Politics

Carson lauded ISIS for being willing to die for what they believe in

In a speech Thursday, conservative neurosurgeon Ben Carson said something he argues is being misinterpreted. The difference this time is that he said it would be misinterpreted as he was saying it.

The neurosurgeon, who is exploring a possible presidential run in 2016, has a long history of making comments that get attention from what he calls “the liberal press,” which he argues twists his words to make it sound like he “says all these crazy things.” He previously argued that Obamacare is the worst thing since slavery and compared present day America to Nazi Germany.

So on Thursday, when he compared the Islamic State militants to the Founding Fathers, he knew what he was getting into.

Speaking at a Republican National Committee luncheon, Carson invoked the American Revolutionary War and said, “A bunch of rag-tag militiamen defeated the most powerful and professional military force on the planet. Why? Because they believed in what they were doing. They were willing to die for what they believed in.

“Fast forward to today. What do we have? You’ve got ISIS. They’ve got the wrong philosophy, but they’re willing to die for it while we are busily giving away every belief and every value for the sake of political correctness. We have to change that.”

He then went on to add this disclaimer: “Some liberal press will say, ‘Carson said that ISIS is the same as the U.S.’ I mean, that’s so ridiculous.”

So how did the press report it? Here’s a few headlines: “Ben Carson holds up ISIS as an example for US.” (CNN) “Ben Carson holds up Islamic State for willingness to die for convictions.” (Washington Post) “Ben Carson equates ISIS, America’s Founding Fathers.” (MSNBC)

And then there’s this one: “Presidential prospect Ben Carson makes questionable comparison.” That was from Fox News.

— With reporting by Zeke Miller

Marilyn Tavenner says she's leaving with "sadness and mixed emotions"

(WASHINGTON) — Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner — who oversaw the rocky rollout of the president’s health care law — says she’s stepping down at the end of February.

In an email Friday to staff at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Tavenner says she’s leaving with “sadness and mixed emotions.”

Tavenner survived the 2013 technology meltdown of HealthCare.gov, but was embarrassed last fall when she testified to Congress that 7.3 million people were enrolled for coverage. That turned out to be an overcount that exaggerated the total by about 400,000.

Calling Tavenner “one of our most esteemed and accomplished colleagues,” Health and Human Services Secrerary Sylvia M. Burwell said the decision to leave was Tavenner’s.

Principal deputy administrator Andy Slavitt will take over as acting administrator.

Europe On High Alert

Authorities launched a wave of counter-terrorism raids across Europe overnight and into Friday morning, resulting in two deaths and 23 arrests, as the continent steps up security measures in the wake of last week’s attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo

Coke Fights the Soda Slump

Soda sales are in decline, but one sliver of the soft drink market—the segment that comes in smaller-than-usual sizes—is booming

Google Decides Glass Half Empty

The company said it will stop selling the smart glasses to individual customers through its Explorer program after Jan. 19

Early Picks for Oscar Night

Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel (pictured) led the way in nominations for the 87th Academy Awards with nine nods each, while Selma received only two.

Muhammad Ali Back in Hospital for ‘Follow-up Care’

Boxing icon Muhammad Ali was checked back into a hospital on Thursday for follow-up care, after suffering from a severe urinary-tract infection in December. Ali is hoping to recover soon and plans to celebrate his 73rd birthday on Saturday at home, said a family spokesman

Nebraska Bill Would Abolish Closing Time for Bars

A Nebraska state senator introduced legislation Thursday that would allow bars in the state to stay open all night, if they wished. State and local laws generally require the Cornhusker state’s bars to stop serving alcohol at 1 a.m. or 2 a.m.

Flu Shot a Flub, CDC Says

People who got a flu shot this winter are only 23% less likely to get the flu than someone who didn’t get the vaccine, the CDC said in a new report. Since the health institute started tracking flu vaccine effectiveness in 2004, the rates have ranged from 10% to 60%

Oklahoma Resumes Executions After Nearly 9-Month Delay

Charles Warner was executed on Thursday night after the Supreme Court declined in a 5-4 ruling to intervene, making him the first death-row inmate to be put to death there since a botched lethal injection in April forced the state to reform its execution standards

28 Months Later Might Be in the Making

Alex Garland, the brain behind the cult zombie classics 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, says another film in the franchise may be in the offing and is having serious talks with director Danny Boyle

Republicans Want to Give President Obama More Power

Congress may pass a bill that would give President Barack Obama greater authority to negotiate an agreement known as the Trans Pacific Partnership, which would affect about 40% of the world’s GDP and about a third of the world’s trade

African Papers Sorry for Charlie Hebdo Reprint

Kenya’s the Star and South Africa’s Citizen issued apologies this week for reprinting the controversial new cover of Charlie Hebdo, after the publication of the image triggered an uproar from Muslim readers

Judge Revokes Chris Brown Probation in Assault Case

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge revoked Chris Brown’s probation on Thursday but allowed him to remain free for now after the R&B singer traveled without approval for a concert and failed to complete community service on time

We will hold an #AskTIME subscriber Q&A today, January 16 at 1 p.m., with TIME’s Washington bureau chief, Michael Scherer. He has a story in this week’s TIME about the different kind of presidential campaign that Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee would run if he decides to seek that office a second time.

His other stories can be found here.

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"Scott Walker's a guy you want to have a beer with — a Miller Lite”

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker left little doubt Thursday that he is planning to run for the White House in 2016.

Speaking to the Republican National Committee (RNC) at its winter meeting in San Diego, the union-busting Midwesterner cast himself as a “new, fresh leader,” laying out a clear rationale for his candidacy as a blue-state governor with a proven record of reforming government.

“I look at our country, and I’m worried about our country the same way that I was worried about my state back in 2009,” Walker said when discussing his two sons, craftily referencing the year he decided to launch his first campaign for the governorship.

Less than 24 hours before former Republican nominee Mitt Romney will address party leaders as he considers a third White House campaign, Walker said, “People want a fresh, new look. They want new ideas.”

“I want to share a vision: I think we have a unique opportunity going forward, not only for the good of this party, but more importantly for the good of the country, to find a new, fresh leader out there who can take big bold ideas, take ideas that come from of outside of Washington, from the states all the way down to the grassroots,” Walker added. “We need someone who hopefully has the backing and the track record of success, of showing that common sense conservative reforms can work not just in Wisconsin, but they can work all across America.”

Since winning re-election in November, Walker has been at work expanding his political operation to lay the groundwork for a presidential run. In recent weeks Walker hired former RNC political director Rick Wiley to serve as campaign manager. Before his address, he met privately with RNC members from South Carolina, one of the early presidential states, to discuss his likely bid.

Walker’s 2012 recall election following efforts to dramatically weaken his state’s public-sector unions turned him into a cause célèbre for the Republican grassroots, and provides a convenient narrative to share on the campaign trail: besting a Democratic President and union allies three times in four years, in a state that hasn’t voted for a Republican President since Ronald Reagan. The experience allowed him to build a nationwide network of donors and supporters who will be essential when he formally declares. But Walker still struggles with name recognition, and seems unlikely to attract a cadre of high-dollar donors in a field with Romney, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

But Walker and his team are betting that his unassuming style — he joked he buys his suits off the rack at Kohl’s — and the ability to appeal to all corners of the party, will help him carry the day. In a warm introduction, RNC chairman Reince Priebus, a fellow Wisconsinite, paid his friend high praise. “Scott Walker’s a guy you want to have a beer with — a Miller Lite,” he said.

Walker’s workman-like address touched on his biography, record as governor and vision for the country, and included an obligatory critique of likely Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Walker said the onetime First Lady was one of the big losers along with Democratic congressional and gubernatorial candidates on election night last year.

“She lives in Washington, she worked in Washington,” he said. “You look at everything that people dislike about Washington, and she embodies it.”

“I believe in addition to offering a contrast, pointing out that Washington isn’t the place for the answers to the challenges that we face in this country,” Walker said, in an implicit contrast with his party’s Senators vying for the White House.

Walker’s speech was focused on laying out his principles, warning of American decline both at home and overseas. “The idea that the next generation might grow up in a country that’s not at least as great as the one we grew up in is fundamentally unacceptable,” Walker said. In a populist nod, the 47-year-old dad of two positioned himself as a candidate who would be more responsive to the party’s grassroots than special interests groups.

After his remarks, Walker was asked about Romney’s potential candidacy, saying only he was a “good man” before exiting the ballroom.

“I think the party wants to see a new candidate,” said the party's Pennsylvania chairman

When former Mitt Romney steps across on the deck of the U.S.S. Midway on Friday evening, the former GOP presidential nominee who is considering a third bid for the White House will be greeted by many skeptical faces from his party’s leadership.

Four years after the Republican establishment’s support propelled him to the nomination, many members of the Republican National Committee are telling him to step aside.

“I just don’t believe it’s Gov. Romney’s turn,” said New York national committeeman Charles Joyce. “He’s missed the boat. We’d rather try something else.”

A week after Romney allies and donors sent the strongest signal yet that he is exploring a third bid for the White House, Romney aides announced Thursday that Colin Reed, the campaign manager for former Sen. Scott Brown’s New Hampshire Senate race, was joining Romney’s team in a volunteer capacity. But at the GOP’s winter meeting, many in the Republican Party elite expressed frustration with the way their former nominee has conducted himself. Last year, Romney repeatedly ruled out running again, but has sent signals that he is seriously considering doing so, scrambling the equation for donors, operatives and supporters who previously supported him but interpreted his denials as a license to explore supporting other candidates.

“Obviously, I think all of us feel like if he had been elected in 2012, the country would be in much better shape,” said John Ryder, the party’s general counsel and the committeeman from Tennessee. “He’s got to make a case as to why this time would be better than the last time, and how he can reclaim the loyalty of some of the folks who have started to drift off.”

“[Romney] doesn’t clear the field for anyone,” he added.

Henry Barbour, the committeeman from Mississippi and one of the authors of the party’s autopsy that was sharply critical of the previous Romney effort, said, “clearly getting past 2012 is going to be his challenge.”

But Barbour added his previous candidacy was hardly disqualifying. “We want to nominate the person who’s going to win the White House, period. If that’s someone who has never run before, if that’s somebody who has been our nominee before, if that’s somebody from Mars, if they will advance our policy agenda and take back the White House, that’s who we want to have win the nomination.”

Romney faces lingering frustration from some in his party that he spoiled an opportunity to defeat President Barack Obama.

“When he went into that race, people thought there was a very good chance for Republicans given the state of the economy and it looked like it should have been the Republicans to lose, and he did,” said Maine party chairman Rick Bennett. “He needs to find a way to answer that.”

“Governor Romney is a good man,” echoed South Carolina chairman Matt Moore. “But my question is, ‘how would this campaign be different than 2012″‘ Because if everything is the same, the result will be the same.”

Republican leaders expressed doubts that Romney could reverse the public perception that his wealth has placed him out of touch with ordinary Americans, while worrying that lingering controversies over his suggestion that illegal immigrants “self-deport” and that 47% of Americans “believe that they are victims” would set the party back in its efforts to rebrand.

Steve King, the committeeman from Wisconsin, said Romney’s candidacy could undermine Republican efforts to put a new face on the party. “We need freshness. If Mitt Romney wants to win he’s going to have to figure out how to be fresh,” he said.

Romney supporters on the committee have been making the case that his name recognition and experience make him the ideal candidate to take on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, adding that he has been vindicated on some foreign policy issues. But their behind the scenes efforts to convince RNC members to keep an open mind are falling on many deaf ears.

“I think the party wants to see a new candidate,” said Pennsylvania chairman Rob Gleason. “The people here want to see someone new,” he added, of the RNC membership. “I think the whole country is looking for someone new.”

One RNC member from the South said nominating Romney again would be tantamount to electing Clinton. “We may be saddled with that again,” the member said on the condition of anonymity, “but if we are, then we better be making provisions for Hillary.”

The politics of passing the largest trade agreement ever—further tying the economies of 12 countries nested on the Pacific Ocean, an area larger than the Earth’s landmass—is complex, to say the least.

But House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, a pivotal figure on trade in his new perch, appears optimistic that Congress can pass a major bill that would give President Obama greater authority to negotiate an agreement known as the Trans Pacific Partnership, which would affect about 40% of the world’s GDP and about a third of the world’s trade. That is, as long as Obama does his part, of course.

“This is an area we can find common ground with the President, but we need the President to engage,” said Ryan, still sporting his hunting beard at the GOP joint Senate-House retreat, a first for the party in 10 years. “We need the president to engage on this issue with his own party. We need him to make it a priority in the State of the Union. We need him to work with his party to help get votes.”

Ryan’s statement, echoed by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, underlines the difficulties in getting a deal sought by Obama for years. Granting “fast-track” authority, which would allow limited congressional debate, no amendments and an up-or-down vote, poses political perils across the aisle. Liberals, backed by labor unions like AFL-CIO, have raised concerns that TPP will exacerbate income inequality and have already begun planning how they could slow down the process in the Senate. Last month, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren expressed concern that TPP could increase U.S. access to risky financial products and take away regulators’ tools over foreign banks “to prevent the next crisis.”

And even though a new Republican-controlled Senate increases the number of pro-trade congressmen, conservatives have been furious with Obama’s executive actions—voting in the House on Wednesday to claw back years of his immigration decrees—and will be hard pressed to grant the Administration the leverage it needs to negotiate. Ryan points out that the Republican party, however, is largely pro-trade.

“By and large the vast majority of our members are in favor of getting these kinds of trade agreements because they know its good for business,” said Ryan. “The question that obviously you hear about is should we give this president TPA? TPA is asserting congressional prerogatives early in the process. So it’s a good thing no matter who the president is … and to make sure we get the best deal.”

Still, there is already sniping that the other party could tank the deal before congressional leaders even announce a goal of a timeline of when they would like to pass TPA.

“The one thing we have found time and time again is where are the 50 Democrats,” asked McCarthy, before noting that last year Obama urged Congress for a trade bill in his State of the Union address and then didn’t talk about it a day latter in a private meeting with then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “The President has to lean in,” said McCarthy.

Some Democrats have said privately that it may be conservatives who tank the trade efforts.

“I think Republicans are going to confront the reality that doing TPA now goes against their central complaint about giving more authority to the president of the United States,” says a House Democratic aide. “They’ve been criticizing the president for months—if not longer—that he’s the emperor-in-chief. And yet they’re going to grant him basically complete authority to put a trade agreement in front of Congress and get an up-and-down vote? The closer this gets to that happening the more their inexperienced members become familiar with the topic, they’re going to confront challenges in the party.”

If Congress doesn’t pass a trade-promotion authority bill, other countries will be more hesitant to engage in commitments with the U.S. since Congress could amend the deal. But members of Congress have a number of trade concerns spanning labor, environmental and intellectual property issues. In 2013, 60 senators and 230 representatives urged the Administration to address currency manipulation and exchange rate policies that they said could increase the trade deficit and kill jobs.

But Republican leaders at a retreat in Hershey, Pa.—“The Sweetest Place on Earth”—seem willing to work overcome those obstacles.

The sour topic here at “The Sweetest Place on Earth” is immigration.

In Hershey, Pa., at the Republicans’ first dual-chamber retreat in 10 years, conservative and moderate members debated the right strategy to protest the president’s recent executive actions deferring deportations for up to five million immigrants who have come to the country illegally.

“I think we’ve not handled the [immigration] issue well,” said California Rep. Jeff Denham, who voted against a GOP amendment this week that would roll back the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has temporarily deferred deportation for hundreds of thousands of young adults who were brought to the country as children.

“Just throwing DACA out there without having a reform bill I think brings great concern not only from the Senate colleagues I talked to but from the folks in my district I’ve talked to,” he said.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a member of the GOP leadership, reminded reporters that the “magic number” in the Senate is 60 when asked how the chamber would consider a House bill passed Wednesday that ties the immigration fight to funding the Department of Homeland Security past its Feb. 27 deadline. While House and Senate Republicans have the “same goals” on reining in Obama, Thune said that there “may be different ways and approaches to this issue.”

Meanwhile, House conservatives are proud of the bill passed in their chamber this week, which would not only negate the president’s November immigration executive actions, but also several others going back years, including DACA. Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon said that the House has a “very, very united front” on its immigration bill. He said that the overall message he is getting from leadership is “we’re going to work our will.”

“We’re going to work our will and we’re going to send it over and stop worrying on what can get to 60 out of the Senate,” he said. “If we do that with enough time to respond then it’s a good process.”

Top Republican congressional leaders acknowledged the need to address a broken immigration system, but specifics past border security are hard to nail down. House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul announced Thursday night that his committee will introduce “the most significant and toughest border security bill ever before Congress.” Oregon Rep. Greg Walden, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, acknowledged that the GOP needs a “a positive immigration plan for the country.” House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan said that more and more Congressmen are recognizing that Republicans can’t fix issues like immigration unless it wins the White House and said it was “premature” to talk about immigration reform legislation that could pass this Congress, as the conference continues to develop its agenda.

“We are a country of immigrants,” he said. “Immigration is good for America. It’s important for jobs, for economic growth. It’s just that we want to have legal immigration. We want to have the rule of law restored. We want to fix this broken immigration system. I think most members agree with that.”

Other House and Senate party leaders acknowledged that Republicans have not yet agreed upon a strategy to fund DHS and oppose the president’s immigration actions. After the House passed its bill, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid tweeted that the “pointless, political” bill wouldn’t get the necessary 60 votes in the Senate.

Ironically, as TPM and others have noted, the fee-funded program that processes deportation relief and work permits wouldn’t be nearly as affected in the case of a DHS shutdown as border security and deportation efforts—Republican priorities funded through the appropriations process.

If evangelical Christianity is famous for anything in contemporary American politics, it is for its complete opposition to gay marriage. Now, slowly yet undeniably, evangelicals are changing their minds.

Every day, evangelical communities across the country are arriving at new crossroads over marriage. My magazine story for TIME this week, “A Change of Heart,” is a deep dive into the changing allegiances and divides in evangelical churches and communities over homosexuality. In public, so many churches and pastors are afraid to talk about the generational and societal shifts happening. But behind the scenes, it’s a whole different game. Support for gay marriage across all age groups of white evangelicals has increased by double digits over the past decade, according to the Public Religion Research Institute, and the fastest change can be found among younger evangelicals—their support for gay marriage jumped from 20% in 2003 to 42% in 2014.

Here are few of the topline findings of my reporting. (To read the full story, click here.)

This winter, EastLake Community Church outside Seattle is quietly coming out as one of the first evangelical megachurches in the country to support full inclusion and affirmation of LGBTQ people. It is almost impossible to overstate the significance of this move. EastLake is in many ways the quintessential evangelical megachurch–thousands-strong attendance, rock-music worship, Bible-preaching sermons. But pastor Ryan Meeks, 36, is on the front wave of a new choice. “I refuse to go to a church where my friends who are gay are excluded from Communion or a marriage covenant or the beauty of Christian community,” Meeks tells me. “It is a move of integrity for me—the message of Jesus was a message of wide inclusivity.”

Conversation about gay marriage is no longer seen as an automatic compromise on Biblical authority. Other big-time evangelical pastors like Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church in Atlanta and Bill Hybels of Willow Creek do not go as far as Meeks, but they are talking with congregants and other evangelical leaders about how to navigate the changes they are seeing in their pews. Hybels has been meeting privately for the past year with LGBTQ congregants to learn to better understand their stories. At the Southern Baptist Convention’s three-day, October bootcamp to train more than 1,300 evangelicals to double down against gay marriage, Stanley met together with both LGBT evangelical advocates and SBC leaders for a closed-door conversation about whether their different views on gay marriage put them outside the faith. Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, has developed a friendship with LGBT activist Ted Trimpa and the Gill Foundation, and they are working together on topics like passing anti-human-trafficking legislation.

Evangelical colleges are both taking half-steps toward inclusion and then doubling-back to avoid appearance of change. Wheaton College for example, Billy Graham’s alma mater outside Chicago, hired a celibate lesbian in its chaplain’s office to help guide an official student group for students questioning their sexual identity, and yet also invited a former lesbian now married to male pastor to address the student body.

Elsewhere, evangelical leaders like Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission deny a generational shift is underway. New activists, leaders like Moore and others believe, often are not actually still evangelicals but revisionists who do not support traditional Biblical authority. Plus, Moore says, for evangelicals to keep views that are out-of-step with societal changes is par for the course. “We believe even stranger things than that,” he says. “We believe a previously dead man is going to arrive in the sky on a horse.”

Then there’s the growing slew of evangelical LGBTQ activists pushing for change. Matthew Vines, 24 and founder of the Reformation Project, represents new momentum to change the evangelical tide. He hopes to raise up affirming evangelicals in every evangelical church in the country. He holds conferences and training sessions for evangelicals, has staff in three states and representatives in 25, and has raised a projected $1.2 million for 2015 to press ahead. Brandan Robertson, 22, is the national spokesperson for Evangelicals for Marriage Equality, an effort started by millennials to help evangelicals support civil gay marriages, if not marriages in churches. Justin Lee, 37, of the Gay Christian Network hosted his 11th annual conference last week in Portland, Ore., and 1,400 people attended, double the number who came last year. Lee’s friendship with Alan Chambers, the former head of the ex-gay organization Exodus International, was one of the key factors that led Chambers to apologize for the hurt his organization caused, and the organization shut down.

For everyone on all sides, the Bible itself is at stake. And, religious change takes decades, centuries even, when it happens at all. But with each passing day it is becoming harder and harder to deny that change is indeed coming. Meeks put it this way: “Every positive reforming movement in church history is first labeled heresy. Evangelicalism is way behind on this. We have a debt to pay.”