Republican Weekly Address

George Wenschhof



Governor Pat McCrory (R-N.C.) delivered the Republican weekly address criticized President Obama for his lack of executive leadership and said federal lawmakers should grant states independence and flexibility to spur economic growth.

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Daily Political Wire

George Wenschhof

Obama, Pena Nieto agree to form high-level economic working group - President Obama and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto sought Thursday to broaden U.S.-Mexican relations and the focus those ties beyond security as both touted newly inked cooperative agreements on improving trade and educational exchange.

Both leaders said they had agreed to form a high-level economic working group that will seek to improve trade and foster economic growth on both sides of the border. Vice President Joe Biden will be involved in the effort.
 
They agreed to establish a bilateral forum on higher education, innovation, and research that will develop a shared vision on educational cooperation. They also agreed to work together to try and ensure the completion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement by the end of the year.

The overarching theme, they said, was to make the region as a whole more productive and competitive in the global economy, while enhancing opportunities within each country.  Politico.com has more here.
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Obama: "This was just the first round on background checks" -Feeling strongly enough about the issue, President Barack Obama on Thurday interjected to a question on gun control originally directed at Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto.
 
Obama reaffirmed that he intends to keep lobbying Congress to expand background checks on firearm purchases, despite the recent failure of legislation that would have done so in the Senate.

"This was just the first round," Obama told reporters following a bilateral summit in Mexico City. "I believe we'll eventually get that done. We'll keep on trying."  TPM.com has more here.
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Rhode Island latest state to pass gay marriage - The Rhode Island state House passed a measure to legalize gay marriage on a 56-15 vote, which Governor Lincoln Chafee (I) planned to sign.  Rhode Island will become the 10th state to legalize gay marriage. 

The matching House and Senate bills allow same-sex weddings as of August 1 and also allow same-sex couples who joined in civil unions to change their status to married. The Providence Journal has more here.

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Emily's List launches "Madam President" initiative - With former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton waiting in the wings, a prominent Democratic group launched an effort Thursday to pave the way for electing America's first woman president.
 
Marshaling new polling data of voters in battleground states, the Democratic women's group EMILY's List said Americans fully believe the country is ready to elect a woman as president, pointing to results showing almost three in four Americans "expect" the nation to elect a woman as president in 2016.

The initiative, dubbed "Madam President," comes well before the next presidential election has even begun to take shape, but has clear implications for Clinton, Democrats' favorite right now to carry the party's banner.  NBC News has more here.
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Pelosi: "Hillary Clinton most qualified for president" - House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she "prays" Hillary Rodham Clinton will run for president.

Pelosi, D-Calif., speaking in Little Rock about current affairs in American politics, said she had no inside information about whether Clinton will run. But, she said, she considers Clinton the most qualified potential nominee.

"I pray that Hillary Clinton decides to run for president of the United States," Pelosi said, drawing loud applause from the crowd of several hundred at the Robinson Center. "... Nobody has been first lady and senator and now secretary of state. Putting everything aside that she is a woman, she'd be the best qualified person that we've seen [in recent years]."  The Arkansas Democrat Gazette has more here.
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Prosecutor in Musharraf case killed - In an attack that shocked the usually sedate capital, gunmen on Friday morning shot to death the Pakistani government’s top prosecutor in a case accusing former military ruler Pervez Musharraf of involvement in the 2007 assassination of ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto, police said.
 
The gunmen, riding in a taxi, sprayed state prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfikar’s car with bullets as he was leaving his home here en route to an anti-terrorism court in nearby Rawalpindi for trial proceedings in the Bhutto case.

Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan for nine years before going into self-exile in 2008, returned in March in an ultimately futile bid to run for prime minister. He has been under house arrest for several weeks, facing allegations in various cases linked to his tenure.  The Washington Post has more here.

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Daily Political Wire

George Wenschhof

Hillary Clinton receives 65%, O'Malley only 1% in latest 2016 presidential poll - Hillary Clinton clears the field as the Democratic candidate of choice in a new 2016 presidential poll.

The former Secretary of State crushes other potential Democratic contenders, garnering 65 percent of her party’s support, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.

Vice President Joe Biden is a way distant second with 13 percent, followed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo with 4 percent, while Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick; Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner each registered at 1 percent or less.  Politico.com has more here.

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Obama to nominate Pritzker as Commerce Secretary and and Froman as U.S. trade representative - President Obama is set to nominate Penny Pritzker as his administration's next commerce secretary and Michael Froman as U.S. trade representative, according to a White House official. Obama is scheduled to announce the nominations at 10 a.m. ET Thursday at the White House before leaving for Mexico.  TPM.com has more here.

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President Obama and Mexican President Peña Nieto to hold a press conference at 4:10 p.m. -With the immigration debate heating up in Washington, D.C., President Obama heads south of the border Thursday, embarking on a three-day trip to Mexico and Costa Rica as he tries to focus discussions on the economic ties between the United States, Mexico and Central America.
 
On his fourth trip to Mexico since becoming president, Obama will engage in conversations with newly installed President Enrique Peña Nieto that are intended to extend beyond security concerns and focus heavily on the economic relationship between Mexico and the U.S.  ABC News has more here.

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Obama administration appeals ruling on morning-after pill -The Obama administration on Wednesday appealed a federal judge’s order to lift all age limits on who can buy morning-after birth control pills without a prescription.

In appealing the ruling, the administration recommitted itself to a position Obama took during his re-election campaign that younger teens shouldn’t have unabated access to emergency contraceptives, despite the insistence by physicians groups and much of his Democratic base that the pill should be readily available.

A day earlier, the Food and Drug Administration lowered the age that people can buy the Plan B One-Step morning-after pill without a prescription to 15 — younger than the current limit of 17 — and decided that the pill could be sold on drugstore shelves near the condoms, instead of locked behind pharmacy counters.  You can read more here.

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North Korea sentences American to 15 years for trying to overthrow government -North Korea on Thursday sentenced a detained American to 15 years of “compulsory labor,” punishment for what Pyongyang describes as an attempt to overthrow its government.

In a brief statement released by its state-run news agency, the North said the sentence for Kenneth Bae, a tour operator from Washington state, had been handed down by its Supreme Court on Tuesday.  The Washington Post has more here.

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European Central Bank cuts rates to support euro zone economy - The European Central Bank cut interest rates for the first time in 10 months on Thursday, driven to act by an economy wallowing in recession and freed to do so by sharply falling inflation.

The ECB lowered its main interest rate by a quarter point to a new record low of 0.50 percent in response to a drop in inflation well below its target level, and rising unemployment.

The cut was widely expected, after ECB President Mario Draghi said last month the bank stood ready to act. He will hold a news conference at 8:30 a.m. ET to explain the decision. Reuters.com has more here.

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Daily Political Wire

George Wenschhof

Obama sends Kerry to Russia, considers providing lethal arms to Syrian rebels - President Obama is preparing to send lethal weaponry to the Syrian opposition and has taken steps to assert more aggressive U.S. leadership among allies and partners seeking the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, according to senior administration officials.
 
The officials said they are moving toward the shipment of arms but emphasized that they are still pursuing political negotiation. To that end, the administration has launched an effort to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin that the probable use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government — and the more direct outside intervention that could provoke — should lead him to reconsider his support of Assad.  The Washington Post has more here.

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Obama to nominate Wheeler for FCC - President Barack Obama will nominate venture capitalist Tom Wheeler to head the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday, a White House official told POLITICO.
 
Pending confirmation, the agency’s soon-to-be senior Democrat, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, will serve as its acting leader, the official added. 

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No end in sight for Fed stimulus to end - At a two-day meeting that wraps up on Wednesday, the Fed is widely expected to maintain its monthly purchases of $85 billion in bonds to support an economic recovery that is nearly four years old but still too weak for the job market to truly heal.

With the central bank's favored inflation gauge slipping and employment growth faltering, Fed officials could again find themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to shift from talk of curbing stimulus to the possibility of doing more.  Reuters.com has more here.
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Markey to face Gomez in Massachusetts senate race - The race to fill John Kerry's Massachusetts Senate seat is now set with Republican businessman and former Navy SEAL Gabriel Gomez and long-time Democratic Congressman Edward Markey coming out victorious in primaries on Tuesday.

Markey, who has served in the U.S. House since 1976, defeated fellow U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch after an early endorsement from Kerry who vacated the seat to serve as U.S. secretary of state.

Markey will probably enjoy frontrunner status in the traditionally blue state, but at his victory rally Tuesday night, he and Sen. Elizabeth Warren warned supporters not to take anything for granted.  NBC News has more here.

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48% want one party to control White House, Congress - A national poll from Quinnipiac University released Wednesday suggested that Americans have had their fill of divided government.
 
In what might be a hopeful (albeit early) sign for a Democratic Party eager to win back control of the House of Representatives next year, the poll showed that 48 percent of voters nationwide would like one party to control both houses of Congress and the White House. Forty-three percent said they would prefer Congress and the president to be from two different parties.

A wide majority of Democrats — 64 percent — said they would prefer one-party control, while half of Republicans would rather see split-control.

The poll also found that Democrats claim a slight edge over Republicans heading into next year's Congressional races. Eighteen months out from the 2014 midterms, 41 percent of voters said they would vote for a Democrat for Congress compared with 37 percent who said they would vote for a Republican.  TPM.com has more here.

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FDA approves "morning after pill' for women 15 and up - The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that the contraceptive known as Plan B should be available without a prescription for all women 15 and older.

The move is sure to stir controversy among social conservatives, some of whom view Plan B as a form of abortion. Unlike other forms of birth control, Plan B is intended for use after sex, rather than before. TheHill.com has more here.

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