memeorandum: McCain slams Cruz's call for religious test for refugees (Alexander Bolton/The Hill)

11:15 PM ET, November 17, 2015

Top Items:

Leigh Ann Caldwell / NBC News:

Kasich Proposes New Government Agency To Promote Judeo-Christian Values — As part of a broad national security plan to defeat ISIS, Republican Presidential candidate John Kasich proposed creating a new government agency to push Judeo-Christian values around the world.

Discussion: Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, Liberal Values, Political Wire, NPR, AMERICAblog News, Mock Paper Scissors, alicublog and New York Times

Michael C Bender / Bloomberg Business:

Jeb Bush Splits With Republicans Over Syrian Refugees — In an interview for Bloomberg's “With All Due Respect,” the Republican candidate stressed the United States shouldn't allow in refugees “if there's any kind of concern.” — michaelcbender — Jeb Bush said he wouldn't ban Syrian refugees …

Discussion: ABC News, Politico, Los Angeles Times, Infowars, Business Insider, Mediaite, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Outside the Beltway and Daily Kos

Eliza Collins / Politico:

Trump: Obama sending refugees to Republican states — The Obama administration is deliberately sending Syrian refugees to states led by Republican governors, Donald Trump alleged Tuesday. — Trump, who was speaking to conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, said of the refugees …

Discussion: ABC News, New York Times, Kelly Ayotte, Guardian, Independent Journal, The Gateway Pundit, Al Jazeera English, Washington Post, RedState, CBS DC, Mother Jones, The Hill Talk, Daily Mail, Raw Story, Associated Press and WISH-TV

Mother Jones:

Liberals Should Knock Off the Mockery Over Calls to Limit Syrian Refugees — Chris Cillizza on the post-Paris push among Republicans to keep Syrian refugees out of the country: … Cillizza has some poll numbers to back this up, but he's right in more ways than just that.

Discussion: Washington Post, Booman Tribune, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Hot Air

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

McCain slams Cruz's call for religious test for refugees — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday panned the idea of favoring Christian refugees from Syria over Muslims, delivering a rebuttal to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a GOP presidential candidate. — McCain said using a religious test …

Discussion: ABC News, Washington Times, Politico, Washington Post, The Week, Trail Blazers Blog and Outside the Beltway

Gregory Krieg / CNN:

Christie on refugees: Not even 5-year-old orphans — (CNN)Chris Christie says the U.S. should not accept any new Syrian refugees, not even young orphans. — “I do not trust this administration to effectively vet the people who are proposed to be coming in,” the New Jersey governor …

Josh Israel / ThinkProgress:
NRA-Backed Legislator: We Can't Take Syrian Refugees Because It's Too Easy For Them To Buy Guns

Discussion: KTBC, CANNONFIRE, Lawyers, Guns & Money, PoliticusUSA, addictinginfo.org, The Bob and Chez Show, Raw Story, Hullabaloo, Texans for Tony Dale and CNN

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Obama: GOP refugee opponents ‘scared of widows and orphans’

Discussion: RedState

CNN:
White House, governors discuss Syrian refugees

Discussion: WREG-TV and Moe Lane

Laura Koran / CNN:
How do Syrian refugees get into the U.S.? Explaining the process

Discussion: Washington Post, PoliticusUSA, The Hayride, The Daily Caller, Mother Jones, Right Wing Watch, The Daily Signal, Independent Journal, ThinkProgress, America's Voice, The Hill, EPautos, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Red Alert Politics and Outside the Beltway

New York Times:
G.O.P. Governors Vow to Close Doors to Syrian Refugees

Washington Post:
Republican leaders call for ‘pause’ on Syrian refugee program

Discussion: BuzzFeed, ThinkProgress, TPNN, Taylor Marsh, Mediaite, Washington Monthly, Breitbart and NPR

Trip Gabriel / New York Times:

Ben Carson Is Struggling to Grasp Foreign Policy, Advisers Say — Ben Carson's remarks on foreign policy have repeatedly raised questions about his grasp of the subject, but never more seriously than in the past week, when he wrongly asserted that China had intervened militarily in Syria and then failed …

Pamela Engel / Business Insider:

Ben Carson's campaign slams bombshell New York Times report as ‘affront to good journalistic practices’ — One of Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson's foreign-policy advisers questioned the candidate's grasp of Middle East events in an interview with The New York Times, prompting a quick rebuke from the campaign.

Discussion: Washington Post, Hit & Run, Slantpoint and Politico

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Carson camp: New York Times took advantage of ‘elderly gentleman’ — Ben Carson's campaign is claiming The New York Times took “advantage of an elderly gentleman” in its bombshell report that some Carson advisers did not think the Republican presidential candidate has a good grasp on foreign policy.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Bloomberg.com news and Washington Post

John Kerry / US Department of State:

Remarks to the Staff and Families of U.S. Embassy, Paris — Remarks — Secretary of State — U.S. Embassy — AMBASSADOR HARTLEY: Good morning, and thanks to all of you for coming together again this morning. It's been a difficult few days since these horrific attacks that occurred in Paris last week.

Discussion: Power Line, Hit & Run, The Last Refuge, National Review, The Federalist, MichelleMalkin.com, Mediaite and The Tower, more at Mediagazer »

Eliza Collins / Politico:

Kerry sees ‘rationale’ in Charlie Hebdo murders, unlike Friday's attacks in Paris — Secretary of State John Kerry suggested on Tuesday that there was a “rationale” for the assault on satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo, unlike the more recent attacks in Paris.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and The Week

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:
John Kerry Justifies Charlie Hebdo Slaughter

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon and The Daily Caller

Bridget Johnson / The PJ Tatler:
Kerry in Paris: Charlie Hebdo Attack Had ‘Rationale’ to ‘Aggrieve One Particular Sense of Wrong’

Discussion: Hot Air, American Spectator, Jihad Watch, Chicago Boyz and Instapundit

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:

Bobby Jindal drops out of White House race — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Tuesday said he was ending his presidential bid, saying “this is not my time.” — Jindal had struggled to gain traction as he centered his campaign on Iowa, a state with a large pool of evangelical voters, to whom the governor aggressively sought to appeal.

Discussion: Bloomberg Business, Yahoo Politics, Bloomberg.com news, Towleroad and Daily Kos

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Inevitable: Bobby Jindal drops out of presidential race

Discussion: twitchy.com and Business Insider

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:
Bobby Jindal Quits Republican Presidential Race

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Balloon Juice

Mark Hensch / The Hill:

Trump takes 9-point lead over Carson — Donald Trump has nearly a double-digit lead over Ben Carson in the race for the GOP's presidential nomination, a new poll says. — Trump is ahead of Carson by 9 points as the top pick among likely Republican primary voters next year, according to the University of Massachusetts survey.

Discussion: Morning Consult, Rush Limbaugh and Political Wire

Ginger Gibson / Reuters:
Exclusive: After Paris, Americans see Trump, Clinton as most able to address terrorism - poll

Discussion: OnPolitics, The Daily Caller and The Last Refuge

Mark Hensch / The Hill:
Trump: I'll ‘go to war’ with Cruz if he rises higher

Discussion: TPNN, CNBC, American Spectator, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Independent Journal and Patterico's Pontifications

Will Dobbs-Allsopp / Morning Consult:

Republican Leaders: Planned Parenthood Could Get Dropped From Reconciliation — Two of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) top lieutenants opened the door Monday to dumping language attached to an Obamacare repeal attempt that would defund Planned Parenthood.

Discussion: Erick on the Radio

Sarah Ferris / The Hill:
Planned Parenthood cleared of wrongdoing in key state

Discussion: ThinkProgress and The Bob and Chez Show

Seung Min Kim / Politico:
Senate GOP presses ahead with Planned Parenthood defunding

Discussion: Daily Kos and Washington Post

Kurt Schlichter / Independent Journal Review:

What Defeating ISIS Would Look Like — Kurt Schlichter is a trial lawyer in Los Angeles, California. A retired U.S. Army infantry colonel, he is the author of Conservative Insurgency: The Struggle to Take America Back 2009-2041. — ShareTweetEmail — The Journal by IJReview …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, New York Magazine, Raw Story, Fusion and Hullabaloo

Walter Russell Mead / The American Interest:
How to Beat ISIS: The President Is Partly Right

Discussion: Washington Post

Nicolas Hénin / Guardian:
I was held hostage by Isis. They fear our unity more than our airstrikes

Discussion: The Stranger …, Business Insider, Boing Boing, BGR, Independent Journal and The Week

Ishaan Tharoor / Washington Post:

What Americans thought of Jewish refugees on the eve of World War II … The results of the poll, illustrated above by the useful Twitter account @HistOpinion, were published in the pages of Fortune magazine in July 1938. Fewer than 5 percent of Americans surveyed at the time believed …

Discussion: NOLA River, The Stranger …, Canada Blog …, Daily Kos, Mashable, The Week and RedState

Bobby Jindal / Facebook:

I cannot tell you what an honor it has been to run for President of the United States of America. My parents came to this country 45 years ago searching for freedom and a chance. — When I was born, we lived in student housing at LSU, and never in their wildest dreams did they think their son …

Discussion: WSFA-TV, ABC News, Mediaite, The Stranger …, NBC News, RedState and The Daily Caller

Wall Street Journal:

EU Backs France's ‘Mutual Defense’ Request — Opens way for assistance to help France strengthen security at home and boost operations overseas — BRUSSELS—European ministers backed France's request to trigger the bloc's mutual defense clause on Tuesday, opening the way for assistance …

Discussion: USA Today, Infowars, Associated Press, Washington Post, Pew Research Center, The Daily Caller and The Week

Jeff Guo / Washington Post:
Hating Muslims plays right into the Islamic State's hands

Discussion: Mother Jones, Slantpoint, mynews13.com, Associated Press and ThinkProgress

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Gawker to Retool as Politics Site — Gawker.com, a site that pioneered the knowing and snarky tone that has come to define web journalism, will switch from covering New York and the media world, as it has done since its founding in 2003, to focus on politics.