Chad’s Morning Brief: Rick Perry Says He Will Make the Debate Stage Cut and The White House Threatens to Veto Anti-Sanctuary City Legislation

Here are some of the issues that will be discussed on today’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show.

Rick Perry on the First Debate

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry is preparing for the first Republican debate in a couple of weeks. According to RealClearPolitics, he isn't worried about Donald Trump or whether he will make the debate at all.

“He’s going to have his four or five minutes like everybody else on that stage is going to have,” Perry said of Trump. “How he decides to use those is his call. If he wants to talk about my glasses or Jeb’s intellect—that’s his call. I’m going to talk about why I would be the best president of any of those people standing on the stage.”

For Perry and other Republican presidential candidates who are polling in the single digits nationally, the debate in Cleveland on August 6 could be a pivotal proving ground and an opportunity to infuse their campaigns with some momentum.

But only the top ten Republican candidates will make the main debate stage, with the others relegated to an earlier debate. Perry is teetering on the bubble: The RealClearPolitics national polling average shows Perry tied with Ohio Gov. John Kasich for tenth, both with 1.8 percent.

Still, Perry said he is not contemplating the contingency of being excluded from the top-ten heat.

“I don’t even—we’re going to be on the stage,” Perry said. “I don’t have—the idea somehow or other that we’re not going to be on the stage is—we’re going to be there. Quite confident.”

The Republican primary debate stage is a particularly freighted venue for Perry, who four years ago saw his campaign collapse after a disastrous debate showing. When listing off three federal agencies he would eliminate as president, Perry ticked off two—and forgot the third. “Oops,” he said, in a moment captured on live national television.

But that history does not add pressure to his first debate appearance in this election cycle, Perry insisted.

“I’ve been preparing for this for three years, and I feel comfortable that we’re going to go up there and perform in a very capable and solid way, and at that particular point in time, 2012 will be history and we can get on with the important work of laying out the vision for this country,” Perry said. “I kind of look forward to it, actually.”

I hope that Rick Perry does make the debate on FOX News. If he does, he will be able to show the country that he is a different candidate than  he was the first time he ran for President.

Veto Threat Over Sanctuary Cities

According to The Hill, President Obama will veto any legislation that is anti-sanctuary city.

The White House on Thursday threatened to veto a bill cracking down on sanctuary cities, which have come under fire since the shooting death earlier this month of a San Francisco woman allegedly by an illegal immigrant with a criminal history.

The bill is scheduled for a vote in the House on Thursday and is expected to pass. The legislation would cut off some federal funding for states and cities that shield undocumented immigrants from federal enforcement authorities.

The White House said the legislation “undermines current administration efforts to remove the most dangerous convicted criminals” and fails to enact comprehensive immigration reforms.

The administration argues that President Obama's 2014 executive actions, which focus deportations on convicted criminals, will be a more effective way to enforce the nation’s immigration laws.

“The Congress should give [the program] a chance to work, instead of displacing that collaborative approach — which prioritizes the worst offenders — with the coercive approach of this bill, which makes no such differentiation,” the White House said in a statement.

Republicans in Congress have zeroed in on sanctuary cities since the shooting of Kathryn Steinle at a popular San Francisco tourist destination, allegedly by Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an illegal immigrant with a long list of criminal convictions and repeated deportations.

Sanctuary city laws prevent local law enforcement from complying with most federal requests to hold or transfer undocumented immigrants. The suspect in Steinle's killing was freed from custody by officials in San Francisco, a city that has such laws.

“There is no good rationale for noncooperation between the feds and state and local law enforcement,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has introduced similar legislation, said Tuesday.

President Obama is perfectly fine with cities breaking the law. Pathetic.