memeorandum: Islamic State leader Baghdadi goads West in rare audio statement (Josie Ensor/Telegraph)

4:05 PM ET, December 26, 2015

Top Items:

Hillary Clinton's ‘Secret Weapon’ Could Escalate Campaign Rhetoric — Bill Clinton gets a higher profile just as the jostling with Donald Trump gets more pointed — A new and more combative phase of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign opens next month when she sends her husband out to stump for her in important early states.

Discussion: Althouse, Hot Air and John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Hunter Walker / Yahoo:

The Sanders campaign is taking its fight with the DNC to the next level — The dustup over a data breach that briefly erupted in the Democratic presidential primary last week isn't over as far as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and his team are concerned. — In a conversation with Yahoo News …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit and The Right Scoop

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Trump campaign: Hillary bullied women to hide Bill's ‘sexist secrets’ — Donald Trump's campaign is escalating its war of words with Hillary Clinton, claiming that the Democratic front-runner bullied women to hide her husband's “sexist secrets” and accusing her campaign of “acting like 9-year-old little girls.”

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and The Huffington Post

Tom Boggioni / Raw Story:

Sanders campaign hints ‘hacker’ who accessed Clinton data may have been a DNC plant — DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY! — In an interview with Yahoo Politics, an adviser to the campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders hinted that the data breach that resulted in the campaign losing access …

Discussion: alan.com

KHOU-TV:

ATF: Cause of fire at Houston mosque is suspicious — Officials said Friday evening the two-alarm fire that damaged a southwest Houston mosque Christmas morning may not have been an accident. Investigators discovered the fire had multiple points of origin. — CONNECT

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Little Green Footballs, Talking Points Memo, Breitbart, Occupy Democrats, Jezebel, Washington Post, abc13.com, Fox News, alan.com and Walid Shoebat

Brian Rogers / Houston Chronicle:

Mosque catches fire in southwest Houston — Smoke rising from across the parking lot of a southwest Houston strip center caught Abdul Hafiz's attention as he sipped a cup of tea and chatted with friends at a restaurant Friday afternoon. — The source was the Savoy Mosque, where Hafiz had finished his afternoon prayer a bit earlier.

Megan Crepeau / Chicago Tribune:

Police responding to domestic call shoot 2 to death on West Side — Janet Cooksey holds a photo of her son Quintonio LeGrier, who was fatally shot by police at a West Garfield Park residence Dec. 26, 2015. — A man and woman were killed in an early morning police-involved shooting following …

Discussion: abc7chicago.com, Associated Press, PINAC, NPR, Guardian, Slantpoint and The Week

Beckie Strum / New York Post:

Bergdahl: Taliban asked me if Obama is gay — Bowe Bergdahl compared his first year in Taliban captivity — starved, stinking and chained to a bed — to being tossed in a closet and forgotten. — “Picture someone taking a bag, throwing it into the closet, shutting the door and just forgetting about it.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, BizPac Review, Jihad Watch, Mediaite and Joe.My.God.

Elliot Smilowitz / The Hill: Bergdahl details failed attempts to escape Taliban

Josie Ensor / Telegraph:

Islamic State leader Baghdadi goads West in rare audio statement — In what is believed to be his first public message in seven months, Isil chief warns Israel attacks are imminent — The leader of the self-declared Islamic State issued a defiant message to the West last night, saying that “Crusader” did not dare fight on his turf.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Jihad Watch and Young Conservatives

New York Times:

In Sales Pitch, Christie Spins His Version of Security Record — As a presidential candidate, Gov. Chris Christie has sought to differentiate himself by spotlighting his tenure as the United States attorney for New Jersey, framing it as a time when he spent his “life protecting our country” against terrorism.

Discussion: addictinginfo.org and The Week

Todd Richmond / WLUK:

Atheist group questions legislator's Christmas video — An atheist group questioned Thursday whether a Republican legislator improperly used state resources to produce a Christmas greeting video in which he encourages people to become Christians and quotes Bible verses.

Discussion: addictinginfo.org, Friendly Atheist, LiberalAmerica.org, Raw Story and Associated Press

Jim Webb / Facebook:

Our next commander in chief must define a strategic vision for the country and accept accountability for past actions. Hillary Clinton should be called to account for her inept leadership that brought about the chaos in Libya, and the power vacuums that resulted in the rest of the region.

Discussion: Bloomberg Business and Mediaite