Chad’s Morning Brief: Marco Rubio Talks Gay Marriage, Ted Cruz Says Obama is Using the FAA to Economically Boycott Israel, and Other Top Stories
Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of July 24, 2014. Give me your feedback below and tune in to The Chad Hasty Show for these and many more topics from 8:30 to 11am. Remember, you can listen online at KFYO.com or on your iPhone/Android with the radioPup App.
Rubio Talks Gay Marriage
According to POLITICO, Senator Marco Rubio spent some time talking about gay marriage and going after the growing intolerance of those who support traditional marriage.
Marco Rubio jumped head first into the culture wars on Wednesday to blast what he sees as “growing intolerance” against those who oppose same-sex marriage.
In a speech on family values at the Catholic University of America in Washington, Rubio lamented the backlash that companies like Chick fil A and Mozilla often face when their executives express public support for keeping marriage between a man and woman. He said that supporting that definition doesn’t make someone “anti-gay” but rather “pro-traditional marriage.”
“There is a growing intolerance on this issue, intolerance of those who continue to support traditional marriage,” the Florida Republican senator and potential 2016 presidential contender told a standing-room only crowd. “Even before this speech is over, I’ll be attacked as a hater or bigot. Or someone who’s anti-gay. This intolerance in the name of tolerance is hypocrisy. Supporting the definition of marriage as one man and one woman, is not anti-gay. It is pro-traditional marriage.”
Rubio reminded the audience that President Barack Obama was among those who didn’t support gay marriage — at least publicly — until the months leading up to his re-election.
“If support for traditional marriage is bigotry, then Barack Obama was a bigot until just before the 2012 election,” he said.
Rubio, who supports marriage between a man and a woman, spent more than five-minutes of half-hour address wading into the thorny issue of same-sex marriage. His comments reflect the GOP’s struggle to find a position on an issue that enjoys growing public support — including from a handful of Republicans in Congress — but often alienates the party’s conservative base.
Gay marriage isn't a winning issue for Republicans. Not at a time where Obama's foreign policy is blowing up and we have a crisis on the border. However, growing intolerance towards those who don't embrace gay marriage could be a spot where the GOP picks up a few votes. Possibly. No matter what though, 2016 should not have anything to do with gay marriage.
Cruz Takes on the State Department & FAA
**UPDATE** The FAA has lifted the flight ban to Israel according to POLITICO.
The Federal Aviation Administration late Wednesday lifted its 36-hour-old ban on U.S. airlines flying into and out of Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, a prohibition that had brought the agency furious criticism from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The FAA had first issued the no-fly order Tuesday following a rocket that landed about a mile from the airport, and then renewed the ban earlier Wednesday. The agency said it lifted the ban after it worked “with its U.S. government counterparts to assess the security situation in Israel and carefully reviewed both significant new information and measures the Government of Israel is taking to mitigate potential risks to civil aviation.”
Original entry below.
Senator Ted Cruz took a swing at the Obama administration on Wednesday. According to POLITICO, Cruz took on the State Department's ban on flights to Israel.
The State Department and Sen. Ted Cruz sparred Wednesday over the Texas Republican’s accusation that the Obama administration was trying to sabotage Israel’s economy by barring flights into Tel Aviv.
Earlier on Wednesday, the FAA announced it had extended a ban on U.S.-based airlines flying into or out of Ben Gurion International Airport for another 24 hours. The agency initially enacted the ban at noon Tuesday after a Hamas-fired rocket landed within a mile of the airport, citing the ongoing “potentially hazardous security situation created by the armed conflict between Israel and Gaza.”
Even before the FAA’s ban, the U.S. airlines that fly to Israel had canceled all flights in and out of Tel Aviv. Many foreign airlines continue to fly in and out of the country.
But Cruz saw a darker motive behind the agency’s actions.
“The facts suggest that President Obama has just used a federal regulatory agency to launch an economic boycott on Israel, in order to try to force our ally to comply with his foreign-policy demands,” Cruz said in a statement Wednesday, pointing to earlier comments from Secretary of State John Kerry implying Israel’s economy would suffer it the country’s occupation of Palestine continued.
The State Department vehemently objected to Cruz’s comments.
“It’s ridiculous and offensive, quite frankly,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said at a press briefing. “The FAA takes its responsibilities very seriously. … They make these decisions based solely on the safety and security of American citizens, period. For anyone to suggest otherwise is just ridiculous.”
Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier fired back: “We find the Obama Administration’s foreign policy to be ridiculous and offensive.”
Cruz’s statement suggested the Obama administration was trying to sabotage Israel’s $11 billion-a-year tourism industry.
“This FAA flight ban may well represent a crippling blow to a key economic sector through both security concerns and worries that additional bans will down more flights and strand more passengers,” he said. “It hardly matters if or when the ban is lifted. At this point, the damage may already be done.”
Israel’s government asked the White House to overrule the FAA on yesterday’s decision, a step the administration declined to take.
Other Top Stories:
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