June 16, 2016

Top conservatives meet at secret dinner to discuss Cruz's future

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) attended a confidential dinner with more than 20 top conservatives on Tuesday night to plan his comeback as a movement leader in the mold of Ronald Reagan.

The dinner was at the Virginia home of conservative activist Brent Bozell, and the agenda was to plot Cruz’s future and the future of the conservative movement.

The undertone of the dinner was about how to position Cruz for a future tilt at the presidency and to spearhead the conservative movement from his seat in the Senate, those in attendance said. Dining with Cruz and his chief of staff, Paul Teller, were some of the most powerful figures in the conservative movement.

The spectrum of economic, national security and social conservatives seated at the table included Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint, Club for Growth President David McIntosh, direct-mail guru Richard Viguerie, National Rifle Association board member and former Cincinnati Mayor Ken Blackwell, and Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser, sources confirmed.

According to those in attendance, the leaders discussed how they could work more effectively together and how to harness their vast financial and human networks in the service of conservative principles and Cruz's career. Combined, those at the table have access to hundreds of millions of dollars and some of the largest ground armies on the right.

more
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/283655-top-conservatives-meet-at-secret-dinner-to-discuss-cruzs

June 15, 2016

Discussion: Gun-Toting, Bundy-Defending Nevada GOPer Loses Congressional Race

Colorful Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore (R), who is known for her fervent advocacy for gun rights and distrust of federal government agencies, lost her bid to join the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Fiore came in a distant third place with 18 percent of the vote in the state's 3rd Congressional district.

The outspoken Nevada Republican drew national media attention earlier this year for her role in brokering the standoff between federal agents and self-styled militia members occupying a wildlife refuge in remote northeastern Oregon. Fiore said at the time that one of the occupiers who was killed in a shootout with federal law enforcement, LaVoy Finicum, was “murdered with his hands up,” even though authorities said that Finicum was shot when he reached inside his jacket toward his weapon.

Both during the Malheur Wildlife Refuge occupation and during the armed standoff against the Bureau of Land Management at Cliven Bundy’s ranch in 2014, Fiore emerged as one of the most prominent defenders of the Bundy family, whom she called “patriots.”

Fiore also made headlines for her startling comments on gun rights.

In December she offered to fly to Europe to shoot Syrian refugees in the head, and later that month sent out a Christmas card in which every member of her family, including her 5-year-old grandson, was armed with a gun.

Her suggestion that citizens can take aim at police as long as law enforcement draw their weapons first also drew censure from Nevada’s largest police union.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/michele-fiore-loses-nevada-congressional-race

June 15, 2016

Toddler dragged into water by alligator at Disney resort believed to be dead

Source: The Washington Post

Authorities are now focused on recovering the body of the 2-year-old boy snatched by an alligator at a Disney resort near Orlando, saying Wednesday that it’s highly unlikely the boy survived.

“There is no question we will lose the 2-year-old child,” Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said at a midday news conference. “It’s now been 15 hours since the child has been taken into the water. We are working on recovering the body of the child at this point.”

He added: “Our ultimate goal is to try and bring some closure to this family by bringing home their loved one.”

The toddler’s parents watched Tuesday night as the alligator grabbed their son and dragged him deeper into the water, officials said. The father, who was not identified, rushed in and grabbed desperately for his son; he cut his hand but was unable to save the boy.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/06/15/nebraska-toddler-dragged-into-water-by-alligator-at-disney-resort-in-orlando/

June 15, 2016

Trump Concedes Orlando Shooter Born In US, But His 'Ideas' Were Born Elsewhere

Donald Trump conceded Wednesday that the man suspected of killing 49 club-goers this weekend in Orlando, Florida was indeed born in the United States, although Trump said his ideas were "born from someplace else."

Trump said at a rally in Atlanta, Georgia that the number of people entering the United States was "beyond the money."

"Even if you had a small percentage of people coming in thinking like this person, who, again, was born here but, his parents weren't, and his ideas weren't born here," Trump said. "His ideas were born from someplace else."

Trump had suggested the day after the massacre at Orlando's Pulse nightclub that the shooter, identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen, was born in Afghanistan. Mateen actually was born in New York.

-snip-

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-orlando-shooter-ideas-born-elsewhere

June 15, 2016

‘A flip flopping con man’: Conservatives freak after Trump hints he’ll support stronger gun control

With his poll numbers in free fall, it looks like Donald Trump is attempting to make a “pivot” to the center of sorts on the issue of gun control.

In a Twitter post on Wednesday, Trump said that he planned to meet with the National Rifle Association to talk “about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns.”

Donald J. Trump

?@realDonaldTrump

I will be meeting with the NRA, who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns.

RETWEETS 7,215
LIKES 21,024

Pro-gun conservatives immediately sensed betrayal from Trump and rushed to condemn his apostasy by ripping the presumptive nominee for caving on gun control.

“This year (Trump) got the NRA endorsement and he just threw them under the bus,” thundered Erick Erickson at The Resurgent. “Banning people on the terror watch list and no fly list are terrible ideas because the second amendment is a fundamental right.”

Other conservatives were similarly angry, albeit not very surprised given Trump’s wildly erratic shifts in policy positions:

-snip-]

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/06/a-flip-flopping-con-man-conservatives-freak-after-trump-hints-that-hell-support-stronger-gun-control/

June 15, 2016

Alexander Suggests Trump May Not Be Nominee

Source: Political Wire

June 15, 2016 By Taegan Goddard

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) suggested to the AP that Donald Trump might not end up as the Republican party’s nominee after all.

Said Alexander: “We do not have a nominee until after the convention.”

Reminded that Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee, Alexander retorted, “That’s what you say.”

###




Read more: https://politicalwire.com/2016/06/15/alexander-suggests-trump-may-not-end-up-nominee/

June 15, 2016

Trump tweets story claiming 'secret memo' shows Obama supports ISIS

Source: The Hill

Donald Trump on Wednesday tweeted a link to an article that claims President Obama has indirectly supported the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), standing behind his remarks earlier this week that Obama might sympathize with terrorists.

Donald J. Trump ✔
@realDonaldTrump

An: Media fell all over themselves criticizing what DonaldTrump "may have insinuated about @POTUS." But he's right: http://bit.ly/1tpAFlM

9:38 AM - 15 Jun 2016

The story says Clinton's State Department received a memo from an intelligence agent that al-Qaeda in Iraq, a group that partly splintered off to form ISIS, was the one of the "major forces driving the insurgency in Syria."

Since the Obama administration set up a program to train Syrian rebels in its fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Breitbart article makes the claim that the administration backed the terror group.

The Syrian opposition is filled with dozens of different factions, and the Obama administration has struggled at timed with finding reliable allies not tied to extremists. The Pentagon had made vetting potential allied rebels a piece of its "train and equip" program to provide moderate rebels with assistance. However, that program stalled out after the Pentagon was only able to train 150 rebels, a far cry from the 3,000 goal by the end of 2015.

-snip-



Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/283564-trump-tweets-story-claiming-secret-memo-shows-obama

June 14, 2016

FBI to investigate if Orlando gunman's sexuality was a motive in shooting

Source: The Guardian

Officials indicated they would follow up on reports that shooter Omar Mateen had visited Pulse nightclub before the attack and used an LGBT dating app

The FBI has told members of the LGBT community it will pursue accounts that the Orlando nightclub shooter was partially motivated by internal conflict over his own sexuality, the Guardian has learned.

A conference call held late on Monday pulled together representatives from the FBI and departments of justice and homeland security with 358 civil-rights-minded leaders, particularly from the LGBT and American Muslim groups, a senior US official told the Guardian, to share information and hear concerns from communities reeling from one of the worst incidents of gun violence in recent US history.

FBI officials on the call “indicated they would follow up” on reports that shooter Omar Mateen had on a number of occasions visited the LGBT nightclub Pulse where he killed 49 and wounded 52 on Sunday. That focus is thus far unprecedented in nearly 15 years of post-9/11 counter-terrorism, which has yet to confront a known case of a suspected closeted LGBT individual ostensibly committing a mass murder in the name of a homophobic terrorist organization.

According to a readout of the call, the Department of Homeland Security also said it was receiving “reports of anecdotal backlash from Muslim-American, Sikh, South Asian and Arab-American communities”. The US official said that on the call, Muslim leaders expressed “condolences and significant support” for LGBT communities in Orlando and beyond.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/14/orlando-shooting-omar-mateen-motive-pulse-nightclub?CMP=share_btn_tw

June 14, 2016

After Orlando: Instead of a wedding, couple will have a joint funeral

In the aftermath of the tragedy at Pulse, relatives of the 49 people murdered are now making funeral arrangements, and according to Time, two families will come together to celebrate the lives of a loving couple separated only by death.

Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22, and his 32-year-old boyfriend, Christopher “Drew” Leinonen, were killed inside the Orlando, Fla. club early Sunday.

“They were honestly so in love. They were soul mates. You can tell by how they looked at each other,”Aryam Guerrero told the magazine. “It’s a little comforting that they died together.”

-snip-

Leinonen’s mother said she suddenly was awakened at 3 a.m. the morning of the shootings, and upon hearing the news drove to Pulse to begin a vigil. She broke down in tears as she pleaded on local and national television for confirmation that her son was among the victims, and called for an end to assault weapon-fueled mass shootings.

more
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/06/orlando-instead-wedding-couple-will-joint-funeral/

June 14, 2016

Chris Christie: Use Orlando attack as excuse to bomb the Middle East

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Sunday’s deadly attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando should prompt an overseas military response.

The Republican governor said Tuesday morning on New York radio station WFAN that “radical Islamic terrorists are out to kill us,” when he was asked to respond to the attack that left 49 people dead.

“It is unacceptable to allow this type of stuff in our country and for us to not fight back,” he said. “We’ve got to fight back.” Christie was limited on details of where the U.S. should attack.

“You’ve got to get over there and make them pay where they live,” Christie said.

more
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/06/chris-christie-use-orlando-attack-excuse-bomb-middle-east/