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A spokesperson for Pope Francis clarified the pontiff's criticism of Donald Trump's plan to build a border wall, saying that the remark wasn't "a personal attack." "The Pope said what we already know, if we followed his teaching and positions: we shouldn't build walls, but bridges," the spokesperson said in a statement, according to CNBC. "It's his generic view, coherent with the nature of solidarity from the gospel." "This wasn't, in any way, a personal attack or an indication on who to vote for," the spokesperson continued. "The Pope has clearly said he didn't want to get involved in the...

Ted Cruz has claimed a special skill at judging would-be Supreme Court nominees - but his praise of Justice Roberts in 2005 might call his judgment into question as the debate on who will replace Justice Antonin Scalia begins. At tonight's Republican presidential debate, Ted Cruz tried valiantly to distance himself from his support for John Roberts's confirmation to the Supreme Court. But correspondence with his staff in the Texas solicitor general's office shows Cruz was just as enthusiastic as anyone about Roberts's prospects on the high court. Of course, it's completely correct that Cruz didn't nominate Roberts; Cruz was...

Four days after winning the Iowa caucuses, Cruz's team is still struggling to answer questions about whether it relied on trickery to pad its lead by convincing Iowans that Carson - a rival for evangelical votes - was dropping out of the race. What the Cruz campaign initially called a knee-jerk response to ambiguous news reports has been revealed to be a more coordinated effort to steer Carson voters to the Cruz camp amid the chaotic caucus atmosphere. A campaign of tweets, emails and calls to Cruz precinct captains encouraged the rapid spread of the news that Carson would be...

CNN's Drew Griffin investigates Ted Cruz's eligibility. Video ran on Anderson Cooper 360.

Inside a secure conference room on the sixth floor of the Justice Department in early 2014, top federal law enforcement officials gathered to hear what criminal charges prosecutors were contemplating against David H. Petraeus, the storied wartime general and former CIA director whose public career had ended about 15 months earlier over an extramarital affair. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and FBI Director James B. Comey listened as prosecutors did a mock run-through of the government's case, a preview of how they would present their evidence to Petraeus's lawyers in order, they hoped, to force a guilty plea. The...

Let me be clear - I am pro-life. I support that position with exceptions allowed for rape, incest or the life of the mother being at risk. I did not always hold this position, but I had a significant personal experience that brought the precious gift of life into perspective for me. My story is well documented, so I will not retell it here. However, what I will do with the remaining space is express my feelings about life, and the culture of life, as we just marked the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade. I build things. There is...

Donald Trump is the favorite to win the Republican nomination. And with the growing legal troubles of Hillary Clinton and the leftist extremism of Bernie Sanders, he may well be the favorite for the presidency, too. And so, it's not too early to start considering whom he might choose for his Cabinet. VP - Ted Cruz Sec of State - Rob Portman Sec of Treasury - Larry Kudlow Sec of Defense - General James "Mad Dog" Mattis See link for 22 selections and discussion.

There's more than meets the eye in the ongoing dustup over whether Ted Cruz is eligible to serve as president, which under the Constitution comes down to whether he's a "natural born citizen" despite his 1970 Canadian birth. Senator Cruz contends his eligibility is "settled" by naturalization laws Congress enacted long ago. But those laws didn't address, much less resolve, the matter of presidential eligibility, and no Supreme Court decision in the past two centuries has ever done so. In truth, the constitutional definition of a "natural born citizen" is completely unsettled, as the most careful scholarship on the question...

Reporting from Cleveland -- With the Republican presidential debate less than 10 hours away, Fox News anchors Chris Wallace, Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier sat at a long table with their producers and once again went over the game plan for the big night. They reviewed not just the questions they would ask, but the structure of every query, keeping in mind the constraints of time and the need to avoid repeating topics. As they sorted and re-sorted questions, the unpredictability of real estate tycoon and reality TV star Donald Trump was never far from their minds. Baier even had...

The United States had gone to war declaring it must destroy an active weapons of mass destruction program. Instead, American troops gradually found and ultimately suffered from the remnants of long-abandoned programs, built in close collaboration with the West. The New York Times found 17 American service members and seven Iraqi police officers who were exposed to nerve or mustard agents after 2003. American officials said that the actual tally of exposed troops was slightly higher, but that the government’s official count was classified. The secrecy fit a pattern. Since the outset of the war, the scale of the United...

Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who helped design the Massachusetts health law that was the model for Obamacare, was a key influence on the creation of the law. He was widely quoted in the media. During the crafting of the law, the Obama administration brought him on for his expertise. He was paid almost $400,000 to consult with the administration on the law. And he has claimed to have written part of the legislation, the section dealing with small business tax credits. After the law passed, in 2011 and throughout 2012, multiple states sought his expertise to...

The architects of ObamaCare are all world-renowned experts on the rationing of care in a collectivist model. Dr. Donald Berwick, who was recess-appointed by President Obama to be the head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (until he resigned rather than face Senate confirmation hearings), is a lifelong advocate of the single-payer collectivist model and a senior policy advisor to "The Commonwealth Fund," a left-wing American think-tank dedicated for the last 90-odd years to transitioning the American system to a nationalized model. Berwick is one of the original architects of the rationing board for the British National Health Service,...

WASHINGTON -- The Navy said Saturday it is replacing the admiral in command of an aircraft carrier strike group in the Middle East, pending the outcome of an internal investigation into undisclosed allegations of inappropriate judgment. Rear Adm. Charles M. Gaouette is being sent back to the USS John C. Stennis' home port at Bremerton, Wash., in what the Navy called a temporary reassignment. The Navy said he is not formally relieved of his command of the Stennis strike group but will be replaced by Rear Adm. Troy M. Shoemaker, who will assume command until the investigation is completed. It...

Treeper Diwataman, has done an amazing job deconstructing the video evidence and now uncovered a considerably interesting aspect of Trayvon Martin’s visit to the 7-11 by using the raw feed video from the evidence release, not the media edited versions. Trayvon checked out from “his” purchase at 6:24.   But as this video highlights he didn’t leave right away.   About a minute after he walks out, 3 other rather dubious characters walk in.  After they make their purchases and leave at 6:29 Trayvon is seen walking away outside the building. (*The narrator of this video is not associated with the Treehouse, he is...

Expert No. 1 One of those experts is Alan R. Reich, and his answer is that he is certain he can hear a young man he concludes is Martin pleading for his life, from the start of the 45-second recording until the end. Expert No. 2 Another way to consider the 45-second recording is the way James J. Ryan considers it. Ryan is the retired head of the FBI forensic audio, video and image analysis unit. He said even the best audio forensic expert in the world using the most sophisticated equipment available would have a difficult time determining much...

Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old who was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer, had the drug THC in his system the night of this death, according to new information obtained by ABC News. The revelation came as prosecutors in the case prepared to release to the public hundreds of pages of new evidence along with videos and crime scene photos. Martin's death sparked public outrage after police released Martin's shooter, George Zimmerman, without any criminal charges for the killing. Zimmerman, 28, is a multi-racial Hispanic man who shot the black high school junior at close range on Feb. 26,...

George Zimmerman told investigators that while he was on the phone with a Sanford police dispatcher reporting Trayvon Martin as suspicious, the teenager was circling his vehicle on foot, a source familiar with the investigation told the Orlando Sentinel. The source said Zimmerman's account of events hasn't changed in his several statements to police — in which he said he was so unnerved by the teen's behavior that he rolled up his window to avoid a confrontation. However, he never mentioned any of that while talking to the dispatcher. The details revealed by the source provide new insight into what...

I want to take a moment to clear up some of the confusion regarding the monies raised on Mr. Zimmerman’s website. My understanding is that there were three web sites which had PayPal accounts attached to them. One or two of them were run by friends of Mr. Zimmerman, and then there was the web site therealgeorgezimmerman.com , which George administered. Two accounts seem to have very little money in them, though I have not seen any records on those as they are not being administered by my client. Mr. Zimmerman’s former website and the PayPal attached to it raised...

(CNN) -- The lawyer for the neighborhood watch leader who fatally shot unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, said Thursday that his client has received about $200,000 from supporters. Orlando lawyer Mark O'Mara told CNN's "AC360" that George Zimmerman told him Wednesday of the donations as they were trying to shut down his Internet presence to avoid concerns about possible impersonators. "He asked me what to do with his PayPal accounts and I asked him what he was talking about," O'Mara told Anderson Cooper. "And he said those were the accounts that had the money from the website he...

Now that prosecutors have brought charges against George Zimmerman, you probably think that a jury is going to hear the facts and decide the case. Think again. Under Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, if George Zimmerman can convince a judge that he acted justifiably, he is entitled to immunity from prosecution. That means no jury; no conviction; no jail. Think of it as a big "Get Out of Jail Free" card. It is worth repeating: Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law does not just provide an affirmative defense; it provides immunity. The distinction is extremely significant... Thus, when looking at the...