Washington State Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers speaks to the nation, delivering the response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. (Source: Bloomberg)
\Bloomberg Television presents highlights of the main topics in President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.
A question over the inclusion of Army Sgt. 1st Class Cory Remsburg at Tuesday's State of the Union address spiraled into a policy-spanning battle between MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), who accused her of hiding from what his party calls the truth about the Benghazi attack.
"This administration promised to be the most transparent in history, Rachel," an animated Huelskamp told Maddow. "And if you would stop being a cheerleader and be a journalist, you'd recognize that we're not getting those answers."
"Did you just call me a cheerleader?" Maddow asked.
"I don't know, maybe you have that history," Huelskamp scoffed, before saying, "If it was [George W.] Bush, you would be jumping and screaming."
"You're amazing," a visibly perturbed Maddow said.
The two also dueled over remarks posted by Huelskamp on Twitter accusing Obama of acting in a "lawless" fashion and unleashing an "imperium."
"Are you making the case that this president is acting in an unlawful manner by proposing the things he proposed in the State of the Union address?"
"The president acted in numerous unlawful manners," Huelskamp said. "Particularly in his willingness to suspend Obamacare."
"Sir, I'm just trying to focus on the case that you're making which is that his speech --" Maddow said before getting cut off.
Huelskamp pointed to what he called 14 executive orders in which Obama "said, 'I don't like the American people, who they elect. That's what the president was saying. He said, 'I don't like Congress, I don't like the American people who sent these people up here."
"Are executive orders lawless?" Maddow pressed.
"An executive action without authority is lawlessness," Huelskamp said.
"Executive orders by presidents are lawless?" she asked again.
"If there is no authority," he repeated.
Watch the exchange, as aired on MSNBC on Tuesday, below.
Socialist Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant ripped not only President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech Tuesday night, but the Democrats and Republicans alongside him as he delivered it.
"We will make progress only on the basis of a fundamental and systematic change," Sawant said in a response on behalf of the Socialist Party. "We need a break from the policies of Wall Street and corporate America. We need a break from capitalism. It has failed the 99 percent. Both parties bow down before the free market and loyally serve the interests of their corporate masters, with the only difference being in matter of degree. The political system is completely dysfunctional, and it's broken."
Sawant, who became the first socialist elected to office in her city in 50 years in November 2013, also criticized Obama's remarks vowing to fight income inequality, saying he was prodded into this stance by the public demonstrations staged by fast-food workers and others supporting increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
But, she said, even though it was "outrageous" to see Republican opposition to even increasing federal contractors' minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, that did not constitute a "ticket out of poverty."
"This is really a testament of [Obama's] own presidency -- a presidency which has betrayed the hopes of tens of millions of people who voted for him out of a genuine desire for a fundamental change away from corporate politics and warmongering," said Sawant, who noted that part of her campaign platform was her embrace of the $15 wage.
Sawant also criticized the president's vow to reform the National Security Agency's surveillance activities, describing it as insufficient.
"While the criminals of Wall Street are bailed out, courageous whistleblowers like Edward Snowden are hunted down, while the unconstitutional acts he exposed are allowed to continue," she said. "Obama is the president that is using smartphone apps -- games like 'Angry Birds' -- to spy against tens of millions of people in a completely blatant violation of basic constitutional rights."
Watch Sawant's remarks, as posted online on Tuesday, below.
Following President Barack Obama's State of the Union address to the nation on Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) declared that former President Bill Clinton had committed workplace "violence" in the 1990s when he had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
In an interview on Sunday, Paul had said that Clinton was partially to blame for the so-called “war on women” because of his affair with Lewinsky. And the Kentucky Republican asserted that it would be difficult for voters not to also find Hillary Clinton responsible for her husband’s behavior.
By Tuesday, even conservative journalists were reminding the presidential hopeful that his version of events had "no resemblance to reality."
But that didn't stop him from doubling down when Fox News host Bret Baier asked about it after the State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
"I didn't bring it up," he insisted. "They asked my wife the question, then they asked me the question. And I'm a smart husband. If you got to stand up for your wife, you better stand up for your wife."
"This wasn't an affair, this was a workplace sexual harassment and the Democrats want to be all high and mighty like they're the party that champions women," he added. "Well, gosh, their standard bearer seems to be a guy that was committing the workplace kind of violence that we should all be opposed to."
Watch this video from Fox News, broadcast Jan. 28, 2014.
An interview with Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) after Tuesday's State of the Union address turned into a strange confrontation with NY1 reporter Michael Scotto.
"I'm not speaking about anything that's off-topic," Grimm tells Scotto. "This is only about the president."
"Well, what about --" Scotto begins to say, before Grimm walks off-camera, at which point the reporter tells viewers, "Congressman Michael Grimm does not want to talk about some of the allegations concerning his campaign finances."
Questions began to mount concerning Grimm's finances after one of his fundraisers, Diana Durand, was arrested by federal officials earlier this month on suspicion of using fake donors to funnel nearly $10,000 into his campaign. The New York Daily News reported on Jan. 20 that records suggest that Durand, Grimm and others took part in a "donor-swapping" scheme involving candidates in multiple states.
After concluding the segment, Scotto signs off, but the footage shows him reacting to something Grimm said before Grimm reappears and walks directly up to him in a physicallly aggressive fashion. Talking Points Memo reported that the congressman allegedly told Scotto, "I will break you in half."
Watch footage of the confrontation, as posted online on Tuesday, below.
[Image via Rep. Michael Grimm Facebook page]
A Southern Baptist pastor in Virginia has warned women in his congregation that they are sinning if their clothes allow others to see the "outline" of their bodies.
The Christian Post pointed out on Tuesday that HeartCry Missionary Society founder Paul Washer had posted the sermon to YouTube last week, where he says that God wants women to "adorn themselves with proper clothing."
"That tells me that there is clothing that's improper for a Christian woman," the pastor explains. "That's just logic."
"My wife has a really good thing that she says: 'If your clothing is a frame for your face, from which the glory of God is to shine, it's proper, if it draws attention to your face. If your clothing draws attention to your body, to outline it, to make it noticed, then it's sensual.' What you're doing is wrong."
Washer adds that "godly" men would have to turn their heads when women with the wrong type of clothing walk into the room.
"Because it's not beauty, it's sensuality," he says. "When you see it, you know it. There is a difference between beauty and sensuality and God is not against beauty. He is against sensuality."
Watch this video from Paul Washer, uploaded Jan. 22, 2014.
A former Dallas police officer was charged with sexual assault this week after he was accused of raping a woman he pulled over.
According a Dallas Police Department statement obtained by WFAA, Ofc. La'Cori Johnson stopped the woman on Larga Dr. in September and told her that she could have sex with him to avoid being taken to jail for an outstanding warrant.
"He then took her to a nearby location where he forced her to have sex," the statement said.
"Johnson then released her at another location. The victim subsequently made an outcry which was reported to the Dallas police."
After an investigation was opened, Johnson resigned from the department and was immediately arrested on Tuesday. He faces second-degree felony sexual assault charges.
Johnson was a five-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department.
Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (R) has proposed raising taxes on the poorest Americans even if the only money they have to pay is money that they get from government programs like welfare.
At a Tea Party Patriots event in South Carolina earlier this month, Gohmert said that he had his own plan to address income inequality.
"There's not a blessed thing this president has proposed that will change the situation of his buddy, Warren Buffet, paying a lower percentage than his secretary," Gohmert told the crowd. "I know that folks that are big on the fair tax, I just want a simple tax. I think it would be easier to get to a flat tax. And then, maybe a fair tax someday."
The Texas Republican recalled that he had enlisted his friend, publisher Steve Forbes, to convince the Republican Party that "fair share" really meant "flat tax."
"You make more, you pay more; you make less, you pay less," he said. "And everybody needs to have skin in the game, don't they? Everybody does. You need to own a piece of this government so you'll do something about it. Everybody should."
Gohmert said that he had "wrestled" with what to do with people who were so poor that they barely got by on government assistance.
"What if you're so poor the only money you have is what the government gives you? And I've wondered, you know, isn't that wasted money, you give it and you take it back? No, it gives you an investment in the country. And we need that."
Watch this video from Tea Party Patriots, broadcast Jan. 20, 2014.
(h/t: Right Wing Watch)
A Catholic bishop who performed an exorcism after the state of Illinois legalized same-sex marriage said last week that he did it because he loved LGBT people and they needed to be punished like children.
Just minutes after Gov. Pat Quinn (D) signed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage last November, Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas John Paprocki performed an exorcism on the entire state of Illinois.
Paprocki told Life Site News during last week's March for Life in Washington D.C. that he went through with the exorcism because the church was "under persecution."
"Certainly the redefinition of marriage is an opposition to God's plan for married life," he explained. "So I thought that would be a fitting time to have that prayer, really for praying for God and his power to drive out the Devil from his influence that seems to be pervading our culture."
"To be opposed to the redefinition of marriage and to be opposed to things that are sinful, that's actually a very loving thing," Paprocki continued. "Perhaps it's the permissiveness of our society that people think that if you don't get what you want that you're somehow being hateful, if you don't give them what they want. But sometimes, like any good parent will tell you, that sometimes you have to discipline your child, sometimes you have to say no. And sometimes, you even have to punish."
"And when a parent does those things towards their children, they're actually being very loving by correcting them and showing them the right way to do things."
Paprocki reminded Life Site News that the "redefinition of marriage" came from the "father of lies," and that the media had lied by claiming that children could be nurtured in LGBT homes.
"We are facing a lot of untruths out there," he warned. "We just have to be persistent and courageous and stand up for the truth."
Watch this video from Life Site News, broadcast Jan. 26, 2014.
A Colorado Springs pastor is accused of soliciting gay men for sex online, then attacking them and robbing them under the guise of a U.S. marshal making an arrest.
According to Denver's CBS Channel 4, friends and relatives of Set Free Christian Ministry's Rev. Michael Abromovich are completely baffled to discover his secret other life.
Abromovich allegedly used the online classified ad site Craigslist to solicit other men for sex. Using the name "Mike," Abromovich allegedly lured a man to a Motel 6, then leapt from the car, shouting, "U.S. marshal!" He then threw the man against the door, handcuffed him and pointed a gun -- which police now believe was a paint gun -- at him.
Abromovich reportedly confiscated the man's laptop, iPad, cell phone, money and debit card. According to court documents, "Mike then told him they were taking his computers and phone to be sent to the lab to look for evidence.”
He then told the victim that he would come to his house in the morning “to discuss the case with him and impound his vehicle at that time.”
Denver police say that Abromovich notified the hotel desk that he was a law enforcement officer and showed a badge to the desk clerk. They filed a nationwide warrant for the pastor on a trio of felony charges -- kidnapping, robbery and impersonating a peace officer.
He was pulled over in Phoenix, Arizona by police. Abromovich again pulled a badge, but Maricopa County police were suspicious. When they discovered the warrant out for the pastor, they took him into custody.
The Denver District Attorney's office told Channel 4 that Abromovich was extradited back to Colorado and will appear in court on Tuesday. Police believe that there are other victims who may be afraid to come forward.
Set Free Ministry is a gritty, urban church that serves former addicts and alcoholics as well as the homeless. Pastor Robert Murphy expressed shock to reporters.
“Impersonation of this, robbery — that is so the opposite of what any Christian would be about. We know there is definitely something wrong,” he said.
Watch video about this story, embedded below:
A Chicago father has been charged after his son accidentally shot himself with a gun that he was given as a Christmas present.
According to Park Ridge Police Cmdr. Jason Leavitt, the 14-year-old boy shot himself in the leg on Jan. 6. However, police did not reveal the shooting to the media until 17 days later.
The gunshot wound was not life-threatening.
The boy's father, 52-year-old Joseph Streff, was charged with reckless conduct four days after the shooting. Records indicated that Streff and his son lived at different addresses.
The gun was a Christmas gift from the father to the 14-year-old boy, Leavitt said.
Streff was released on $1,000 bond. His next court date was scheduled for Feb. 17.
[Photo credit: Park Ridge Police Department]
Conservative radio host and frequent Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham this week said that the government would need to "wall of Detroit" if more immigrants were allowed to move there.
Earlier this month, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) told reporters that he had asked the Obama administration to set aside additional visas for immigrants with special skills and advanced degrees in an effort to reverse Detroit's declining population.
The Associated Press reported that if Snyder's plan is approved, "Detroit would be allocated 5,000 visas in the first year, 10,000 each of the next three years and 15,000 in the fifth year." Immigrants would be allowed to live and work in the city for five years, but could apply for a green card after that time.
On her Tuesday radio show, Ingraham said the idea was "the craziest thing I've ever heard of."
"The people of this country, they're smart enough to know that they don't want to go anywhere near Detroit. Right?" she explained. "But we need to get these people from other countries to live and work in Detroit to save us because we can then wall off Detroit, apparently, so they can't then move to other parts of the country."
"Is that what Rick Snyder is gonna do?" Ingraham asked. "Is there gonna be, you know, is there gonna be finally a border enforced in our country? Except it's going to be around Detroit."
Earlier this month, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson came under fire after telling The New Yorker that his plan was to turn Detroit into an "Indian reservation."
"[W]e herd all the Indians into the city, build a fence around it, and then throw in the blankets and the corn," he said.
Listen to this audio from The Laura Ingraham Show, broadcast Jan. 28, 2014.
(h/t: Media Matters)
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