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LAS VEGAS (AP) —
Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio clashed sharply over national security and immigration in Tuesday's Republican presidential debate, thrusting their evolving feud to the forefront of the GOP race. Front-runner Donald Trump stood firmly behind his provocative call for banning Muslims from the United States, saying, "We are not talking about religion, we are talking about security."
For former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the fifth GOP debate was an opportunity to find his footing after months of uneven performances. He appeared more comfortable than in previous debates in taking on Trump, though it's unclear whether his stronger showing will change the trajectory of his sluggish campaign.
The prime-time debate was the first for Republicans since the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, which heightened fears of terrorism in the United States. The attacks have ignited a political debate about President Barack Obama's campaign to defeat the Islamic State in the Middle East and the nation's security posture in preventing attacks in the U.S.
Trump's call for temporarily banning Muslims from the U.S. — a proposal roundly criticized by his rivals — dominated much of the discussion through the debate and into the next morning. "He doesn't have a plan, he's not a serious candidate," Bush said Wednesday, speaking on MSNBC. "The idea that you can just prey on people's fears is not who we are as a nation, not who we are as a party."
In a moment that might help ease anxiety among Republican leaders, Trump pledged he would not run as an independent. If he should lose the nomination, some fear he would make such a move, possibly preventing the nominee from defeating the Democratic challenger. "I am totally committed to the Republican Party," Trump said.
He was largely spared from criticism by Cruz and Rubio, who said they understood why Trump had raised the idea of banning Muslims. The two are, instead, focusing increasingly on each other, lashing out over their differences on national security and immigration.
"I could stand there tonight or this morning and say we're going to utterly destroy ISIS, we're going to blow them up, we're going to make the sand glow," Rubio said at a rally in Iowa Wednesday, referencing comments made by Cruz without actually naming him. "That's easy to say. What are you going to do it with? You need to have the capability do it. We're losing that capability."
Rubio, of Florida, defended his support for eventually providing a pathway to citizenship for some people in the U.S. illegally, an unpopular position within the Republican Party. Rubio was a co-author of comprehensive Senate legislation in 2013 that would have created that pathway, but he has since said the nation's immigration crisis must be addressed in piecemeal fashion, with legalization only an option after the U.S.-Mexico border is secured.
Seeking to draw a sharp contrast with Rubio, Cruz went further than he has previously in opposing legalization for people in the U.S. illegally. He declared, "I have never supported legalization and I do not intend to support legalization."
The two senators — both Cuban-Americans in their 40s — have been sparring from afar for weeks, and their rivalry could become one of the dominant forces in the race as the first voting contests in February draw near. The Texas senator is on the rise, particularly in Iowa's kickoff caucuses, and is casting himself as a more electable alternative to Trump, while Rubio is seeking to straddle the divide between his party's establishment and more conservative wings.
Rubio positioned himself as the hawk on national security, defending American efforts to oust dictators like Syria's Bashar Assad from the Middle East. He also accused Cruz of weakening the government's ability to track terrorists because he voted in favor of legislation to eliminate the National Security Agency's bulk phone-records collection program and replace it with a more restrictive effort to keep the records in phone companies' hands.
"We are now at a time when we need more tools, not less tools," Rubio said. "And that tool we lost, the metadata program, was a valuable tool that we no longer have at our disposal."
Cruz argued that his vote helped "reform how we target bad guys" by allowing the government to search more phone numbers.
"Marco knows what he's saying isn't true," he said. "What he knows is that the old program covered 20 percent to 30 percent of phone numbers to search for terrorists. The new program covers nearly 100 percent."
Beginning after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the NSA secretly collected the daily calling records — but not contents of conversations — for most Americans, including people never suspected of any crime.
A new law, called the USA Freedom Act, passed in June with broad, bipartisan support. It ordered the NSA to end bulk collection after a six-month transition that expired last week.
The senators also displayed differences in their strategies for targeting the Islamic State. The extremist group claimed responsibility for the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, and one of the shooters in California pledged allegiance to the group on Facebook shortly before she and her husband shot and killed 14 people at a holiday party.
Cruz called for using "overwhelming air power" to destroy the Islamic State, while Rubio said airstrikes would have to be supplemented by ground troops, including American special operations forces.
President Barack Obama has largely relied on airstrikes to target the militants in Iraq and Syria. However, he's also sent troops to Iraq to help train and assist local forces and recently approved sending special operations forces into Syria.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has been on the rise in New Hampshire, sought to assert himself in the national security discussions. He called for a no-fly zone over Syria and vowed to shoot down a Russian plane if it were to violate that space.
"Not only would I be prepared to do it, I would do it," he said. "We would shoot down the planes of Russian pilots if, in fact, they were stupid enough to think that this president was the same feckless weakling that the president we have in the Oval Office is right now."
The debate's focus on national security was a detriment for retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who has struggled on complex international matters. He punted on questions about surveillance and his own qualifications for being commander in chief.
Also on the main stage Tuesday night were former business executive Carly Fiorina, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. Four lower-polling candidates appeared at an earlier event: former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former New York Gov. George Pataki and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
WASHINGTON (AP) —
First responders who became ill after rushing to the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 attacks and spent weeks cleaning up the site are poised to get federal health benefits for the rest of their lives.
A year-end spending bill released early Wednesday morning and expected to pass this week would extend federal health monitoring and treatment for Sept. 11 first responders through 2090, making the program essentially permanent. The program treats victims who were exposed to toxic dust at the site. It expired this past fall.
In addition to the health fund, the legislation would pay an additional $4.6 billion into a compensation fund for the victims and extend it for five years. It would also create a new fund to compensate U.S. victims of state-sponsored terrorism.
LOS ANGELES (AP) —
The nation's two biggest school systems — New York City and Los Angeles — received threats Tuesday of a large-scale jihadi attack with guns and bombs. LA reacted by shutting down the entire district, while New York dismissed the warning as an amateurish hoax and held classes.
It's extremely rare for a major U.S. city to close all its schools because of a threat and it reflected the lingering unease in Southern California following the terrorist attack that killed 14 people at a holiday luncheon two weeks ago in San Bernardino.
In LA, the threat came in the form of an email to a school board member. Authorities in New York reported receiving the same "generic" email and decided there was no danger to schoolchildren. Mayor Bill de Blasio concluded the threat contained "nothing credible."
"It was so outlandish," he said.
New York Police Commissioner William Bratton agreed. Bratton, who was police chief in Los Angeles until 2009, said that it looked like the sender of the threat had watched a lot of the Showtime terrorism drama "Homeland."
Bratton indicated that the type of threats in the email mirrored some recent episodes of the show.
The shutdown closed both public and charter schools across Los Angeles. Officials announced Tuesday evening that schools would reopen Wednesday.
Officials in LA defended the move to shut schools, with that city's police chief dismissing the criticism as "irresponsible."
"We have suffered too many school shootings in America to ignore these kinds of threats," Chief Charlie Beck said at a news conference.
Jordan Tama, an assistant professor at American University specializing in U.S. counterterrorism policy, said it's not unreasonable for authorities in different places to make different decisions based on the same information.
"There certainly is no uniform approach," he said. "Los Angeles might make their decision based on different factors than New York and that would be the case throughout the country."
Against the backdrop of the San Bernardino attack, it's "just human nature" for LA authorities to be more cautious, Tama said.
The threatening 360-word email sent to the New York City school superintendent warned that schools would be attacked with pressure cooker bombs, nerve agents and machine guns. It claimed the writer and "138 comrades" would carry out the attack.
Students "at every school in the New York City school district will be massacred, mercilessly. And there is nothing you can do to stop it," the message said.
A law enforcement official with access to the document provided the email to The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to disclose details of an ongoing investigation and provided it only on condition of anonymity.
The anonymous writer claimed to be a student at a district high school who had been bullied. The person also claimed to be a jihadist but made errors that suggested the writer was really a prankster, including spelling the word "Allah" with a lowercase "a'' and making no reference to the Quran.
The threats came in simultaneously to New York and LA school officials at about 1:20 a.m. EST Tuesday, or about 10:20 p.m. Monday in Los Angeles.
In LA, the school board member who received the threat immediately contacted school district police, Det. Rudy Perez said.
Across the country, the New York schools superintendent who received the threat was asleep and did not notice the email until 5:08 a.m. By 6:30 a.m., the message was sent to the NYPD.
An hour later, New York students began arriving at school with no knowledge of the threat. By about 9:30 a.m., investigators ruled the threat a hoax.
The decision to close Los Angeles schools was announced around the same time, at 6:25 a.m. PST.
Bratton called the closure in Los Angeles a "significant overreaction."
"We cannot allow ourselves to raise levels of fear," he said.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he would not second-guess the decisions made in Los Angeles or New York.
The sudden closure disrupted the routines of many Los Angeles families.
Lupita Vela, who has a daughter in the third grade and a son who is a high school senior, called the threat "absolutely terrifying" in light of the San Bernardino attack.
"I know the kids are anxious," she said.
The LA schools commonly get threats, but Los Angeles Superintendent Ramon Cortines called this one rare and said the San Bernardino attack influenced his decision to close the entire district.
The threat "was not to one school, two schools or three schools," he said at a news conference Tuesday morning. "It was many schools, not specifically identified. ... That's the reason I took the action that I did."
In announcing that schools would reopen, LA officials said more than 1,500 buildings were searched, and police patrols outside the campuses will be increased on Wednesday. Mayor Eric Garcetti said the FBI concluded that the threat wasn't credible.
The daylong shutdown kept some 640,000 students out of classes and cost the district some $29 million in state funding, officials said.
The person who sent the threat used an "anonymizer," which uses a proxy server to mask the origin of Internet traffic, and the email was routed through a German IP address, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. The official, who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation, spoke on condition of anonymity.
Vela said she worries about talking to her kids about the threat and terrorism in general. She's concerned about her daughter feeling secure in class.
"I don't want this to be in the back of her head," she said. "Who knows what it does psychologically to kids? Is this going to cause her some kind of trauma so that she's not going to feel safe at school?"