Obama announces restrictions on military gear for police
President praises ‘new model of community policing’
Christie attacks ‘civil liberties extremists’
Read the latest blog summary
4.41pm ET
This is kind of funny. Clinton seems to assume a primary election win.
“I will need your help as we move toward the general election,” she says. “Because I don’t want the campaign to be about me, but about the agenda we will set.”
4.38pm ET
Clinton is on to Iran. She calls for support for the president who is grappling with a difficult situation in negotiating around Iran’s nuclear program.
“We are living in an incredibly complicated time in American history. It is not a time for easy answers,” she says.
4.36pm ET
Moving quickly now. Clinton is on to dark money in politics. She says she will “protect the right to vote and not the right of billionaires to buy elections.”
The Clintons together have earned $30m in speaking and book earnings since January 2014, according to reports last week. That’s not money, for example, fueled to a Super PAC by a nonprofit with anonymous donors. Maybe not “dark money.” Big money though.
4.33pm ET
Clinton moves to the drug epidemic: “Meth kills in Iowa. And when I got to New Hampshire, at my very first coffee shop meeting, I heard about the heroin epidemic.”
“This is tearing families apart but it is below the surface. People aren’t talking about it, because it is hard to deal with it.”
4.29pm ET
Clinton says she will fight to protect the Affordable Care Act, and earns some applause. She says she’ll protect Medicare too.
“I don’t hear my friends on the other side of the aisle talking as much as they used to about repealing the Affordable Care Act,” Clinton says. She says she suspects it’s because they’ve been meeting people who’ve been helped by the policy.
4.27pm ET
Granddaughter anecdote alert.
“We’ve got this new granddaughter who is unbelievable. And we were with her this weekend. We just go and stare at her.”
4.22pm ET
[intermission: More humor attached to the Obama Twitter account, this one h/t @lgamgam]:
Welcome to @Twitter, @POTUS! One question: Does that username stay with the office? #askingforafriend
4.21pm ET
Clinton dives into her theme. “People have done everything they could think of to do to get back on their feet,” she says. “There is a sense that we are on our feet. We’re not running yet, but we are on our feet.”
First applause line: “I am very grateful to President Obama for the changes he made when he inherited the mess he did in 2009.”
4.19pm ET
Clinton speaks. She thanks Dean Genth and Gary Swenson, who are hosting the event in their home. It looks like they’re standing in their living room. Behind Clinton is the fireplace. But she’s standing kind of sandwiched between Merino and the hosts. She’s achieving an impressive amount of gesture-and-swivel body language for such a tight stage.
4.17pm ET
Hillary Clinton’s organizer in northern Iowa, Sarah Merino, introduces the candidate. Merino outs herself as a native not of Iowa but of Bedford, NY, spitting distance from the Tappan Zee bridge.
Here’s Clinton.
4.12pm ET
The Clinton event gets started in Mason City, Iowa. Watch it live on CSPAN here.
.@HillaryClinton walks into first Iowa house party of the year to big applause at a Mason City household supported Obama in 2008 caucuses.
4.10pm ET
Rep Guinta is the congressman who, as we mentioned earlier, has apologized after the FEC determined he had improperly accepted $355,000 for his 2010 campaign – from his parents.
In Giunta’s defense (?), he also held traditional fundraisers, with big-name draws such as Jeb Bush. But $5,400 per couple – the maximum allowed by law – racks up fairly slowly to make $350K.
Reminder: the first @JebBush event in NH was a fundraiser for @RepFrankGuinta #nhpolitics #fitn pic.twitter.com/fmW2P3Lvre
3.58pm ET
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell says he intends to extend Patriot Act provisions that his Kentucky colleague, Senator Rand Paul, today promised to filibuster.
McConnell said Monday that he intends this week to “responsibly extend” provisions of the USA Patriot Act due to expire on June 1, Reuters reports.
3.29pm ET
Now that the president is off the stage, we’re awaiting Hillary Clinton’s remarks in Iowa on ways to grow small business. CSPAN is meant to have a live feed.
Awaiting Clinton in Mason City. Event host backed Obama in 08 - not b/c of ideology, but says b/c Obama had more charisma, grassroots appeal
3.07pm ET
Obama wraps a relatively brief speech. “Camden is showing everybody it can be done,” he says. He said young people growing up in insecure communities deserve the faith of society, and an opportunity to thrive.
3.05pm ET
“We know these problems are solvable. We’re not just lacking for answers. We’re lacking in political will,” Obama says.
Here’s the recommendation from the task force about limiting military gear for police:
Law enforcement agencies should create policies and procedures for policing mass demonstrations that employ a continuum of managed tactical resources that are designed to minimize the appearance of a military operation and avoid using provocative tactics and equipment that undermine civilian trust.
These policies could include plans to minimize confrontation by using “soft look” uniforms, having officers remove riot gear as soon as practical, and maintaining open postures. “When officers line up in a military formation while wearing full protective gear, their visual appearance may have a dramatic influence on how the crowd perceives them and how the event ends.
2.55pm ET
Obama says “we can’t ask the police to contain and control problems that the rest of us aren’t willing to face... if we as a society don’t do more to expand opportunity... then we’ll end up seeing conflicts between law enforcement and residents.”
“We can’t just expect police departments to solve these problems.”
2.53pm ET
Obama hails the report by his policing task force. Recommendations he highlights include:
2.48pm ET
“Camden and its people still face very big challenges, but this city is onto something,” Obama says.
He says that’s why he wanted to review the recommendations of his policing task force in Camden. He wants to call on other cities to follow Camden’s lead.
2.43pm ET
President Obama has begun speaking at the Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in Camden, New Jersey.
2.32pm ET
Obama in Camden, via CBS:
Pres Obama chats with police and community youths in Camden, NJ. pic.twitter.com/F0dLuAttFj
2.26pm ET
Candidate Clinton is inviting Iowa voters to commit to caucusing on her behalf on 1 February. Via Bloomberg:
Commit to Caucus card from @HillaryforIA pic.twitter.com/AbmH2JYo82
2.16pm ET
The president is expected to speak in Camden in about an hour. While we wait you can read the prepared text of Chris Christie’s speech on foreign policy here.
Here’s the section where he calls for increased defense spending:
So we need to give our men and women in uniform the resources they need to get the job done — and we owe it to them. That’s why Congress and the President should repeal the 2011 Budget Control Act as soon as humanly possible, get back to regular order in budgeting and restore funding levels to what Secretary Gates proposed in his fiscal 2012 budget — modest increases in defense spending through the end of the decade that will make a massive difference to our troops. It’s the right thing to do — and we should do it now.
We should begin by passing a clean extension of the Patriot Act. At the end of May, vital pieces of that legislation are going to expire, including Section 215 — essential for our intelligence agencies to access the data they need to stop suspected terrorists. I used this tool extensively, aggressively and legally as US Attorney and I can tell you this: it works. This is a big debate in Congress right now, and different courts have expressed their views on the program too. But right now, that debate is dominated by the intellectual purists worried about theoretical abuses that haven’t occurred — instead of the real threats that we’ve already seen from Garland, Texas, to Ft. Dix, New Jersey.
2.04pm ET
The Democratic National Committee has responded to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s announcement that he is forming an exploratory committee for a presidential run.
Here’s the reply, in full (h/t: @bencjacobs):
Following the news that Bobby Jindal has launched his Presidential Exploratory Committee, DNC National Press Secretary Holly Shulman released the following statement:
2.02pm ET
Sixty percent of likely voters believe the Patriot Act ought to be modified, against 34% that favor its retention in its current form, according to a new poll of 1,001 likely voters commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union and carried out by the Global Strategy Group and G2 Public Strategies.
The Guardian’s Spencer Ackerman and Sabrini Siddiqui report:
Opposition to reauthorizing the Patriot Act without modification cuts against a bill by the GOP Senate leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. The poll found 58% of Republicans favor modification, the subject of a rival bipartisan bill that recently passed the House, with only 36% of them favoring retention. Self-identified “very conservative” voters favor modification by a 59% to 34% margin.
The margins for Democrats are similar to those for Republicans. Independent voters, however, are even less enthusiastic about mass domestic surveillance: 71% want the Patriot Act modified, versus 22% who favor keeping it as it is, which pollster Greg Strimple called “intense”.
1.56pm ET
Quick hits
Here are a few juicy politics headlines for you from around the ’web:
“We will do everything possible, including filibustering the Patriot Act, to stop them,” he told a cheering crowd at a rally in front of Independence Hall.
1.48pm ET
There’s Bill Clinton, at Rahm Emanuel’s second inauguration (with bonus Senator Dick Durbin on Clinton’s right):
Rahm sworn in for second term with his mentor on hand for support. Fiscal challenges ahead for Sweet Home Chicago pic.twitter.com/v9ljvtS8rF
1.45pm ET
Among Hillary Clinton’s stops in Iowa today will be a meeting with Democratic activists at the home of one of the first gay couples to marry in the state, MSNBC reports:
Dean Genth and Gary Swenson are longtime activists who got married in 2009 on the first day same-sex unions became legal in the state. Both supported Barack Obama over Clinton during the 2008 caucus, but are now backing the former secretary of state.
1.43pm ET
As our live blog coverage of the day in politics continues, here’s a summary of where things stand:
1.16pm ET
The president is making his way to his Camden appearance. He’s landed in Philadelphia, across the Delaware River from Camden.
Obama greeted in Philadelphia by Mayor Nutter, Senator Casey & thanked 1st responders 2 Amtrak derailment on Tarmac pic.twitter.com/kzSSnyZ1WI
1.10pm ET
Having just wrapped a speech in New Hampshire, Chris Christie will not be able to make it to Camden to welcome the president to his state this afternoon, unfortunately:
Hey @GovChristie, you meant Renaissance? pic.twitter.com/WZxj3qSvJj
1.01pm ET
It’s tough talk across the board from Christie. He calls for an asset ban on Russian president Vladimir Putin, for a stepped-up confrontation with Isis militants in Iraq and for an “absolute” commitment to Israel.
.@GovChristie: We should immediately put travel bans and asset freezes on every member of the Russian parliament and Putin’s entire circle
12.48pm ET
A live feed of the Christie speech is here. He’s describing pillars of a stronger foreign policy. One is firm international alliances, which Christie accuses Obama of squandering.
“We have a government that doesn’t seem to care about all the blood and sweat and treasure that it took to build those alliances,” Christie says.
12.40pm ET
Oh great. The president of the United States takes the historic step of joining Twitter and immediately runs into a towering wall of stupid. This cannot actually be what is on Americans’ minds. Where are all the questions about pre-K and chained CPI
Think he regrets this yet? pic.twitter.com/oX5xClUdul
12.32pm ET
Speaking in Philadelphia, the site of last week’s catastrophic train derailment, Rand Paul calls for the privatization of Amtrak, Bloomberg’s Dave Weigel reports:
Unsurprisingly, Rand says we should privatize Amtrak. “Man, if we could sell that and let a real company put up a fast train…"
12.20pm ET
Talk about big news. Barack Obama has become the first president ever to join Twitter, making him the first president ever to Tweet.
That follows a strong run of firsts for the president including First to Use a Selfie Stick and First to Join a Google Hangout and First to Go on Late Night as a Sitting President.
Hello, Twitter! It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they're finally giving me my own account.
POTUS chose Selma for his Twitter header photo https://t.co/2LLi0ryz08 pic.twitter.com/5CRj9HpP6x
I'm going to place my bets on Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown. https://t.co/YFjj3RqmEI
12.10pm ET
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie planned to deliver a sharp rebuke of Edward Snowden and to dismiss fears about abuses of government surveillance as “baloney,” according to prepared remarks for a speech today in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Christie also planned to blame “civil liberties extremists” for the rise of concerns about privacy protections following revelations about secret government spying programs.
When Edward Snowden revealed our intelligence secrets to the world in 2013, civil liberties extremists seized that moment to advance their own narrow agenda. They want you to think that there’s a government spook listening in every time you pick up the phone or Skype with your grandkids. They want you to think of our intelligence community as the bad guys, straight out of the Bourne Identity or a Hollywood thriller. And they want you to think that if we weakened our capabilities, the rest of the world would love us more.
12.00pm ET
Last week’s Republican fumbling of questions about the Iraq war skittered straight into the weekend, with Senator Marco Rubio becoming the latest presidential hopeful to bobble it.
Rubio has seemed to take all sides on the issue, saying the war made the world safer but also saying last week that, “knowing what we know now,” he would not have authorized the 2003 US invasion.
Wallace: Was it a mistake?
Rubio: It was not a mistake for the president to go into Iraq based on the information he was provided as president.
“These characters like Rubio made a total fool of himself on Chris Wallace’s program, talking about we were better off without Saddam Hussein. Give me a break. Right now we have ISIS, which is worse than Hussein. Hussein did one thing: he killed terrorists.
“We are in worse shape than we ever were. It’s a mess.”
11.31am ET
Paul: the reluctant interventionist. Politico is in Philadelphia too:
Rand on whether he would attack ISIS: "I would do it somewhat regrettably, in that I wish ISIS weren’t so strong."
11.29am ET
Paul promises to compete in Pennsylvania, arguing that his record of calling for criminal justice reform – including reforming mandatory sentencing for drug offenders and – gives him an edge on Hillary Clinton in places like Philadelphia. Here’s Bloomberg:
Rand in Philly: "If I am the nominee, we will compete in Philadelphia... I'll ask Hillary Clinton, what have you done for criminal justice?"
11.25am ET
Before his speech today in Philadelphia, Senator Paul mingled with some locals.
Great to be in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center! pic.twitter.com/1mgm0ruDDe
11.24am ET
The best video on Marco Rubio’s YouTube channel is probably the one that features him coaching a kiddie football team. He gives a pep talk on the theme of not giving up or stopping believing.
Most important of all, however, Rubio says in a separate video, is keeping safe. In a Q&A on Friday, the 2016 presidential candidate was asked which is a higher priority, “domestic issues or the foreign issues, especially terrorism.”
Anyone w/skillz want to Photoshop Rubio glaring down in b&w from a huge telescreen captioned "Nothing matters unless we're safe"? @darth?
11.14am ET
Hillary Clinton is in Iowa today, but where’s Bill?
Just one state east, in Illinois, where the former president is expected to attend the inauguration of Rahm Emanuel to his second term as Chicago mayor.
The Chicago Theatre is starting to fill up for Mayor Rahm Emanuel's second inaugural. pic.twitter.com/Wkks2gJvu9
11.07am ET
We should have some lines from Rand Paul soon on the showdown over House legislation to reform US government surveillance programs – legislation that Paul has threatened to filibuster in the Senate.
While we wait – on the off chance you missed Saturday Night Live this weekend – and its send-up of what a Hillary Clinton candidacy could mean for your summertime this year:
10.52am ET
Some details on the Clinton event – the candidate will appear in Mason City, Iowa, this afternoon to make some remarks about small business. That’s tentatively slated for 3.45pm ET.
10.46am ET
Good morning and welcome to the day in politics, an umbrella that today will also cover the appearance this afternoon by President Obama in New Jersey to announce new rules limiting military equipment for local police forces.
Before we get to the president, however, New Jersey governor Chris Christie is slated to deliver a speech calling for beefed-up government surveillance programs and attacking Edward Snowden for exposing domestic spying. Some of the programs could be shuttered if Congress fails to act before a 1 June deadline to renew them.
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