President Obama Offers Support to Arizona After Tragic Shooting

Aide: Giffords is 'sort of alert'
Speaking on a rare Bipartisan telephone briefing, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ Chief of Staff Pia Carusone described Giffords’ state as “sort of alert,” in the wake of the attempted Assassination, which claimed the lives of six people, including federal District Court Judge John M. Roll and Giffords’ outreach director, Gabe Zimmerman. Carusone said Sunday that her boss is “sort of alert” when she is “taken off medicine” and that “when the...

Boehner seeks to calm rattled House
Only days after the crowning moment of his congressional career, rookie Speaker John Boehner is facing a stunning test of his leadership skills as he tries to bind up a jolted House of Representatives and set the right tone for this moment in American politics. What’s at stake is not only substantive — Boehner is seeking to calm the institution in a time of tragedy — but also political: He needs to make sure the Republican Party, whose conservative wing is under fire for its ...

White House mobilizes
The White House released the following tick-tock of Saturday afternoon’s activity: “The President was notified of this terrible tragedy by [Homeland Security and Counterterrorism adviser] John Brennan and [deputy Chief of Staff] Jim Messina a little after 1:20 p.m. Eastern. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 “Beginning at 3 p.m. Eastern, the President made a number of phone calls and was then briefed by FBI Director [Robert] Mueller, [Homeland Security] Secre...

Congressional leaders urge unity in call to members on Gabrielle Giffords shooting
Some 800 Republican and Democratic Congress members and spouses took part in an extraordinary Conference Call Sunday in which Party Leaders pleaded for everyone to come together in the wake of the shooting in Tucson that targeted Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) "At a time when an individual has shown us humanity at its worst, we must rise to the occasion for our nation and show Congress at its best," new Speaker John Boehner (R-Oh.) told the group during a call that lasted more than an hour, ...

House to Honor Giffords, Other Victims on Wednesday
Yahoo! Buzz Instead of debating the Repeal of the Controversial Health Care law, Republicans and Democrats will gather in the House on Wednesday to honor Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and mourn the Victims of the shooting Saturday outside a Tucson, Ariz., Safeway. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) made the announcement during a rare Conference Call Sunday afternoon with members and staff of both parties and their family members, according to readouts from his and other offices. House leaders...

House joint caucus conference on security to be held Wednesday
House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.) told reporters at a Capitol briefing after Sunday's Conference Call that leaders of both parties have scheduled a joint Caucus conference for Wednesday at House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) request. At Wednesday's meeting, members are expected to be given additional recommendations on security measures, Larson said. "The primary thing here is to make sure that all members are coordinating their efforts with local police officials, which a l...

President Obama Speaks About the Shooting in Arizona
This afternoon, President Obama spoke about the shooting in Arizona. You can read his remarks in full below. As many of you are aware, earlier today a number of people were shot in Tucson, Arizona, including several who were meeting at a Supermarket with their congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords. We are still assembling all the facts, but we know that Representative Giffords was one of the Victims. She is currently at a Hospital in the area, and she is battling for her life. We also know that at l...

Washington Week
The Senate and the House convened the 112th Congress, passing and adopting mostly routine housekeeping measures and conducting leadership Elections. The Senate opened to a bit of acrimony when the two leaders differed on whether the Senate rules should be changed and how to go about these rules changes without trashing 200-plus years of Senate history. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made an impassioned Speech about how the Senate Democrats have abused their power by how they have legislated over t...

'SNL': Nancy Pelosi Makes John Boehner Cry On 'Weekend Update' (VIDEO)
This week marked a historic event in politics when Nancy Pelosi handed over the gavel to new Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, but it was Boehner's tears that made headlines in the comedy world. The former Minority Leader's tendency to choke up when talking about country pride and American values is high, and last night "Saturday Night Live" ran with it. During a "Weekend Update" segment, Pelosi (Kristen Wiig) and Boehner (Bill Hader) sat down with Seth Meyers to talk about the tr...

Boehner Postpones Abortion, Health Care Votes After Giffords Shooting
Speaker John Boehner, the pro-life Republican who heads the House of Representatives, has postponed votes originally planned for next week on repealing the ObamaCare Health Care law and stopping funding of the pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood. Boehner put off the legislative agenda Congress had planned for next week following the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic congresswoman from Arizona who supports legalized Abortion. Giffords was shot at a community event in her Arizona...

President Obama: 'A Tragedy for Arizona and a Tragedy for Our Entire Country'
Saturday, January 08, 2011 By CNSNews.com Staff President Barack Obama talks on the phone with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. (White House photo/Pete Souza) In a statement delivered at the White House today, President Barack Obama called for Americans to pray for the Victims of the shooting attack on  Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others in Tucson, Ariz., and called the attack "a tragedy for Arizona and a tragedy for our entire country." Here is the full text of President Obama's statement: "As m...

Obama White House (again) responds to tragedy
Hearing the initial news reports ... Sorting out conflicting details ... Confronting the sickening reality ... Questioning about where to go from here. The White House is once again confronting public tragedy, this time the attempted Murder of a Congresswoman at a time of high political tensions. It's been a presidential responsibility for many years, especially in the television age -- whether the 2009 Mass Shootings at Fort Hood, or 1978 the mass suicides at Jonestown in Guyana, including the...

House Is Briefed on Giffords
The House of Representatives is out of session for the weekend, but after yesterday's tragic shooting in Tucson, Arizona, members were briefed on the shooting during a Conference Call Sunday. Over 800 representatives, staff, and family members joined the call, according to Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson. Members heard from Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Larson, Nancy Pelosi, House Sergeant at Arms Bill Livingood, Capitol Police Chief Bill Morse, Giffords's chief of ...

By the Skin of Pelosis Clenched Teeth
As if it wasn’t bad enough for Democrats, still licking their wounds from last year’s Elections, the party’s House Caucus leadership still finds itself in a state of obnoxious disarray and factionalism.  The signs of bitter internal fights are still apparent, from anxious Progressives clearly dissatisfied with the current political playing field and bitter moderate Blue Dogs blindly grabbing through the darkness of a Capitol Hill abyss. Months of circular Firing Squads and...

Congresswoman fights for life after shooting
Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, was fighting for her life on Sunday following a shooting rampage that left at least six people, including a nine-year-old girl and a Federal Judge dead. Ms Giffords, a 40-year-old member of the House of Representatives who first took office in 2007, was shot in the head at close range while attending a public event called “Congress on your Corner”, at a Supermarket in Tucson, Arizona, on Saturday. EDITOR’S CHOICE Congresswoman fights for life a

Michael R. Bloomberg: On the Tragic Shootings in Arizona
On Sunday January 9, 2011, Mike attended services honoring the first anniversary of the Haitian Earthquake at Evangelical Crusade of Fishers of Men Church in Brooklyn, where he spoke about the tragic events in Arizona on January 8. The following are Mayor Mike Bloomberg's remarks as delivered. I walked into this church this morning with a heavy heart, thinking about the tragic shooting in Arizona yesterday. And while the singing was going on, I said a little prayer for Congresswoman Gabrielle ...

Speaker Boehner: Pray for Rep. Giffords and Victims of Tucson Shooting
ABC News’ John R. Parkinson reports: Speaker of the House John Boehner today spoke out against the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and reiterated part of his written statement Saturday that “an attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serves.” “Public service is a high honor, but these tragic events remind us that all of us in our roles in service to our fellow citizens comes with a risk,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said. “This inhuman act should not and will not det

Joint conference Wednesday to discuss security concerns
The chairman of the House Democratic Caucus said Sunday that lawmakers will meet for a special joint conference on Wednesday to discuss security measures and concerns in the wake of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in her home district Saturday. Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) spoke to reporters after about 800 lawmakers, Staffers and family members took part in an hour-and-a-half Conference Call Sunday afternoon. Giffords' Chief of Staff, Pia Carusone, was among those speaking on...

Lawmakers Plan Security Review, No Votes Next Week In Wake of Gabrielle Giffords Shoothing
 ABC's Jonathan Karl Reports:   This afternoon the House leadership, including John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi, held an extraordinary bi-partisan call to brief members on the Arizona shooting and the Congressional response.      Speaker Boehner announced there will be a bi-partisan security briefing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday by the Capitol Police, Sergeant at Arms and FBI.   Also on Wednesday, the House will convene to pass a resolution honoring Gabrielle...

All House Votes on Hold After Shooting
WASHINGTON -- Business of the U.S. House of Representatives has been derailed following the deadly shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz., that left six people dead and Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords fighting for her life in a local Hospital. Sunday, Republicans now in charge of the House put off the up-or-down vote on repealing President Barack Obama's Health Care reform law often labeled ObamaCare, as well as all other regular House business. They said after the shooting of Rep. Giffords and ...

On the memo
Fox News has published the memo reportedly compiled by the Department of Homeland Security and distributed to Arizona Law Enforcement. The memo suggests that the suspect Jared Lee Loughner, 22, may have had an anti-Semitic motivation in targeting Rep. Gabriella Giffords (D-Ariz.) and that he may have been influenced by the Racist group American Renaissance. Earlier Sunday, officials had downplayed that there was such an official DHS memo per se. A read of the document suggests that it may be c...

Pelosi Leads Moment of Silence for Shooting Victims
Nancy Pelosi led a moment of silence Saturday, for the Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords who was shot in the head earlier that day. At a planned event in San Francisco, Pelosi said Giffords is a "brilliant and patriotic American," according to the Associated Press. Giffords was hospitalized after being shot at a public event in Tucson, Arizona. The congresswoman is in critical condition after undergoing surgery Sunday morning. Doctors are optimistic for her survival, stating th...

Health Care Repeal Vote Postponed After Arizona Shooting
Source: blogs.abcnews.com ABC's John R. Parkinson reports: In his second written statement today, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., has announced that the House will delay its efforts to Repeal the Health Care law next week as well as other legislative business "so that we can take whatever actions may be necessary in light of today’s tragedy." Lawmakers voted last week to schedule debate and a vote on repealing Health Care reform on Wednesday. Repeal was expect to pass in the House, but...

Obama Remarks on the Arizona Shooting: "Tragedy For Our Entire Country" (Video)
White House flickr.com photo page President Barack Obama takes part in a Conference Call in the Situation Room of the White House concerning the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others in Tucson, Az., Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011 President Barack Obama talks with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer concerning the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others, on a cell phone in the hallway outside the Situation Room of the White House, Saturday, Jan. 8, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) ...

On the Arizona Shooting
On the Arizona ShootingSunday, January 9th, 2011 I’ll not be blogging it because I made a vow I’m not going to give people attention here just because they want it, and see bashing Sarah Palin as a way of getting the attention. That’s what has been going on for a long time now, and regrettably the shooting has turned into another example of it. Ooh ooh ooh, if I can echo the Jane Fonda Twitter line that Palin caused the shooting, people will pay attention to ME ME ME! Not pla...