox News statement said late Tuesday.
“Lewandowski was warned not to level any more threats, but he continued to do so. We can’t give in to terrorizations toward any of our employees,” the statement added.
READ THE FOX NEWS STATEMENT ON TRUMP DECLINING TO PARTICIPATE IN FOX NEWS/GOOGLE DEBATE
Trump, speaking earlier in Iowa, said he’d probably raise money for veterans instead of doing the event. And speaking with Fox News’ Bret Baier, Trump said he “didn’t like the press releases Fox put out.”
The Fox News/Google debate in Des Moines this Thursday will be the candidates’ last before next week’s Iowa caucuses – which kicks off the Republican presidential nominating process.
In the run-up, the candidates are ramping up their ad spending and shoe-leather campaigning, while going after each other in the process.
After clashing at the most recent GOP debate, Iowa front-runners Trump and Cruz have only turned up their attacks in recent days – particularly as Trump regains his Iowa lead over Cruz in most polls. The race, though, remains close. The latest Quinnipiac University poll showed Trump leading Cruz just 31-29 percent in Iowa.
Cruz said Tuesday that “no state is a must-win for us.” But the reality is his campaign is fighting hard for an Iowa victory, as Trump maintains a huge polling lead in the next contest: the New Hampshire primary.
One new ad from a Cruz-supporting super PAC is accusing Trump of being aligned with Democrats on “government-run health care.” Another from the Cruz campaign returns to the well of criticizing Trump’s “New York values,” while playing a clip of him saying, “How stupid are the people of Iowa?”
Trump, meanwhile, called Cruz a “liar” in an MSNBC interview Tuesday.
“Nobody likes him,” Trump said, attempting to draw a contrast with his own business experience by saying Cruz can’t make a deal with anybody.
The debate on Thursday will be moderated by Fox News anchors Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace.
The candidate lineup was decided based on the results of national, New Hampshire and Iowa polling – released before 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
To qualify for the prime-time debate, a candidate had to place in the top six in an average of recent national polls, or in the top five in an average of recent Iowa or New Hampshire polls. ‎The evening debate features other candidates who received a minimum 1 percent in at least one recent national poll.

Oregon militia leader Ammon Bundy, 7 others arrested after gunfight kills 1, injures 1

The leader of a group of armed protesters who had occupied a federal wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon for 24 days was arrested along with four others Tuesday after a traffic stop prompted gunfire that left one person dead and another injured.
The FBI and Oregon State Police arrested Ammon Bundy, 40, his brother Ryan, 43, Brian Cavalier, 44, Shawna Cox, 59, and Ryan Payne, 32, at around 4:25 p.m. local time on U.S. Highway 395.
Three other people were arrested separately. The FBI said Joseph O'Shaughnessy, 45, and Peter Santilli, 50, were arrested in the nearby town of Burns, Ore. Hours later, authorities said Jon Ritzheimer, 32, turned himself into the Peoria, Ariz. police department.
The FBI said all eight face a federal felony charge of conspiracy to impede officers of the United States from discharging their official duties through the use of force, intimidation or threats.
Neither the FBI nor Oregon State Police released details about what set off the gunfire at the traffic stop. One of those arrested, described only as a man, suffered non-life-threatening wounds and was treated at a hospital, the agencies said.
Another man "who was a subject of a federal probable cause arrest" was killed in the shootout. The Oregonian reported that the deceased man was 55-year-old Robert Finicum. The paper cited Finicum's daughter in making the identification. Authorities said no other information about the deceased would be released pending formal identification by the local medical examiner's office.
The protesters were heading to a public meeting in the town of John Day, about 70 miles north of Burns, to address local residents about the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge when the traffic stop took place, law enforcement officials told Fox News.
The Oregonian newspaper reported several hundred people had gathered at the John Day Senior Center on Tuesday evening and were told the "guest speakers" would not be appearing.
The Harney County Hospital in Burns was placed on lockdown out of concern that the protesters may cause a disturbance there.
Ammon Bundy's group, calling itself the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, seized the refuge's headquarters on Jan. 2 in protest of what they viewed as onerous federal land restrictions, as well as the prison sentences of two local ranchers convicted of setting fires. Law enforcement officers converged on the wildlife refuge after the arrests and were expected to remain at the site throughout the night; it was unclear how many people, if any, remained in the buildings.
Ammon and Ryan Bundy are the sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a high-profile 2014 standoff with the government over grazing rights.
Many residents of Harney County, where the refuge is located, have been among those demanding that Bundy leave. Many sympathize with his criticism of federal land management policies of public lands but opposed the refuge takeover. They feared violence could erupt.
Ammon Bundy recently had begun traveling into Grant County to try to drum up more sympathy for his cause.
"I am pleased that the FBI has listened to the concerns of the local community and responded to the illegal activity occurring in Harney County by outside extremists," Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said in a written statement. "The leaders of this group are now in custody and I hope that the remaining individuals occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge will peacefully surrender so this community can begin to heal the deep wounds that this illegal activity has created over the last month."
The state police said it would investigate the officer-involved shooting, with help from the Deschutes County Major Incident Team and the Harney County District Attorney's Office.

Hillary email Cartoon

Trump isn't shooting blanks: Why National Review's attack may not matter

There’s been lots of chatter over Donald Trump proclaiming at a rally that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue without losing an iota of his support.
I suggest we lower the outrage meter. This is Trump’s in-your-face sense of humor, and one of the reasons that thousands flock to his rallies is that you never know how far he’s going to go in pushing the envelope.
It was not the best joke in an era of mass shootings, to be sure. But everyone gets what Trump was trying to say. No outrageous comment, no media attack, no revelation of a past liberal position seems to shake the loyalty of his fiercest fans.
This was underscored yesterday by new Fox News polls, giving Trump an 11-point lead over Ted Cruz among likely Iowa caucus-goers, and a 17-point edge over Cruz in New Hampshire. Remember when it looked like Cruz had Iowa almost wrapped up?
While it remains to be seen how many Trump supporters actually turn out—43 percent in the Iowa poll would be first-time caucus voters—it’s little wonder that Trump is oozing confidence. He’s not going to worry about verbal missteps. He’s not going to worry about Michael Bloomberg. And he’s not going to worry about National Review.
The magazine’s all-out assault came shortly after I wrapped my Las Vegas interview with Trump. But it underscores how his biggest problem hasn’t been the liberal press but a precinct of the profession that is usually firmly entrenched in the GOP’s corner: the conservative media.
The journalistic coup attempt spearheaded by National Review is so deeply revealing, both of the nature of Trump’s candidacy and a cultural divide on the right.
Trump is not running as a true-blue conservative. That is why media reports of the liberal positions he took and Democrats he befriended in the 1990s, a recent staple of Ted Cruz’s attacks, have failed to dent his armor. He presents an amalgam of positions, from a hard-right stance on illegal immigration to a center-left view on protecting entitlement programs to a liberal appeal to tax hedge-fund guys.
Rich Lowry and the editors of National Review are right: The Donald is not their kind of candidate. He has no interest in that. He is selling an image of strength and success, packaged with plenty of bombast, that transcends the usual litmus-test politics.
When I interviewed Trump in Las Vegas for Sunday’s “Media Buzz,” I asked whether he has, through some kind of weird alchemy, become the establishment candidate, as Cruz says. Trump made no attempt to dispute it, calling the Beltway power brokers “great people” and citing Bob Dole’s criticism of the Texas senator. “I’m a dealmaker,” he said proudly.
By recruiting 22 writers to attack Trump, by calling him an “opportunist” and a “huckster” and a “menace to American conservatism,” National Review is standing up for what it believes. Trump responded in typical fashion, attacking the messenger as a faltering franchise, as he has done with Politico and other media outlets. National Review is “a failing publication that has lost its way,” he said, with its influence “at an all-time low. Sad!” And yes, Trump said the magazine’s founder, William F. Buckley, would be ashamed, despite the fact that Buckley described him in 2000 as a self-regarding demagogue.
My colleague Mercedes Schlapp, who worked in the Bush White House, says most Republican voters don’t read National Review, portraying its editors and writers as living in a bubble. But every movement needs its thinkers to debate and deconstruct its philosophical principles.
No print publication has the influence it once had, and NR has certainly gotten a tsunami of media attention for its assault by recruiting the likes of Bill Kristol, editor of the rival Weekly Standard.
But Trump benefits from a newer and brasher wing of the conservative media, the more populist arena of Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Breitbart and others who may be more in touch with the grass roots than editors who live in Manhattan and Georgetown and attend conferences and cruises.  
National Review provides the intellectual backbone of the conservative movement, but it is also part of a cultural elite that many conservatives believe has let them down. Trump, the street fighter who emerged from a tabloid culture, has no interest, and no particular need, to win over the intellectuals. He is a brawler fighting a populist campaign. They are what George Wallace, in a very different context, once referred to as pointy-heads.
For National Review and its brethren, smaller government and a muscular foreign policy are the essence of why they fight the policy wars. These positions are not what motivate Trump, who often notes that he opposed the Iraq war, championed by the neoconservatives.
This same dynamic is at the heart of his battles with Fox News, where Trump has been pounded by the likes of George Will and Steve Hayes, along with Charles Krauthammer, Jonah Goldberg and Lowry, all associated with National Review.
We saw this same disruption in 2008 when Sarah Palin, who endorsed Trump this week, became the darling of Kristol and other media conservatives. When such commentators as David Brooks, David Frum and Kathleen Parker broke with the orthodoxy and called Palin unqualified to be vice president, they suffered a severe backlash.
Perhaps inevitably, things get personal between journalists and commentators who find themselves on opposite sides of the same movement.
“Some conservatives have made it their business to make excuses for Trump and duly get pats on the head from him. Count us out,” National Review writes.
It may have been a misstep for the magazine to go beyond using its ideological firepower against Trump and organize what looks like a political campaign to block him from winning the nomination.
Trump jokes about shooting people, but he may not need to expend much ammunition on a bunch of opinion folks who make their living with words.

Fox News Poll: Sanders up by 22 points in New Hampshire

Bernie Sanders commands a 22-point lead over Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, according to the latest Fox News Poll.
He tops Clinton by a 56-34 percent margin among likely Democratic primary voters.  That’s an improvement for Sanders from just two weeks ago when he was up by 13 points (50-37 percent).
Martin O’Malley holds steady with three percent support.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE NEW HAMPSHIRE POLL RESULTS
Most Sanders (78 percent) and Clinton supporters (76 percent) have a high degree of vote certainty.
Among just the subgroup of voters who say they will “definitely” vote in the Democratic primary, Sanders leads by 19 points (55-36 percent).
The poll finds Sanders retains his commanding lead among younger voters (+39 points), and also expands his advantage among a key Clinton constituency nationally:  voters over age 45.  He’s up 13-points among this group, while he was ahead by just 4 points earlier this month.
In addition, the Vermont senator has widened his lead among both men and women.  Women back him by 17 points in the new poll (55-38 percent), up from a 7-point edge in early January.  Men favor him by 29 points (was 23 points).
A third of likely Democratic voters in New Hampshire feel “betrayed” by politicians from their party (33 percent).  These folks go overwhelmingly for Sanders:  74-16 percent.
Nearly half of Clinton’s backers would be happy with Sanders as the nominee (46 percent), but only about a third of Sanders’s supporters say they would be satisfied with Clinton (35 percent).
In fact, 19 percent of those backing Sanders say they would stay home in November if Clinton is the nominee.  That's more than double the seven percent of Clinton supporters who say the same about Sanders.
New Hampshire Democrats are most likely to want a nominee who is honest and trustworthy (30 percent) and cares about people like them (25 percent).  Sanders is favored among voters who pick each of these traits.
The Fox News Poll is conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R). The phone poll was conducted January 18-21, 2016, with live interviewers (landline and cellphone).  This New Hampshire poll was among a sample of 801 registered voters selected from a statewide voter file.  Results based on the sample of 400 Democratic primary voters have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus five percentage points.

Fox News Poll: Clinton drops below 50 percent as her lead over Sanders shrinks

Hillary Clinton’s lead in the Democratic primary race has narrowed to its slimmest margin yet.
The front-runner’s support has slipped under 50 percent, and cracks may be appearing in what some called her “firewall” -- the African-American voter bloc.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE NATIONAL POLL RESULTS
Here are the numbers from the latest Fox News national poll:
Forty-nine percent of Democratic primary voters now support Clinton -- down from 54 percent two weeks ago.
Bernie Sanders also drops -- by two points -- to 37 percent. Martin O’Malley, down two ticks as well, gets 1 percent.
Ten percent are undecided -- a sign the race is more fluid than it seemed two weeks ago when only two percent were undecided.
Last June, Clinton held a 46-point lead over Sanders.  Since then, Sanders’s support has grown slowly but steadily, while Clinton’s support has ebbed and recovered once -- and now appears in danger of another reversal.
Clinton’s sagging support is due, at least in part, to erosion among black voters.  While 67 percent support her, that’s down from 78 percent two weeks ago and 84 percent in December.
“This comes against a backdrop of extreme volatility in stock markets and increasing pessimism about the economy,” says Dana Blanton, vice president of public opinion research for Fox News. “For the first time in over three years, more Americans think the economy is getting worse than better.”
A year ago, 53 percent thought the economy was getting better and 36 percent said worse.  Now 46 percent think it’s getting worse and 39 percent better.
Sanders says as president he will, “Break up the big banks, close the tax loopholes, and make them pay their fair share.”  He has criticized Clinton for being too close to Wall Street and in the last Democratic debate said the first difference between them is, “I don’t take money from big banks. I don’t get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs.”
The big dividing line among Democrats continues to be age, with Sanders leading by 26 points among those under 45 and Clinton leading by 42 points among those ages 45 and over.
Sanders voters tend to be dissatisfied (69 percent) with the workings of the federal government, while Clinton voters are about as likely to be satisfied (50 percent) as dissatisfied (47 percent).
About one-quarter (27 percent) of Sanders voters will be pleased if Clinton gets the nomination, while one-fifth (19 percent) would be so dissatisfied they’d stay home in November instead of voting for her.
Clinton voters would be more accepting of Sanders as the nominee -- 43 percent say they’d be satisfied with him, while 13 percent of Clinton voters say they probably won’t vote if Bernie is the nominee.
One thing Sanders and Clinton supporters have in common is that they’d rather Joe Biden be the nominee than their candidate’s current opponent.  Half (51 percent) of Clinton supporters and 39 percent of Sanders voters would be satisfied with the vice president as the Democratic nominee.
Honesty (30 percent) is the top quality Democratic primary voters want in their nominee, followed by the right experience (22 percent), caring about people like themselves (17 percent) and the ability to win in November (8 percent).
Among those who say honesty is most important, Sanders leads Clinton by 27 points.
Both Sanders (84 percent) and Clinton (93 percent) supporters overwhelmingly approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as president.  For comparison, 92 percent of Republican front-runner Donald Trump’s supporters disapprove of Obama.
Overall, 45 percent of voters approve and 48 percent disapprove of Obama’s job performance.  This is an improvement from early January when 42 percent approved and 53 percent disapproved.
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cellphone interviews with 1,009 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from January 18-21, 2016.  The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters, and 5 points for the Democratic primary voter sample (375).

Video suggests Clinton shared info that 'would never be on an unclassified system' normally

Sanders soars amid doubts about Clinton's trustworthiness 

 

 

A 2013 video, obtained exclusively by Fox News, raises fresh questions about how Hillary Clinton handled sensitive information at the State Department. 
In the video, veteran diplomat Wendy Sherman reveals that in the interest of speed, Clinton and her aides would share information that "would never be on an unclassified system" normally.
The questions surround a 2013 speech in which Sherman compared the technology differences between serving at the State Department in the administrations of President Bill Clinton and President Obama.
"Now we have BlackBerries, and it has changed the way diplomacy is done," Sherman, who was undersecretary of state at the time, said in the 2013 on-camera remarks. "Things appear on your BlackBerries that would never be on an unclassified system. But you're out traveling, you're trying to negotiate something. You want to communicate with people, it's the fastest way to do it."
Clinton's use of a personal server for her official emails during her time as secretary of state is now being reviewed by the FBI.
The Democratic presidential candidate has maintained she never sent or received information that was marked classified at the time. Questions also have been raised about whether classified emails were hacked by China, Russia, Iran and other nations.
In Sherman's speech to the American Foreign Service Association, she cited as an example Clinton's September 2011 visit to the United Nations General Assembly.
The secretary of state met with Lady Ashton of the European Union and, according to Sherman, the two high officials used their BlackBerries to conduct Middle East peace negotiations.
"So they sat there, as they were having the meeting, with their BlackBerries, transferring language back and forth between them and between their aides to multitask in a quite a new fashion," said Sherman. "To have the meeting and at the same time be working on the Quartet statement."
The Middle East Quartet is involved in facilitating the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and consists of the U.S., the U.N., the E.U., and Russia.
Previous email releases by the State Department of Clinton's official correspondence show that in September 2011, Clinton aide Jake Sullivan forwarded her an email chain on the Quartet statement.
The State Department considered the correspondence sensitive enough that the department deemed some of those emails to now be classified, and officials redacted details before the emails were released to the public.
The conservative super PAC America Rising declared that under National Archives guidelines, the information deemed classified involves "foreign relations or foreign activities of the United States, including confidential sources," so it was born classified when the emails were created.
"Despite her numerous protests, evidence continues to grow showing Secretary Clinton knowingly sent and received classified material using her private email," Jeff Bechdel, communications director for America Rising, said in a written statement. "This new video again puts Clinton on defense, forcing the former Secretary of State to explain why she put U.S. intelligence at risk by exclusively [using] a private email account for government business."
A Clinton aide would not comment on the video, which was revealed as new Fox News polls showed a tightening race between Clinton and Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders. Clinton's once double-digit lead in Iowa has dwindled to just 6 points, while Sanders has opened a 22-point lead in New Hampshire.
The polls also showed that in both Iowa and New Hampshire, Democratic voters said the top quality they want in a candidate is being honest and trustworthy, while experience and electability were less important.

Bernie Sanders Cartoon

Sanders, other 2016 candidates don't exactly welcome a Bloomberg bid

Would Sanders in the White House put you in the poor house?

 

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Sunday that former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg entering the White House race shows that the wealthy are too “controlling” of American politics, offering perhaps the most critical assessment within the 2016 field of a Bloomberg bid.
“What I have been saying for a long time is that this country is moving away from democracy to oligarchy, that billionaires are the people who are controlling our political life,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Still, Sanders, whose campaign is a champion for the middle class and poor, expressed confidence about winning the presidency in a matchup with billionaire Donald Trump as the Republican nominee and billionaire Bloomberg as a third-party candidate.
“That is not what, to my view, American democracy is supposed to be about -- a contest between billionaires,” the Vermont Independent senator said. “If that takes place, I am confident that we will win it.”
Bloomberg, an Independent and successful businessman, has asked advisers to draft a game plan. And he plans to commission a poll after the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries in early February before deciding on a run, as reported first by The New York Times.
Bloomberg seems to suggest he’d enter the race only if Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton loses the party nomination to Sanders. And he has reportedly told associates that he would spend $1 billion of his own money on the race.
I’m going to relieve him of that and get the nomination so he doesn’t have to,” Clinton said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Trump said on the same show: "I would love to have Michael Bloomberg run. I would love that competition. I think I'd do very well against it."
Also on Sunday, Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio largely dismissed a Bloomberg candidacy.
“Right now, he’s just a public citizen who owns a company,” said Rubio, who implied he has no problem with Bloomberg’s wealth, then retold his personal journey. “I think this is a great country where the son of a bartender and a maid can be running for the same office and have the same opportunity as the son of a millionaire. … I want America to remain that kind of country.”  
GOP candidate Jeb Bush, raised in an affluent family and whose father was president, called Bloomberg a “great mayor,” despite have different political views.
“Look, he’s a good man,” Bush also said on ABC’s “This Week.” “He’s much more liberal than I am, but he’s a good person.”
Bush also predicted that the 73-year-old Bloomberg won’t get into the race unless the general election features the front-running Trump and Sanders, who is second behind Clinton in the Democratic primary race.

Rep. Schiff joins fellow Dems in casting doubt on IG letter on Clinton emails

The top Democrat on the House Select Committee on Intelligence suggested Sunday that congressional Republicans are manipulating the inspector general who recently reported about new “top secret” information found on Hillary Clinton’s private email system.
California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff argued that several Republican committee chairmen are investigating Clinton's use of the private system as secretary of state while “actively campaigning” against her.
"I think the inspector general has to be very careful not to allow himself to be used by one political party against the other in a presidential race,” Schiff told "Fox News Sunday."
He also said that one of the chairmen went to a campaign rally for front-running GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump “and said his purpose is to defeat Hillary Clinton.”
Schiff also repeated the argument about the difficulty in trying to agree on what is top secret information. It was among the most recent efforts by Democrats to downplay or discredit the Jan. 14 letter from Intelligence Committee Inspector General Charles McCullough to top Capitol Hill Republicans.
The unclassified letter states that a recent review by intelligence agencies identified "several dozen" classified emails -- including specific, top-secret intelligence related to so-called "special access programs.”
Since the letter was reported by Fox News, Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon has suggested that McCullough “put two Republican senators up to sending him a letter so that he would have an excuse to resurface the same allegations he made back in the summer that have been discredited.”
And Clinton has suggested the purported super-secret information was perhaps a “New York Times” article about a drone program.
Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, a Republican on Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told “Fox News Sunday” in response: “We're not just talking about a newspaper article.
“It's (about) the conversation that interchanges between staff. This whole Clinton procedure (is) trying to attack the messenger and to say the messenger must be a member of the vast right-wing conspiracy.”
However, he declined to discuss what is in the emails but suggested that what McCullough cited in the letter “would absolutely represent a security threat.”
He also argued that McCullough was nominated for the post by President Obama and confirmed unanimously by a Democratic-controlled Senate.

Fox News Poll: Trump gains in Iowa, still dominates in New Hampshire

With just over a week until the first 2016 election contest, Donald Trump takes the lead in Iowa -- and maintains his big advantage in New Hampshire. 
That’s according to the latest round of Fox News state polls on the Republican presidential nomination contest.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE IOWA POLL RESULTS
CLICK HERE TO READ THE NEW HAMPSHIRE POLL RESULTS
Trump bests Ted Cruz in Iowa and now receives 34 percent support among Republican caucus-goers.  Trump was at 23 percent in the Fox News Poll two weeks ago (January 4-7).
Cruz is second with 23 percent -- down a touch from 27 percent.  Marco Rubio comes in third with 12 percent, down from 15 percent.  No others garner double-digit support.
Among caucus-goers who identify as “very” conservative, Cruz was up by 18 points over Trump earlier this month.  Now they each receive about a third among this group (Cruz 34 percent vs. Trump 33 percent).
There’s been a similar shift among white evangelical Christians.  Cruz’s 14-point advantage is now down to a 2-point edge.
A lot has happened in the intervening two weeks.  Fox Business Network hosted a Republican debate where Trump questioned Cruz’s eligibility to be president, and Cruz attacked Trump’s liberal “New York values.”  On Tuesday, Gov. Terry Branstad urged his fellow Iowans to vote against Cruz because of his opposition to ethanol -- and former Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin endorsed Trump.
Republican pollster Daron Shaw says, “We tend to over-interpret every little thing in a presidential race, but here we actually have solid evidence Trump didn't just win last week in Iowa -- he won it by enough to put some distance between himself and Cruz.”  Shaw conducts the Fox News Poll with Democratic pollster Chris Anderson.
But a lot can change before Iowans caucus February 1.
A third of Republican caucus-goers say they may change their mind (33 percent).  Even one in four Trump supporters says they may ultimately go with another candidate (25 percent).
Cruz tops the list when GOP caucus-goers are asked their second-choice candidate.  When first and second-choice preferences are combined, it’s extremely tight between Trump (48 percent) and Cruz (45 percent).
That’s because 20 percent of Iowa Republican caucus-goers are so negative on Trump they say they would “refuse” to vote for him over the Democrat in November, while fewer say the same of Cruz (11 percent).  Another 14 percent say they would stay home if the nominee is Jeb Bush.
Here’s how the rest of the field stands:  Ben Carson is at 7 percent, Rand Paul is at 6 percent, Bush and Chris Christie each get 4 percent, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich and Rick Santorum tie at 2 percent, and Carly Fiorina gets 1 percent.
More than a third who say they will attend a Republican caucus this year have never gone before (38 percent).  Many of these first-time attendees, 43 percent, are supporting Trump, while 19 percent favor Cruz and 14 percent Rubio.  The poll can’t predict how many from this group will actually show up.
Among just those Republicans who have caucused before, it’s a 3-point race:  Trump 28 percent vs. Cruz 25 percent.  Another 10 percent go for Rubio.
True conservative values is the top characteristic GOP caucus-goers want in their party’s nominee (27 percent), closely followed by telling it like it is (24 percent) and being a strong leader (23 percent).  Those traits outrank nominating someone who can win in November (9 percent) or has the right experience (7 percent).

New Hampshire
Unlike Iowa, there has been little movement in the New Hampshire Republican race. Trump continues to garner more than twice the support of his nearest competitors.
The Fox News poll shows Trump at 31 percent (down 2 points), Cruz at 14 percent (up 2 points) and Rubio at 13 percent (down 2 points).
Kasich is at 9 percent, Bush and Christie each receive 7 percent, Carson and Paul tie at 5 percent, while Fiorina gets 3 percent, and Huckabee 1 percent.
Despite dominating the NH race, Trump also tops the list as the nominee who would make Republicans stay home in November:  26 percent say they would refuse to vote for Trump against the Democrat.  Fifteen percent say the same of Bush, 14 percent feel that way about Cruz, and 12 percent about Rubio.
Over half of likely Republican primary voters in the Granite State say they are certain to vote for their candidate, while 36 percent could still shift their support.
Granite Staters also want slightly different traits in their nominee than their Iowa counterparts.  NH GOP primary voters want a strong leader (27 percent) and someone who tells it like it is (21 percent) more than a nominee who has true conservative values (15 percent), is electable (13 percent), or has the right experience (12 percent).
The Fox News Poll is conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R).  These polls were conducted January 18-21, 2016, by telephone (landline and cellphone) with live interviewers.
The New Hampshire poll was among a sample of 801 registered voters selected from a statewide voter file.  Results based on the sample of 401 Republican primary voters have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus five percentage points.
In Iowa, the poll was among a sample of 801 registered voters selected from a statewide voter file.  Results based on the sample of 378 Republican caucus-goers have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus five percentage points.

On Capitol Hill, Snow cancels House votes on ObamaCare, Iran sanctions

The winter storm that has buried Washington under record-breaking snow has forced Congress to change plans, including the cancellation of key House votes on ObamaCare and Iran sanctions.
The announcement was made Sunday by California GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy, whose duties as House majority leader is to set the chamber’s voting schedule.
As the storm approached late last week, McCarthy cancelled scheduled votes for Monday. But he has now told chamber members not to "expect" votes on Tuesday and Wednesday “due to the severity of the winter storm."
He also said the next scheduled vote is for the night of Feb. 1.
The Senate is still scheduled to return to work Tuesday morning. However, the confirmation vote for John Vazquez to be federal judge in New Jersey has been postponed until Wednesday night.
Roughly 22 inches of snow landed in downtown Washington, according to an unofficial National Weather Service report Sunday.
The walkways that connect the Rotunda and the office buildings on the Capitol grounds are essentially clear, but Washington’s transit system remains closed.
And flights to the surrounding airports are still cancelled, which means many members of Congress cannot return to Capitol Hill until later this week.
The storm and McCarthy’s announcement likely means the House will hold no votes this week because chamber Democrats are holding a retreat in Baltimore on Thursday and Friday, when President Obama is slated to speak.
The House was scheduled to take a re-vote this week on a bill to impose sanctions on Iran. Two weeks ago, the GOP-controlled House briefly passed the bill. But the House then moved to nullify the vote because 137 members missed the roll call.
The House was also scheduled to attempt an override of President Obama's veto of the special budget reconciliation measure that would repealed ObamaCare and defunded Planned Parenthood.
Successful veto overrides require a two-thirds vote in both chambers. That equals roughly 280 to 290 yeas in the House, depending on how many members cast ballots.
The chamber appears nowhere close to that number, but GOP leadership said it will nevertheless forge ahead with the vote.

Fox News Poll: Trump gains in Iowa, still dominates in New Hampshire

Rosie O'donnell Cartoon

rosie o'donnell

Donald Trump Says Megyn Kelly Should Skip Debate; Fox Says She’ll Be There

Since Megyn Kelly’s pointed question to Donald J. Trump about his treatment of women in the first Republican debate, he has been attacking her regularly, through Tweets and on the campaign trail. Bailey comment: "He should attack her, she ambushed him in the first debate"!

His most recent attack: Ms. Kelly shouldn’t be allowed to moderate the next debate, to be held on Thursday, because of “conflict of interest and bias.”

Since August, the bad blood has been decidedly one-sided, as Mr. Trump has repeatedly called Ms. Kelly a liar and overrated, and retweeted supporters calling her a bimbo. Most memorably, he seemed to suggest she was menstruating during the debate when he said in an interview, “you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”

Ms. Kelly had asked Mr. Trump during the debate about his history of disparaging women he did not like by calling them “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.” After he criticized her, she stood her ground, saying in August that she planned to “continue doing my job without fear or favor.” She has never engaged with the candidate on any of his attacks, and has had his supporters on her show, including most recently Sarah Palin.

Fox News showed no signs of giving in to Mr. Trump’s displeasure with the questioning, stating just a week following the first debate that all three moderators would again host the debate in January.

On Saturday, it reiterated that stance, saying in a statement: “Megyn Kelly has no conflict of interest. Donald Trump is just trying to build up the audience for Thursday’s debate, for which we thank him.”

Request to delay January release of Clinton emails blames snow, Republicans say ask political, tied to early primaries

The State Department is asking a federal court for a one-month extension for the January 29 release of emails from former agency secretary Hillary Clinton, citing in part problems from this weekend’s snow storm and sparking outrage from Republicans about the delay influencing early voting in the White House race.
“It’s clear that the State Department’s delay is all about ensuring any further damaging developments in Hillary Clinton’s email scandal are revealed only after the votes are counted in the early nominating states,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus after the request Friday.
Lawyers for the agency, which Clinton ran from 2011 to 2013, made the request in a federal court in Washington, which in May ordered the emails to be released monthly, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
“The Clinton email team must perform its work on site. … This storm will disrupt the Clinton email team’s current plans to work a significant number of hours throughout the upcoming weekend and could affect the number of documents that can be produced on January 29, 2016,” agency lawyers wrote in their request.
Clinton, the Democratic front-runner for the 2016 nomination, exclusively used a private email account and a home server during her time at the agency. She said this was a decision made out of convenience and has denied doing anything wrong.
An extension, if granted, would push the complete publication of Clinton's emails past several of the earliest primary contests, including the key states of Iowa and New Hampshire. If they come out instead on Feb. 29, it would be a day before the critical Super Tuesday primaries.
“The American people should be outraged at the Obama administration’s gamesmanship to protect someone who recklessly exposed classified information on more than 1,300 occasions, including highly sensitive Top Secret intelligence,” Priebus continued.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Friday the agency cannot meet its court-mandated goal of Jan. 29 because about 9,400 of the 55,000 remaining pages "contain a large amount of material that required interagency review."
“The remaining emails are also the most complex to process," he said.
However, the agency will make public as many as possible next week, Toner also said.
The Clinton campaign referred questions by Fox News back to the State Department, include a request to respond to the RNC saying the extension request was politically connected to the 2016 voting schedule.
Some of the most contentious emails haven't yet been published. They include two that an intelligence community auditor says are "top secret" and others he claims are even more sensitive, containing information from so-called special access programs. Such programs suggest the emails could reveal details about intelligence sources.
The State Department says no emails published so far contained material with "top secret" information or any material that was marked classified at the time. The issue has nagged at Clinton's presidential campaign, with the FBI said to be examining in some capacity.
Toner said the delay in publication isn't the result of "ongoing discussion about classification" that has been made public recently. He said he couldn't comment further on ongoing litigation.

Clinton, Rubio score key Iowa paper's endorsement ahead of caucuses

Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Marco Rubio each won a key endorsement Saturday from the Des Moines Register newspaper,(
The Register first endorsed candidates in the 1988 caucuses. "Before that time, the thinking on the editorial board was that the Register, as an independent newspaper, should refrain from getting mixed up in the internal affairs of the Democratic and Republican parties as they chose their nominees," wrote Richard Doak, former Register opinion editor. "The thinking changed in the run-up to the 1988 caucuses."
That year was much like this year, drawing several candidates to Iowa to vie for the nominations of both parties.)
eight days before the state holds its first-in-the nation voting caucus for president.
"If there’s one thing Democrats and Republicans agree on this year, it’s the fact that the next president will face enormous challenges," the paper's editorial board said in endorsing the Democratic front-runner and Florida GOP senator.
The paper, considered Iowa's most prominent daily, said the next president must work with Congress in confronting a host of issues including immigration, health care, gun control and the growing national security threat.
And he or she must "on the world stage" work with foreign leaders in stopping the Islamic State and other terrorists, North Korea and Iran's nuclear threat and the Russian incursions in Ukraine.
The paper said Clinton was "not a perfect candidate" but that no other can "match the depth or breadth of her knowledge and experience."
Board members said Republicans have the opportunity to define their party’s future in this election by choosing “anger, pessimism and fear.” Or it could be the party in which Rubio “the son of an immigrant bartender and maid could become president,” they said.
“Rubio has the potential to chart a new direction for the party, and perhaps the nation, with his message of restoring the American dream. We endorse him because he represents his party’s best hope,” the board said in an apparent rejection of the political rhetoric of front-running Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who are in a close race to win the Iowa GOP caucus.
The Clinton endorsement comes ahead of the Feb. 1 caucus in which Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders trails Clinton 42-to-48, according to the RealClearPolitics poll average.
The board argued Sanders was "an honorable and formidable campaigner" but said even Sanders' acknowledges that essentially all of his reform plans have no chance of being approved by a GOP-heavy Congress.

The editorial board acknowledged concerns about how Clinton handled “the furor over her private email server" and argued that she has yet to realize that "when she makes a mistake, she should just say so."
The Democratic and Republican candidates met twice with the board in question-and-answer sessions.
“It’s been a long time since the Republican Party has had an agenda that talks to students,” the board said after Rubio’s meetings.
While calling Rubio “whip smart,” the board also suggested that he and some of his plans, including one to replace ObamaCare, remain a work in progress.
 Trump and others, the board suggested, have responded to the public’s anger and frustration with Washington by trying to demonize government and “resorting to the cheap demagoguery.”

Trump weighs lawsuit over Cruz citizenship

Businessman Donald Trump hinted Saturday he might decide to sue rival Texas Sen. Ted Cruz over the legality of his U.S. citizenship.
“Ted has a lot of problems – number one Canada. He could run for the Prime Minister of Canada and I wouldn’t even complain because he was born in Canada, it’s a serious thing,” Trump told a few thousand supporters at a rally in Sioux Center, Iowa.
He said Democrats would look to sue Cruz if he became the Republican nominee. “There are already two lawsuits filed, but they don’t have standing, I have standing to sue (as a candidate), can you imagine if I did it? Should I do it just for fun?”
Though Trump went on to explain he’s confident on winning the GOP nomination, thus “I don’t really think its going to matter, that’s probably why I want to save the legal fees … maybe I would do it, maybe I won’t either”.
Cruz pushed back earlier this month during the Fox Business debate on claims made against him. “You know, back in September, my friend Donald said that he had had his lawyers look at this from every which way, and there was no issue there. There was nothing to this birther issue.”
He added, “the facts and the law here are really quite clear. Under longstanding U.S. law, the child of a U.S. citizen born abroad is a natural-born citizen.”
Cruz did become a Canadian citizen at birth due to that’s country legal system, which the senator didn’t realize until 2013. He formally renounced his Canadian citizenship in May 2014.
While there is debate over what defines American citizenship, the Supreme Court has never ruled directly on the criteria for presidential office holders.
In 2008, then-Republican presidential candidate John McCain faced questions over his own citizenship since he was born in the Panama Canal Zone, a U.S. territory at the time.  Attempts to further the debate over his status didn’t pan out.
McCain did tell Phoenix radio station 550 KFYI in early January that his situation was different. The Arizona senator said that he “didn’t know” about Cruz’s eligibility to run for president and added, “it’s worth looking into”.

Biden says US, Turkey prepared for military solution against ISIS in Syria

Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday the U.S. and Turkey are prepared for a military solution against ISIS in Syria should the Syrian government and rebel-opposition forces fail to reach a peace agreement during its upcoming meeting in Geneva.
The next round of Syrian peace talks are scheduled to take place Monday, but are at risk of being postponed over a dispute over who will comprise the opposition delegation, according to Reuters. Syrian rebels said they hold the Syrian government and Russia responsible should the peace talks fail to bring an end to the civil war that has torn the country completely apart.
"We do know it would better if we can reach a political solution but we are prepared ..., if that's not possible, to have a military solution to this operation in taking out Daesh," Biden said at a news conference after a meeting with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
A U.S. official later told Reuters that Biden’s comment was talking about a military solution to defeating Islamic State, not Syria as a whole. Biden said he and Dabutoglu have also discussed how both the U.S. and Turkey can support Sunni Arab forces fighting to force out Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
He also met with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, capping a two-day visit to Istanbul focused on boosting the fight against ISIS militants and trying to resolve the Syrian crisis.
U.S. has backed Syrian rebels with Special Forces soldiers to help train them. Washington is also conducting air strikes against ISIS, which holds large swaths of Syria and Iraq.
Secretary of State John Kerry also said Saturday he was confident Syria peace talks would proceed. Kerry met with Riad Hijab, chair of the Syrian opposition’s High Negotiations Committee and other delegates representing the Syrian opposition.
"They discussed the upcoming U.N.-sponsored negotiations regarding a political transition in Syria and all agreed on the urgent need to end the violence afflicting the Syrian people," State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
Kerry emphasized how important it is to maintain the momentum of the International Syria Support Group, a group of big world and regional powers backing peace efforts in the war-torn nation, Kirby said.
Biden also offered his condolences over a Jan. 12 terror attack that killed 12 German tourists in Istanbul. The Turkish authorities say the suicide bomber was linked to the Islamic State.
"We have a robust operation and commitment to defeat ISIL," said Biden, crediting Turkey for increasing efforts to secure its 550-mile border with Syria, as well as allowing anti-IS coalition aircraft to use Turkish bases for bombing runs against IS targets.
Biden also acknowledged the threat that Kurdish militants pose to Turkey, calling the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers' Party, "a terrorist group plain and simple." Ankara views its war on terror as a two-prong effort focused on Kurdish militants and IS jihadists who have established cells in Turkey and use the country as a gateway to Syria.