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BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday called for an assault weapons ban in his second straight day of talking about an issue — guns — where he has sometimes deviated from the Democratic Party's consensus. In a campaign appearance ahead of next week's Democratic presidential debate, Sanders cited two shootings Friday at universities in Arizona and Texas as well as last week's slayings at an Oregon community college. "Instead of people yelling at each other, we have got to come together on commonsense approaches which, in fact, the vast majority of the American people support," said...

After my last two columns on Donald Trump, several people have written to ask what I think about some of the other Republican presidential candidates. So I thought I’d address that question this week. Hey, I’m nothing if not responsive to my readers. Please excuse me if I don’t mention everyone. I’ve only got 500 words. Ben Carson. No question, Dr. Carson is manifestly the smartest person in the race, on either side. His slogan should be, “It’s just politics, folks. Not brain surgery.” I don’t necessarily agree with him on every issue, but I believe he’s a man of...

Vice President Joe Biden, who is considering a 2016 presidential run, on Saturday pledged his full support for gay and transgender equality while suggesting Republican and other White House candidates are “homophobes.” Speaking at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual gala in Washington, Biden said gays and lesbians shouldn’t fear Americans trying to undo gay marriage and other advances because the country has moved beyond homophobia. "There's homophobes still left,” he continued to laughter and applause, in his keynote address. “Most of them are running for president, I think."(continued)

Hillary Clinton on Saturday mocked Republican presidential candidates Ben Carson and Ted Cruz over their positions on gay rights during remarks to the Human Rights Campaign, where she also called for new laws to support and protect the rights of transgendered people. "Ben Carson says that marriage equality is what caused the fall of the Roman empire," the Democratic presidential candidate said to laughter during a breakfast at the LGBT rights organization's annual gathering in Washington, D.C. Clinton then mentioned Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, which drew hisses and boos from the crowd gathered inside the grand ballroom of the Mayflower...

In a forceful speech on Saturday to an influential gay rights group, Hillary Rodham Clinton reaffirmed her support for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans. Hours later, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is contemplating his own presidential run, stood before the same organization and praised Americans who have fought for gay rights. “Love is not a political matter; it’s a basic human right,” Mr. Biden said to a gathering of members of the Human Rights Campaign on Saturday night. “The fact that we recognize that, it’s because of you.” Mr. Biden’s potential candidacy has loomed over Mrs. Clinton’s...

President Obama passionately pleaded for stricter gun laws in the aftermath of yet another mass shooting Thursday. Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and others renewed their calls for stricter gun control measures. But it's the more liberal Sanders who could find himself having to uncomfortably explain his past positions on gun control. Even though the progressive socialist is to the left of Clinton and his other primary competitors on nearly every issue, he's walked a delicate line as a lawmaker from Vermont, where 2nd Amendment rights are popular. Sanders has had a mixed voting record on guns. He voted...

Perhaps nobody on the planet knows more about intelligence protocol than Edward Snowden. If Snowden says it's "completely ridiculous" to believe that Clinton's emails were safe, then yes, it's fair to include his viewpoint in any critique of Hillary Clinton's latest controversy. In addition, since I believe Senator Bernie Sanders is desperately needed at this point in U.S. history, and electing Clinton or a Republican would essentially be nominating the same president on war and foreign policy, it's important to address relevant analysis of the email controversy. There seems to be a bizarre paradigm of thought among some Democrats that...

This interview is amazing.As the Bernie Sanders campaign surges, the socialist senator continues to bring the national conversation back from the right after 30 years of bellicose class war rhetoric. In the clip below, he shames those (including Jeb Bush) who would cut taxes for the rich while stripping Social Security. Sanders states clearly that every other industrialized country invests in their own citizens and children and it’s high time that we followed suit. While Sanders is heavily-criticized for identifying as a democratic socialist, he embraces the label. Sanders says countries that abide by the principles of democratic socialism, like...

Today's Donald Trump news: As a thick crowd gathered Thursday afternoon on New York's Fifth Avenue to get a glimpse of Pope Francis, the faithful caught sight of someone else – Donald Trump. The presidential candidate stepped out of his company headquarters at about 4:30 p.m. and waved. But the crowd quickly reminded Trump that – despite countless appearances on talk shows, rallies and over-populated debates – they weren't there to see him. Trump heard some cheers, but was mostly showered with boos, a reaction that might not have pleased the pope, who had just finished preaching about the Golden...

Gov. Scott Walker has “dropped too fast, too hard” to win the Republican nomination for president, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan said last week. Nor does the second-term Democratic congressman think leading GOP candidate Donald Trump or insurgent Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders can win the White House. “Nobody is saying, ‘What I really want is a 75-year-old socialist,’” Pocan said of Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont who is polling surprisingly well against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Pocan talked presidential politics, drew a line between religious freedom and the recognition of gay marriage — including his own — and...

Civil rights activist and philosopher Cornel West on Monday endorsed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for president. "I endorse Brother @BernieSanders because he is a long-distance runner with integrity in the struggle for justice for over 50 years," West tweeted late Monday night. West went on to say that it's time for Sanders' "prophetic voice to be heard across our crisis-ridden country." While West has been a long time supporter of Sanders (and "not a Hillary Clinton fan at all"), the endorsement comes weeks after Black Lives Matter activists disrupted a Sanders event in Seattle, taking the podium from the self...

Jeb Bush is sticking with the plan. Despite Donald Trump shooting ahead in the polls and Bush’s debate performance getting bad reviews — and amid signs of frustration on the campaign trail from the former Florida governor himself — his supporters aren’t panicking, multiple sources close to the candidate insist. The Bush camp is projecting confidence that the Summer of Trump will fade to winter, and that Jeb will prevail when it matters. Here are five reasons Jebworld isn’t freaking out: 1. ‘TRUMP V. SOMEBODY’ Trump is the man to beat, the undisputed leader in national and early-state polls. Even...

The independent Democratic candidate has repeatedly upheld his socialist views throughout his presidential campaign.When a New York Times reporter asked President Obama whether his domestic policies suggested that he was a socialist in 2009, the president responded with a laugh: “The answer would be no.” After the interview, Mr. Obama called the reporter back to elaborate on his answer, saying, “It was hard for me to believe that you were entirely serious about that socialist question.” “That socialist question” has taken on a new form these days, revolving around the only self-described socialist in the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination: Bernie...

In 2013, right after she stepped down as U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton enjoyed a high approval rating from the American people. Her trust level was on solid ground. Given her loyal service to the country and to President Barack Obama after the bruising 2008 Democratic presidential primaries in which she and Obama vigorously contended, Clinton’s standing among Democrats was sky high. This situation has allowed Clinton to be perceived as the prohibitive Democratic presidential nominee for the 2016 general elections. A few months ago, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was undetectable on the presidential political radar as few...

Politically wounded presumptive nominee staggering in the desert of her email scandal.Hillary is politically wounded by her never-ending email scandal, which keeps sucking the life out of her favorability ratings, and has Democrats panicked with fear: “I’m not sure they completely understand the credibility they are losing, by the second,” said one Democratic strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “At some point this goes from being something you can rationalize away to something that becomes political cancer. And we are getting pretty close to the cancer stage, because this is starting to get ridiculous.” “Look, this is a...

I thought we’d already reached Peak Trumpmania but if his next speech ends with Trump’s bodyguards going toe to toe with left-wing black activists trying to commandeer his stage to rant against the police, we might yet see him crack 50 percent in the polls. I’m shocked that he ended up saying this off the cuff in a Q&A last night rather than as part of his prepared remarks. It’s so squarely in the wheelhouse of his appeal — offering to fight, literally, against a group that’s politically correct to the point of being sacrosanct among progressives — that a...

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz stopped in Chattanooga on Monday as he spent the congressional recess politicking around the South. The Texas senator and presidential dreamer (being called a dreamer will probably cause him a little heartburn) is best known for shutting down the government, reading Green Eggs and Ham during a filibuster and opposing immigration reform — never mind that he is son of a Cuban immigrant. In Chattanooga, the tea party-leaning Republican made what he called a biscuits and gravy stopover during his eight-state "Cruz Country" bus tour through the southern states. He made a stump speech at GraceWorks...

It was a good week for disruptive innovation. Three protestors affiliated with Black Lives Matter shut down Bernie Sanders yet again, this time at a Seattle rally Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, Donald Trump escalated his disruptive impact on the Republican presidential field, with a post-debate remark implying that Fox reporter Megyn Kelly was menstruating when she asked him provocative questions, fittingly, about his coarse put-downs of women. The two forms of disruption invite comparison. BLM is disrupting the most progressive candidate in the Democratic field. Why? Because in the year since the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, the issue of...

Former Gov. Jesse Ventura says he’s backing Sen. Bernie Sanders in his bid for president. In a blog post on his independent media site, Ventura praised Sanders for challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination. “I think what Bernie Sanders is doing is extremely healthy,” Ventura wrote. “I love the idea of somebody throwing a fly in the ointment.” This isn’t the first time Ventura backed a presidential candidate looking to shake up the system. In 2008 and 2012, Ventura backed Republican Ron Paul for president. In 2004, Ventura backed Democrat John Kerry against Republican President George W. Bush....