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Fox News host Megyn Kelly admitted on Wednesday that the conservative network's coverage of that day's Benghazi hearings had been a "little lopsided" after Democratic lawmakers were repeatedly cut off for commercial breaks.

Following opening statements, Fox News aired all of the questions House Oversight Committee Chair Darrel Issa (R-CA) had for the witnesses he had called, but the network cut to former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton for reaction when Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MA) began presenting his questions.

Users on Twitter complained as they noticed a pattern each time Fox News cut away from the hearings.

"HILARIOUS Fox News taking a commerical break during Democrats #Benghazi questions...," Unitedliberals tweeted. "Fox News instead of airing Carolyn Maloney's questions during #Benghazi hearing they are RE-airing clips from 20 minutes ago #LOL."

"Fox News coverage @ Benghazi hearing/ no interruption of Republican spkrs, commercials and commentary ovr Democrats. Fair and balanced? BS!" Kevin Larkin wrote.

After over three hours of hearings, Fox News Megyn Kelly acknowledged that the coverage had not been fair and balanced.

"We're trying to get in our commercial breaks here and now we're getting a little lopsided in terms of the Democrats versus the Republicans, so we're going to try to rectify that for you after the break," she promised.

In fact, Fox News only provided another 10 minutes of live video from the hearings during the next hour. Instead, the network asked Bolton and Fox News host Oliver North to comment.



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The man who is being hailed as a hero for rescuing the lives of three women kidnapped for a decade says that he would like any reward money to be turned over to the victims.

Charles Ramsey became an instant Internet sensation on Monday when he helped free Amanda Berry, Georgina DeJesus and Michele Knight from the house next to his where they had been trapped for around 10 years.

"Bro, I knew something was wrong when a little, pretty white girl ran into a black man's arms," he told WEWS following the rescue. "Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway."

On Tuesday, CNN host Anderson Cooper asked Ramsey what it felt like to find out that he had been living next to kidnapping victims.

"See, that's why now I'm having trouble sleeping," he explained. "See, up until yesterday, the only thing that kept me from losing sleep was the lack of money. See what I'm saying? So now that that's going on, and I could have done this last year, not this hero stuff, just do the right thing."

"Because there's a lot of people, they're saying you're a hero," the CNN host noted.

"No, no, no. Bro, I'm a Christian, an American, and just like you," Ramsey insisted. "We bleed same blood, put our pants on the same way. It's just that you got to put that - being a coward, and I don't want to get in nobody's business. You got to put that away for a minute. You have to have cajones, bro."

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Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday found a convoluted way to use the CBS drama Hawaii Five-0 to link the story of three kidnapped women in Cleveland to President Barack Obama and welfare benefits.

Limbaugh admitted that he had "no idea" about why Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight had been kidnapped and then were able to escape after 10 years.

"But as it so happens, I happened last night to watch Hawaii Five-0 on CBS," he explained. "Hawaii Five-O's premise last night was kidnapped girls held until they were 18 and then let go or killed -- well, always killed -- by a couple doing it for the welfare benefits."

"Now I don't know what happened in Cleveland, but I couldn't help but make the connection. I mean, if everybody else in the low-information crowd is going to use what happens on TV for reality, why can't I?"

Limbaugh added: "Three brothers, but not related the the three women, have been arrested in Cleveland -- which voted Obama. Not that that's got anything to do with anything!"

(h/t: Media Matters)



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A California mother says that she was forced to pay spousal support to her ex-husband after he raped her daughter for years.

Carol Abar told KCBS that her former husband, Ed Abar, began raping her then-9-year-old daughter soon after she married him in 1991.

But the daughter, who did not wish to be identified, said she did not tell her mother for 16 years because she was terrified of her stepfather.

"He had threatened me that he would kill my mom; he would kill my stepbrothers; he would kill me," she recalled.

When Carol Abar found out, she filed for divorce. Because she made more money than her husband, a judge ordered her to pay alimony of $1,300 a month.

"The judge told me I had no proof. It was my word against him," she explained. “He had been raping her since she was little. Since I got married to him.”

Just last year, Ed Abar finally pleaded guilty to one of four rape charges and was sentenced to over a year in jail. After Carol Abar had paid about $22,000 in support, a judge temporarily halted the payments.

But now that he's out of prison, Carol Abar's ex-husband is asking the court to force her to resume the payments.

"He’s asking not just to resume the existing support of $1,300 a month, but he’s asking for what amounts to approximately $33,000 in past due support and that too is a miscarriage of justice," attorney Brian Uhl, who is representing Carol Abar, said.

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Televangelist Pat Robertson on Monday defended an Ecuadorian preacher's homophobic comments and said that LGBT people could change their "orientation," just like God could change murderers and rapists.

The Huffington Post reported earlier this year that evangelical preacher Nelson Zavala had his political rights revoked after he said that homosexuality was "immoral" while he was campaigning for president.

"For somebody to say that a homosexual can change is somehow a hate crime -- it is a hate crime to say that somebody can change their sexual preference, that that's a hate crime?" Robertson opined on Monday. "That's what's going to happen, ladies and gentlemen. Mark that down and fight for freedom because that man's freedom of speech is being taken away."

"And the idea that anybody who has ministered to thousands of people -- as undoubtedly he has and others have in that church in Ecuador -- know very well that the power of God can change people's orientation. A murderer can change, a rapist can change, a thief can change. That's what the gospel is all about. It's not a hate crime."

(h/t: Right Wing Watch)



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Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint on Monday said that he opposed a bipartisan plan for comprehensive immigration reform because "unlawful immigrants" could live "another 50 years" and take advantage of government benefits that they earned by paying taxes.

At a press conference on Monday, the Heritage Foundation released a report that claimed the immigration reform bill offered by the "Gang of Eight" senators would cost Americans $6.3 trillion.

"The number over the 50-year lifespan of an amnesty for unlawful immigrants, it's $6.3 trillion to the American taxpayer," DeMint told Fox News host Martha MacCallum prior to the press conference. "And we know over time that this is going to increase more debt, increase taxes. That has a depressing effect on our economy. And we know that unlawful immigrants -- once that they have amnesty -- are going to replace the jobs of many Americans and depress their salaries."

"So there is no way you can look at this and conclude that it's good for the American taxpayer, and that includes immigrants who are here lawfully."

MacCallum noted that most benefits would not be available to immigrants for 13 years under the proposed plan.

"I'll believe that when I see it," the former South Carolina senator quipped. "Even if they follow through, unlawful immigrants are already receiving many benefits. A lot of their children are legal American citizens, whether its public education or Medicaid. But if you just look at a 13-year window when the life expectancy of unlawful immigrants goes another 50 years and once they get on Social Security and Medicare -- I mean, the average cost of an unlawful immigrant is hundreds of thousands of dollars."

DeMint added that he was all for immigration reform as long as "lower-skilled, less-educated" immigrants were excluded from the plan.

"In 1960, the average immigrant had about the same education and skill level of an American citizen. Today, immigrants have -- they're four times less likely to even have a high school diploma. And now with all of our welfare benefits, the arithmetic for immigration is totally different."

(h/t: Twitter/@igorvolsky)



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A regular Fox News commentator on Sunday said that teen pregnancies should be "celebrated," and pointed to President Barack Obama's speech to Planned Parenthood and the alleged horrific crimes of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell as part of "what’s wrong with our culture."

Fortune magazine's Nina Easton told Fox News host Chris Wallace that the Obama administration was in a "tough spot" after a federal judge ruled that women of all ages should have access to emergency contraception like the Plan B morning-after pill, even though the Food and Drug Administration had previously tried to limit access for girls younger than 15.

"I do think there’s a case to be made for conservatives or anybody who cares about the rate of abortions in this country to deregulate birth control more, although I also understand a need for parents to be involved," Easton explained. "One of the things out of all of this news, including the president’s speech to Planned Parenthood and this Gosnell case of murdering babies, is we’re looking at a culture that produces 1.2 million abortions a year. We’re losing sight of that fact."

"I would say that in addition to deregulating birth control, another thing we need to do is celebrate young women who bring a baby to term and find an adoptive parent," she opined. "There’s such a stigma today to being an adoptive birth mom that you’re more willing to admit that you’ve had an abortion than that you are delivering a healthy newborn to a loving family."

"What’s wrong with our culture that that’s where we are today?"

Think Progress' Aviva Shen observed on Sunday that Easton had "offered up Obama’s speech to Planned Parenthood and the Gosnell trial as evidence of how young women who choose to carry babies to term for adoption are being stigmatized."

"Easton glosses over the difficulty involved in maintaining a normal life for 9 months as a pregnant teenager," Shen wrote. "Moreover, birthmothers under 17 are more likely to change their minds about the adoption and keep the baby, making them vulnerable to dropping out of high school and a permanent cycle of poverty that entraps the majority of teen moms."



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Democratic strategist James Carville on Sunday praised tea party-backed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as "the most talented and fearless Republican politician" in the last 30 years.

In a panel discussion on Sunday, ABC News host George Stephanopoulos noted that recent news reports indicated that Cruz had been examining a possible run for president in 2016.

"The people love Ted Cruz because he's taking on his own party, his own leadership, he's taking on the other party," former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) opined. "He's trying to rock the boat to get us to stop moving towards this cliff that we're headed for as a country. So I've been in about 25 cities in the last few months, all you have to do is mention Ted Cruz and people get on their feet."

"I think he is the most talented and fearless Republican politician I've seen the last 30 years," Carville agreed. "I further think that he's going to run for president and he's going to create something. I'm not sitting here saying that he's going to win. And I think Sen. DeMint is right. I've listened to excerpts of his speech in South Carolina, he touches every button, and this guy has no fear. He just keeps ploughing ahead, and he is going to be something to watch."

"And a lot of Republicans feel this way," he continued. "You hear this a lot, 'If we only got someone who is articulate and was for what we were for, we would win elections. And we get these John McCains and these Mitt Romneys these squishy guys that can't do anything.' Well, there's one thing this guy is not: He ain't squishy, not in the least."

"We're anti-squishy men," Republican strategist Mary Matalin, who is married to Carville, volunteered. "We like really hard men."

(h/t: Mediaite)



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Former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Sunday said that the debate over rights for LGBT people was "one sided" because Catholics were also being oppressed.

During a panel discussion on NBC's Meet the Press about gay NBA player Jason Collins, Gingrich quickly tried to change the subject from equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans to religious discrimination.

"I haven't heard you say if you think a Republican nominee for president can support gay marriage," NBC host David Gregory asked Gingrich.

"I doubt it," the former House Speaker replied. "I think that's up in the air, because I do think things are changing."

"But what I'm struck with is the one-sidedness of the desire for rights," Gingrich continued. "There are no rights for Catholics to have adoption services in Massachusetts, they're outlawed. There are no rights in D.C. for Catholics to have adoption services, they're outlawed. This passing reference to religion -- 'We sort of respect religion.' Well, sure. As long as you don't practice it."

"I think it will be good to have a debate over -- beyond this question of are you able to be gay in America, what does it mean? Does it mean that you actually have to affirmatively eliminate any institution which does not automatically accept that?"

The Grio Managing Editor Joy Reid pointed out that Catholic charities in Massachusetts had made the decision to halt all adoptions to prevent same sex couples from becoming parents.

"They withdrew them because they were told that you cannot follow Catholic doctrine, which is for marriage between a man and a woman," Gingrich insisted.

"I think the point is that you don't have the state telling religion what to believe," Reid observed. "If they oppose the idea of gay marriage within their religion they have the absolute right to do so. The question is whether or not religious institutions can make public policy."

"If the church is going to make our public policy, are we any longer a secular state?"



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Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday told Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) that he was "getting off track" when he suggested that Republicans were hypocrites for continuing to attack President Barack Obama's administration over last year's attacks in Benghazi after pressuring the State Department to cut funding for security personnel by voting to cut embassy funding.

During a discussion to promote upcoming testimony by whistleblowers who Republicans say will tell the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that the Obama administration intimidated them into not speaking out about the attacks in Benghazi, Lynch pointed out that Fox News had not made Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) answer for his vote to cut security funding.

"We're talking about -- including my colleague, Mr. Chaffetz -- when Secretary [Hillary] Clinton and the State Department asked for additional funding for embassy security, they all voted no," Lynch said.

"No, no, no," Chaffetz grumbled.

"We're getting a little bit off the track," Wallace interrupted.

"They've already admitted this on CNN," Lynch added.

"I understand there's an issue about security, it's a little bit off the track," Wallace insisted. "I want to try to stay on course here."

"No, this is the point!" Lynch pressed. "They're complaining about a lack of security at the embassies after they voted against funding for security at the embassies. That's what they're complaining about... Is that not related?"

"The chief financial officer for the State Department sent in an email that finances had nothing to do with the decisions about funding at the facility," Chaffetz replied. "This is a facade, it's a distraction. There are four people dead here, Chris."

"And I want to talk about... Let's talk about beforehand," Wallace said, changing the subject. "Two weeks ago, the Republican chairs of five House committees -- and I will agree with Congressman Lynch here, it was just the Republicans, not the Democrats -- issued an interim report on Benghazi in which they charged that then-Secretary of State Clinton misled Congress when she said she had never seen any request for more security."