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Ted Cruz vows to repeal “every word” of Obamacare and Common Core if he becomes president. He would “abolish” the IRS, flatten the Tax Code so Americans can fill out their taxes on a postcard, and “finally, finally, finally” secure the border. To which Lindsey Graham says: not going to happen.

With the American electorate shifting solidly in favor of climate action over the last few years, Republican presidential candidates have a tough decision to make: Keep chasing donations from the fossil fuel industry, or follow where the science leads and form an authentically conservative plan for addressing the increasingly pressing problem of global warming. Unfortunately for the planet, it’s not looking pretty. Here’s what the leading 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls have to say about climate change:

By David A. Fahrenthold March 28 at 9:37 PM There are 15 noteworthy contenders for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination. Together, they own at least 40 guns. Some of them have been building their collections since childhood. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) is up to 12 now, including an AR-15 assault weapon that he has talked about using if law and order ever breaks down in his neighborhood. Former Texas governor Rick Perry is so well-armed, he has a gun for jogging. Others were city kids who didn’t own guns until later in life. Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) bought a...

It might be fun to poke fun at Texas Senator and GOP Presidential candidate Ted Cruz for signing up for Obamacare but he is far from alone. As a matter of fact some other top GOP candidates for the 2016 Republican nomination are right there with Cruz. In fact almost every member of the House and the Senate who have voted over 50 times to repeal Obamacare are enrolled in the plan. It is important to be clear there is no such thing as being “on Obamacare.” It’s not an insurance plan, or a single program like Medicare or Social...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) fired at Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), among others, calling their ideas “fiscally irresponsible and dangerous to the country” and “just as bad as the Democrats” after they voted to raise defense spending on Thursday without offsetting that with spending cuts to discretionary federal programs. Paul had introduced an amendment that would have raised defense spending, but offset that increase with cuts elsewhere, such as the Departments of Education, Energy and Commerce. That amendment competed with an amendment from Rubio that would have increased defense spending with no offsetting spending cuts—just a blanket...

Legislation requiring congressional review of any Iran nuclear deal will get the 67 Senate votes needed to overcome a presidential veto, Sen. Bob Corker predicted Friday. The Tennessee Republican said despite “drama” around the issue in recent weeks, he believes his legislation will be successful. “I believe ultimately we will have a veto-proof majority to make that happen,” Corker said during a speech at the Republican National Lawyers Association’s 2015 National Policy Conference. The Foreign Relations Committee is expected to mark up Corker's bill next month, after a deadline for negotiators to reach a framework for a final deal. The...

Graham threatens to cut funds to UN if Obama bypasses Congress on Iran sanctions...

"Jeb couldn't be here today and you better be glad, 'cause it would have been $10,000 a plate. Cruz couldn't be here 'cause he's building a fence. ... Any Democrats here? You better be glad Scott Walker's not here, 'cause he would beat you up." The jokes are decent, as far as jokes about people running for president go. A little dad-ish, a little amateur, but not bad—they get at the essence of three Republican candidates, short and punchy, and not mean, per se, but also not not mean. If I was Senator Ted Cruz, and I heard myself described...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says President Barack Obama’s Attorney General nominee, Loretta Lynch, is unfit to be the nation’s top lawyer because of her support for executive amnesty and other positions she’s taken, the governor’s spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski tells Breitbart News.“Given Loretta Lynch’s failure to commit to protect Americans from the president’s lawless executive overreach, that even he said nearly two dozen times, she is not fit to serve as the nation’s Attorney General,” Kukowski said in an email.Walker is in New Hampshire,the first in the nation primary state,on Friday, meeting with—among other—former Sen. Scott Brown(R-MA)—who narrowly lost to Sen....

During his remarks before the Concord City Republican Committee last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suggested that robust military spending is absolutely necessary to defeat ISIS forces abroad, and that, as president, he would use the military itself to force Congress to reverse budgetary cuts to defense and intel. In brief audio obtained by BenSwann.com, Sen. Graham purportedly suggests he would use the military to restrict the movement of Congress until they complied: …[A]nd here is the first thing I would do if I were President of the United States: I wouldn’t let Congress leave town until we fix this....

The South Carolina Republican and potential 2016 presidential contender offered to share everything he's ever sent with NBC's "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd -- but said there's not really much to turn over. "You can have every email I've ever sent -- I've never sent one," he said. "I don't know what that makes me."

Forty-seven Senate Republicans are signaling in an open letter to Iran and the White House that a deal over Tehran’s nuclear program will be at risk once President Obama leaves office. “It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system,” the senators wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Bloomberg. “Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution — the power to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal offices — which you should seriously...

A question I often am asked is: "Who would you bet on to win the presidency?" Personally, I don't bet on politics, but here's my current take on the 2016 presidential race—with, of course, the caveat that we don't know which campaigns will turn out the best in terms of organization, strategy, tactics, or execution, much less which candidates will step on land mines along the way. The Democratic nomination appears fairly straightforward. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is now the prohibitive favorite. If her early stumbles during her book tour, or remarks like the one she made about...

The Talk Shows March 8th, 2015 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. ; former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; Lewis.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Tim Scott, R-S.C.; Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.; Benjamin Crump, lawyer for the family of Michael Brown, the unarmed black 18-year-old shot to death by a white police officer in Ferguson.THIS WEEK (ABC): Mayor James Knowles of Ferguson, Missouri;...

Gregory T. Angelo, Meghan McCain and Fred Karger signing the St. Louis Resolution Tuesday night. In a move designed to head off anti-gay rhetoric during the 2016 Republican presidential campaign, three prominent GOP leaders signed a resolution Tuesday and will send it off to the 18 prospective Republican candidates for president. After speaking on a panel entitled “Marriage Equality and the Republican Party” in Graham Chapel at Washington University, political columnist and television host Meghan McCain, Log Cabin Republican Executive Director, Gregory T. Angelo and the first openly gay candidate to run for President, Fred Karger, all signed the Resolution,...

The politics of ethanol have shifted enough over the last 15 years that several Republican presidential candidates felt comfortable – at an agricultural summit in Iowa Saturday – expressing their disagreement with special government supports for corn growers. Philosophically, that is. Back in 2000, John McCain skipped the Iowa caucuses altogether on the grounds that he could not win while opposing the federal ethanol subsidy. But the GOP has shifted rightward during the age of Barack Obama, and as the 2016 race gets underway a thousand spectators gathered at the state fairgrounds to watch the party’s top contenders try to...

Scott Walker and Jeb Bush head a crowded field of prospective Republican presidential candidates in the latest national poll released Thursday. Walker, the Wisconsin governor, polls at 18 percent, and Bush, the former Florida governor, is at 16 percent. The poll, conducted by Quinnipiac University, has New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 8 percent each; retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 7 percent; Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 6 percent each; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 5 percent; former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum at 2 percent; and South Carolina Sen....

few weeks ago, Lindsay Graham asked Loretta Lynch an interesting question at her Senate confirmation hearings: “What is the legal difference between a ban on same sex marriage being unconstitutional, but a ban on polygamy being constitutional?" The question, understandably, took her by surprise. “Senator, I have not been involved in the argument or analysis of the cases that have gone before the Supreme Court, and I’m not comfortable undertaking legal analysis without having had the ability to review the relevant facts and the precedent there…but I look forward to continuing the discussions with you." No one takes the issue...

On Monday Senators. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., invited Netanyahu to meet in a closed-door session with Democrats during his visit. Netanyahu declined the invitation on Tuesday and expressed regret about the politically fraught tone of his trip. “I regret that the invitation to address the special joint session of Congress has been perceived by some to be political or partisan,” Netanyahu wrote. “I can assure you that my sole intention in accepting it was to voice Israel’s grave concerns about a potential nuclear agreement with Iran that could threaten the survival of my country.” Netanyahu said to...

Scott Walker was not planning to outsource the job of defining his presidential campaign to Rudy Giuliani, a last-minute add-on to his New York speaking appearance. But that is exactly what transpired. While unplanned, Giuliani expressed a question of fundamental importance within the Republican Party, which allowed Walker to define himself unmistakably. Giuliani defends his original claim in a Wall Street Journal op-ed today. In it, Giuliani argues that Obama is “criticizing his country more than other presidents have done, regardless of their political affiliation,” and likewise fails to express “a fundamental belief in the country’s greatness and the example...