NATION/WORLD
Saturday, August 8, 2015
East Oregonian
Page 9A
James Holmes will spend life behind bars
AP Photo/David Goldman
Republican presidential candidate, former Texas Gov.
Rick Perry, waves to the crowd as he steps to the podium
to speak at the RedState Gathering, Friday in Atlanta.
AP Photo/David Goldman
Republican presidential candidate, Louisiana Gov.
Bobby Jindal, speaks at the RedState Gathering,
Friday in Atlanta.
GOP: Debate was the
most-watched program
in Fox news history
Continued from 1A
is an unsettled affair that’s
just getting started.
“Party donors, party
leaders need to take a deep
breath, put down the sharp
objects, step away from
the window,” Louisiana
Gov. Bobby Jindal said at
the RedState Gathering of
conservative activists in
Atlanta. “The voters will
decide who our nominee
is. They’ll decide who the
president is.”
And the voters seem to be
loving the show.
Thursday night’s debate
wasn’t just the most-watched
program in the history of Fox
News Channel, it drew more
than twice as many views as
the previous record-setter —
the 2012 election night.
Undoubtedly, the reason
for the record ratings was
Trump. On CNN late Friday,
he crowed about it: “If I
wasn’t in the event, they
probably would’ve done 2
or 3 million people max.”
Earlier Friday, he told
the morning TV talk shows
he couldn’t recall insulting
women in the past —
rejecting the premise of a
debate question posed by
Fox News’ Megyn Kelly.
“You know, some of the
statements she made about
the women, I don’t recog-
nize those words whatso-
ever,” Trump said on ABC’s
“Good Morning America.”
“We’re going to take a very
serious look at it.”
He won’t have to look
far. Trump’s Twitter feed
is sprinkled with insults
to women — and some
men — that use words such
as “dog,” “ugly,” “dumb,”
“stupid” and “disgusting.”
In the early hours of Friday
morning, he also repub-
lished a tweet that referred
to Kelly as a “bimbo” — and
later Friday he called her a
“lightweight.”
That
dust-up,
and
Trump’s refusal to say he
would support the eventual
GOP nominee if he’s not
the party’s choice, earned
him the top headlines from
the debate, overshadowing
some of the GOP’s biggest
stars and creating space for
some new faces to shine.
But for all the attention
on Trump, Bush said Friday
the criticism lobbed at him
by Democrats shows he is
the candidate they fear most.
“I’ll take that as a badge
of honor,” he said.
While Bush was thinking
about the general election,
many of the contenders
headed south for RedState
to work on shoring up their
support among the party
base.
Former Texas Gov. Rick
Perry noted that he’d been
relegated to the pre-debate
debate for the seven candi-
dates who failed to qualify
for the main event. “I was up
late last night,” Perry said.
“Not as late as I wanted to
be.”
But Perry campaigned as
“Think about
listening to this
accent for eight
years. ... You’ll
just have to deal
with the New
Jersey thing. It
will be fine. Don’t
worry about it.”
— N.J. Gov. Chris
Christie
if one of the party’s top-tier
candidates, declaring that
his 14 years as governor in
Texas prove he’s worthy of a
promotion.
“It’s important for our
country to have this discus-
sion about executive experi-
ence,” Perry said, knocking
President Barack Obama as
“an inexperienced senator”
who has “driven this country
into a ditch.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris
Christie, former Hewl-
ett-Packard CEO Carly
Fiorina and Florida Sen.
Marco Rubio also spoke
Friday at RedState. Bush
will be there Saturday, along
with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz,
former Arkansas Gov. Mike
Huckabee and Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker.
Rubio was at ease with
the crowd recalling his
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Gathering in 2010, when he
was a longshot U.S. Senate
candidate in Florida.
“I was an underdog
against (former Florida
Gov.) Charlie Crist and I was
trailing by 40 points in the
polls,” he said. “Now I’m
here running for president.”
Speaking before Rubio
was another underdog,
Carly Fiorina, who got rave
reviews from conservatives
with her standout debate
performance. The RedState
audience
was
equally
impressed.
Fiorina, who has never
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that her welcome here
marks a new routine for
her campaign as she tries to
vault into the top tier of GOP
presidential hopefuls.
“Well, I don’t know, I
think we kind of rumbled
last night, what do you
think?” Fiorina said. “I had
a lot of fun last night.”
Christie told the RedState
crowd that his leadership of
a Democratic-leaning state
makes him “battle tested for
Washington.”
During his Q&A, Christie
¿HOGHGTXHVWLRQVDERXWKRZ
Southern conservatives can
connect with his boisterous
Jersey personality. Christie
said Americans from all
regions care about a sound
economy, national security
and individual liberty.
Then he added: “Think
about listening to this accent
for eight years. ... You’ll just
have to deal with the New
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Don’t worry about it.”
CENTENNIAL, Colo.
(AP) — Twelve jurors failed
to agree on a death sentence
for Colorado theater shooter
James Holmes on Friday,
prompting shocked sobs
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cers and his own mother.
The former neuroscience
graduate student will instead
spend the rest of his life in
prison for mass murder.
The nine women and
three men said they could not
reach a unanimous verdict
on each murder count. That
automatically eliminates the
death penalty for Holmes,
who blamed his killings of
12 people on mental illness.
The verdict came as a
surprise. The same jury
earlier rejected Holmes’
LQVDQLW\GHIHQVH¿QGLQJKLP
capable of understanding
right from wrong when he
carried out the 2012 assault
that injured 70. Jurors also
previously moved closer
to the death penalty when
they quickly determined
the heinousness of Holmes’
crimes outweighed his
mental illness.
As the sentence was
read, Holmes’ mother,
Arlene, who had asked the
jury to spare her son’s life,
leaned her head against her
husband’s shoulder and
began sobbing.
Tears broke out across
the courtroom. In the back,
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AP Photo/Brennan Linsley
Dave Hoover, center left, whose nephew A.J. Boik
was killed in the 2012 Aurora movie theatre attack,
embraces Caren Teves, whose son Alex was also
killed, as Teves’ husband Tom, left holds an umbrella,
after a jury failed to agree on whether theater shoot-
er James Holmes should get the death penalty Friday
in Centennial, Colo.
responded to the bloody
scene of Holmes’ attacks
began crying.
Sandy Phillips, whose
daughter Jessica Ghawi was
killed by Holmes, shook her
head no and then held it in
her hands. Ashley Moser,
whose 6-year-old daughter
died in the attack and who
was herself paralyzed by
Holmes’ bullets, also shook
her head and then slowly
leaned it against the wheel-
chair of another paralyzed
victim, Caleb Medley.
Families of victims began
to leave the courtroom
as Judge Carlos Samour
Jr. continued reading the
verdict. Their wails were
audible through the closed
courtroom doors.
As in previous proceed-
ings, Holmes, who is on
anti-psychotic medication
that dulls his responses,
showed no reaction. His
attorneys left court without
commenting.
One juror told reporters
outside court that there was
a single juror who refused
to give Holmes the death
penalty and two others who
were wavering. The key
issue was Holmes’ mental
illness.
“All the jurors feel so
much empathy for the
victims. It’s a tragedy,” the
juror said, refusing to give
her name. “It’s a devastating
result no matter what. I am
deeply, deeply sorry -- that
isn’t even the word.”
Prosecutors
argued
Holmes deserved to die
because he methodically
planned the attack at a
midnight screening of
a Batman movie, even
blasting techno music
through earphones so he
wouldn’t hear his victims
scream.
District Attorney George
Brauchler said Friday he
was frustrated that Holmes
didn’t get the death penalty,
but he praised jurors for
doing a “hell of a job”
throughout the grueling,
four-month trial.
He also acknowledged
rejecting an offer by
Holmes’ attorneys for a
plea to life in prison without
the possibility of parole.
Brauchler said he did so
because the defense refused
to let Holmes be examined
by a state psychiatrist and
produce the notebook in
which he explained the
attack. Holmes was eventu-
ally subjected to two lengthy
psychiatric evaluations and
the notebook was entered as
evidence.
Obama suffers setback as Schumer rejects Iran deal
WASHINGTON (AP)
— President Barack Obama
suffered a notable setback
in his all-out campaign to
secure Democratic support
for the Iran nuclear deal when
the leading Jewish Democrat
in the Senate announced his
opposition. The question is
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turn out to be.
Republicans, infuriated
by Obama’s recent compar-
ison of GOP foes of the
pact to “Death to America”
Iranian hardliners, immedi-
ately focused on the stunning
break with the president by
Chuck Schumer of New
York, and they’re urging
other Democrats to buck the
administration.
But there was no quick
indication that the announce-
ment by Schumer, the No. 3
Senate Democrat and party
leader-in-waiting,
would
trigger a rush of Democratic
opposition to the interna-
tional accord, which aims to
curb Iran’s nuclear program
in exchange for billions of
dollars in relief from crip-
pling economic sanctions.
In fact, just hours after
Schumer’s late Thursday
statement,
Wisconsin
Sen. Tammy Baldwin and
Vermont Independent Bernie
Sanders endorsed the deal,
bringing the number of
Senate backers to 15.
“The test of a great nation
is not how many wars it can
engage in, but how it can
UHVROYHLQWHUQDWLRQDOFRQÀLFWV
in a peaceful manner,” said
Sanders, a Democratic presi-
dential candidate who said he
spoke to Obama on Friday.
Still, a second New
Yorker, Rep. Eliot Engel, the
top Democrat on the House
Foreign Affairs Committee,
and an additional Demo-
cratic member of the panel,
Brad Sherman of California,
joined Schumer Friday in
opposing the deal.
Five weeks before crucial
votes in Congress, Schumer’s
decision was seen as a blow
to the administration, whose
intense lobbying on Capitol
Hill since last month’s deal
had produced a steady stream
of support from Democrats
who had been the most vocal
in demanding congressional
oversight, including Virgin-
ia’s Tim Kaine and Florida’s
Bill Nelson.
But Democrats in the
House and Senate said
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would ensure Obama’s deal
survives.
“I think there is every
reason to be optimistic that
we will be able to sustain a
veto in the House,” said Rep.
Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., one
of the party’s vote counters
House
and
Senate
Republicans have enough
votes to pass a resolution of
disapproval next month, but
Obama is widely expected
to veto that resolution and
Republicans will then try to
overturn the veto.
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