Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told an Australian TV station that Russian president Vladimir Putin is a great threat to democracy than the Islamic State.
Said McCain: “I think he is the premier and most important threat, more so than ISIS.”
He added that while ISIS “can do terrible things and I worry a lot about what is happening with the Muslim faith… but it’s the Russians who tried to destroy the fundamental of democracy and that is to change the outcome of an American election.”
Donald Trump said today he was right to imply that President Obama is an ISIS sympathizer, ABC News reports.
In an attempt to defend his controversial claims that the president supports the terrorist group, Trump tweeted a story from Breitbart.com that cites a newly discovered “secret” memo the website says proves Obama is an ISIS supporter.
“Islamic State’s Amaq news agency said on Sunday that the Islamist militant group was responsible for the shooting that killed at least 50 people in a massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida,” Reuters reports.
Said the statement: “The armed attack that targeted a gay night club in the city of Orlando in the American state of Florida which left over 100 people dead or injured was carried out by an Islamic State fighter.”
Donald Trump announced from the stage at a rally in Missouri that a man who had charged him at an event was “probably” linked to the Islamic State, appearing to base his statement on an Internet video that has been described as a hoax, the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “This was a guy that was looking to do harm. It was probably ISIS or ISIS-related, can you believe it?”
Washington Post: “The administration’s insistence that its prudence and patience will pay off — vs. charges of too little, too late — have been the two opposing narratives of the 18-month battle against the Islamic State and the four-year Syrian war it has now overshadowed.”
“An examination of the recent course of events on the military and diplomatic fronts and interviews with a broad range of stakeholders and experts provide fuel for both arguments.”
Meanwhile, Politico notes Obama incorrectly suggested in his Oval Office address that the woman responsible for the San Bernandino attacks had entered the country without a visa.
Hillary Clinton said that the United States is “not winning” the battle against the Islamic State, the Washington Post reports.
Said Clinton: “We’re not winning, but it’s too soon to say that we are doing everything we need to do. And I’ve outlined very clearly we have to fight them in the air, we have to fight them on ground, and we have to fight on the Internet. And we have to do everything we can with our friends and partners around the world to protect ourselves.”
French President Francois Hollande vowed to “be unforgiving with the barbarians from Daesh,” adding that France would act within the law but with “all the necessary means, and on all terrains, inside and outside, in coordination with our allies, who are, themselves, targeted by this terrorist threat,” the New York Times reports.
“For over three decades, Carly Fiorina’s bachelor’s degree from Stanford University in medieval history and philosophy has had little real-world application. But as she mounts a presidential bid, the Republican candidate says her degree is finally of use as she considers how she would deal with ISIS as commander-in-chief,” ABC News reports.
Said Fiorina: “Finally my degree in medieval history and philosophy has come in handy, because what ISIS wants to do is drive us back to the Middle Ages, literally.”
New York Times: “Nearly 30,000 foreign recruits have now poured into Syria, many to join the Islamic State, a doubling of volunteers in just the past 12 months and stark evidence that an international effort to tighten borders, share intelligence and enforce antiterrorism laws is not diminishing the ranks of new militant fighters.”
“Among those who have entered or tried to enter the conflict in Iraq or Syria are more than 250 Americans, up from about 100 a year ago, according to intelligence and law enforcement officials.”
“ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave arms indiscriminately, and most these arms were snatched up by ISIS.”
— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), in an interview on Morning Joe.
House Speaker John Boehner said it will be “virtually impossible” for Congress to approve President Obama’s proposed authority for military force against Islamic State militants, the AP reports.
“In a meeting with a handful of reporters, the Republican leader said Obama’s proposal for new authority is stalled months after Obama requested a three-year authority that bans ‘enduring offensive combat operations’ for U.S. troops. Boehner said it made no sense for Congress to give the president less authority than he already has to combat Islamic extremists, who have captured parts of Iraq and Syria.”
“These are Americans. You are talking about, in the case of ISIS, people who are beheading individuals and committing heinous crimes, who are the face of evil. To try to make the relationship between them and the unions is inappropriate.”
— Rick Perry, in an interview with NBC News, criticizing Scott Walker’s comparison of union protests with the Islamic State.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) told conservatives that his experience with union protests has prepared him to confront terrorists, TPM reports.
Said Walker: “I want a commander-in-chief who will do everything in their power to ensure that the threat from radical Islamic terrorists do not wash up on American soil. We will have someone who leads and ultimately will send a message not only that we will protect American soil but do not take this upon freedom-loving people anywhere else in the world. We need a leader with that kind of confidence. If I can take on a 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world.”
A new Fox News poll finds an overwhelming 73% of Americans don’t believe the Obama administration has a clear plan for defeating the Islamic State, up from 64% in September. Just 19% think the strategy is clear.
“The U.S. bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria has failed to slow the pace of foreign fighters flocking to join the Islamic State and other extremist groups, including at least 3,400 from Western nations among 20,000 from around the world, U.S. intelligence officials say in an updated estimate of a top terrorism concern,” the AP reports.
Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) said that President Obama’s speech to the National Prayer Breakfast last week in which he drew a historical comparison between atrocities committed by Islamic State fighters and past “terrible deeds in the name of Christ” were “unpresidential” and actually defended ISIS, BuzzFeed reports.
Said Fleming: “I was very disappointed, although not surprised. The president has said many things that just seem so unpresidential, and this was no exception.”
He added: “Not only did he vilify Christianity, but he actually made a case to defend radical Islam, that’s killing people around the world. He actually defended what they were doing, and tried to draw some sort of twisted equivalency, moral equivalency, between what they’re doing today and what Crusaders did 800 years ago. It really, it was really weird.”
“The Islamic State’s vaunted exercise in state-building appears to be crumbling as living conditions deteriorate across the territories under its control, exposing the shortcomings of a group that devotes most of its energies to fighting battles and enforcing strict rules,” the Washington Post reports.
“Services are collapsing, prices are soaring, and medicines are scarce in towns and cities across the “caliphate” proclaimed in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State, residents say, belying the group’s boasts that it is delivering a model form of governance for Muslims.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) will introduce a measure in the U.S. Senate next month to declare war on the Islamic State, the Daily Beast reports.
“The move is part of Paul’s ongoing campaign to position himself as a foreign-policy heavyweight ahead of the Republican presidential primaries, when he is expected to mount a campaign for the nomination. But it may simply be dismissed as a tit-for-tat gesture as Republicans complain of executive overreach in the aftermath of President Obama’s executive order on immigration.”
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]A very clever move that helps quell doubts about Paul’s desire to use the military abroad while at the same time reasserting congressional authority.[/speech_bubble]
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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