New York real estate mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump on Tuesday declared himself a candidate for the Republican nomination for president, launching his against-the-odds campaign after teasing one for years.

“I am officially running for president of the United States,” Trump said from inside his signature Trump Towers in midtown Manhattan. “We are going to make our country great again.”

Trump flirted with a White House run in 2012 but ultimately did not enter the race. Though Trump is a first-time political candidate, he has become an influential voice in conservative political circles. He has spoken at political events in early-voting states, and makes frequent appearances on Fox News, among other outlets.

Trump has for months shown signs that he intended get into the White House race this time.

He has formed a presidential exploratory committee and has made numerous visits this year to early-voting states Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Also, he has remained competitive in early polling.

Trump said he will file a financial statement showing his net worth is $8.73 billion, though several of his ventures have declared bankruptcy. All president candidates are required to file a financial disclosure.

The 69-year-old Trump joins the field of 11 other GOP candidates, with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker expected to enter the race in mid-July and several other hopefuls still considering. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush announced his bid a day earlier.

Most polls have Trump in the top 10 in the field of Republican candidates and hopefuls, which would qualify him for the nationally televised GOP primary debate in August hosted by Fox News.

His unabashed businesses success will likely position him as a candidate riding a strong free-market, pro-business platform. It would also set him apart from candidates pitching a populist message, and trying to make themselves relatable to middle-class voters.

Trump, who was born in Queens, inherited his father’s successful real estate company in 1972 and has since grown and diversified the business to include Trump Entertainment Resorts as well as a clothing and fragrance line.

Trump’s extravagant lifestyle and brash manner is frequently on display during episodes of his long-running ABC TV show, “The Apprentice,” which the network in February approved for another season.

Trump, popularly known as “the Donald,” married for the third time in 2005 and has a total five children and seven grandchildren. He attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

FoxNews.com

President Obama bluntly challenged the Supreme Court over a pending ruling on the validity of ObamaCare subsidies, complaining Monday that the court should never have taken up the case — and warning that a ruling against subsidies would be a “twisted interpretation” of the law.

The president and his administration’s legal team for months have fought the Affordable Care Act court challenge, which is over whether people who enrolled through the federal HealthCare.gov are entitled to subsidies.

But the president’s comments on Monday, during a press conference on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Germany, were perhaps his toughest to date. He strongly suggested the court would be running afoul of established legal guidance if it rules against the administration, and took the rare step of saying the court should have stayed out of this fight.

“This should be an easy case. Frankly, it probably shouldn’t even have been taken up,” Obama said.

The administration has argued in court that the subsidies are valid through both state-run exchanges and exchanges run through HealthCare.gov. Foes argue that the Affordable Care Act stipulates subsidies are only intended for those buying insurance on state-run exchanges.

The court decision, expected any day, could have far-reaching implications because millions would lose their insurance if the court rules against the administration.

Yet the Obama administration has faced criticism for declining the spell out what its contingency plan is if the court rules that way, instead voicing confidence that the Supreme Court will keep the program as is.

Obama again voiced that confidence on Monday, and urged the court not to rule otherwise.

He said it’s safe to “assume” the court will do what most legal scholars expect and “play it straight.” Obama said it has been well-documented that Congress never intended to exclude people who went through the federal exchange.

To rule the other way, the president said, would be a “contorted reading of the statute” and a “twisted interpretation.”

But if that does happen, Obama said, “that throws off how that exchange operates” and millions of people would lose subsidies.

“It’s a bad idea,” Obama said.

The president went on to mount a robust defense of the law itself, saying “none” of the alleged “horrors” associated with ObamaCare have “come to pass.”

FoxNews.com/The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Most of the illegal immigrant criminals Homeland Security officials released from custody last year were discretionary, meaning the department could have kept them in detention but chose instead to let them onto the streets as their deportation cases moved through the system, according to new numbers from Congress.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform recently heard new information that could blow the lid off of the Hillary Clinton private email server scandal and shed new light on a consulting job Huma Abedin held while working as Clinton’s aide at the State Department.

The Daily Caller learned of a three-hour May 1 meeting two State Department whistleblowers held with the general counsel and staffers for the Oversight Committee, which is led by Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz.

According to a copy of notes from that meeting, State Department whistleblower Richard Higbie and another whistleblower told of an inspector-turned-whistleblower with State’s office of the inspector general who claims his investigation into Abedin’s work with Teneo Holdings, a consulting firm, led to the discovery of Clinton’s private email server.

According to the notes, the whistleblower also told Higbie that the investigation was shut down by Harold Geisel, the former acting inspector general for the State Department whose tenure was marked by accusations of political favoritism.

Joseph R. Biden III, Vice President’s Son, Dies at 46

WASHINGTON — Joseph R. Biden III, the former attorney general of Delaware and the eldest son of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., has died of brain cancer, his father announced on Saturday. The younger Mr. Biden was 46.

Mr. Biden had spent more than a week receiving treatment at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington.

In a statement Saturday night, the vice president said: “It is with broken hearts that Hallie, Hunter, Ashley, Jill and I announce the passing of our husband, brother and son, Beau, after he battled brain cancer with the same integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life.”

“In the words of the Biden family: Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known.”

In 2010, the younger Mr. Biden, known as Beau, had suffered what officials described as a mild stroke. Three years later, he was admitted to the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston after what White House officials described at the time as “an episode of disorientation and weakness.”

Officials said in 2013 that the doctors in Texas had removed a small lesion from his brain.

Mr. Biden’s death marks a second tragic loss for the vice president, whose first wife, Neilia, and 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, were killed in a car accident in 1972 when the station wagon they were driving in to go Christmas shopping was hit by a tractor-trailer. Beau Biden and his brother, Hunter, were also injured in the crash, but both survived.

A popular Democratic politician in his home state who was known to be very close to his father, Mr. Biden served two terms as Delaware’s top law enforcement official before announcing last year that he would not run for a third term so he could make a bid for governor in 2016.

“What started as a thought — a very persistent thought — has now become a course of action that I wish to pursue,” Mr. Biden wrote in an open letter to his constituents in April 2014.

As recently as late February, some Delaware politicians close to Mr. Biden told news organizations that they still believed Mr. Biden planned to run for governor in 2016.

But Mr. Biden’s health had apparently declined in recent weeks, and he was taken to Walter Reed on May 20.

A handsome, energetic politician whose broad smile mirrored that of his father, Mr. Biden appeared to be a natural to follow his father’s path toward national political success.

A lawyer by training, Mr. Biden joined the Delaware National Guard in 2003, serving as a major in the Judge Advocate General Corps. His unit was deployed to Iraq in 2008, while his father was running for vice president.

In a short, emotional speech introducing his father at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Mr. Biden recalled the tragedy that had touched his family, describing the moments after the crash.

“One of my earliest memories was being in that hospital, Dad always at our side. We, not the Senate, were all he cared about,” Mr. Biden said. “He decided not to take the oath of office. He said, ‘Delaware can get another senator, but my boys can’t get another father.’ However, great men like Ted Kennedy, Mike Mansfield, Hubert Humphrey — men who had been tested themselves — convinced him to serve. So he was sworn in, in the hospital, at my bedside.”

Many in Delaware expected Mr. Biden to run for his father’s Senate seat after the 2008 election, but the younger Biden, who was elected attorney general in 2006, declined, saying he was still needed in his state as he pressed ahead on a major child molestation case his agency was pursuing against a pediatrician.

“I have a duty to fulfill as attorney general, and the immediate need to focus on a case of great consequence. And that is what I must do.”

Instead, he ran for re-election in 2010, serving a second term before deciding to seek higher office.

Mr. Biden is survived by his wife, Hallie, and two children.

President Obama said in a statement that he was grieving for the vice president and his family.

“For all that Beau Biden achieved in his life, nothing made him prouder, nothing made him happier, nothing claimed a fuller focus of his love and devotion than his family,” Mr. Obama said. “Just like his dad.”

Mr. Obama called the vice president “one of the strongest men” he had ever known and offered a quote from the poet, William Butler Yeats. “I have believed the best of every man,” Yeats wrote, “and find that to believe it is enough to make a bad man show him at his best or even a good man swing his lantern higher.”

“Beau Biden believed the best of us all. For him, and for his family, we swing our lanterns higher.”

New York Times

The Clinton camp was hit Friday with yet another bombshell report on the family foundation, even as the Democratic power couple launched a counteroffensive against critics of the foundation’s dealings.

The New York Times reported Friday on a questionable arrangement last year involving Bill Clinton’s attendance at a fundraising gala thrown by a school-building charity.

According to the report, Clinton agreed to accept a lifetime achievement award at the June 2014 gala, hosted by the Happy Hearts Fund, only after founder Petra Nemcova offered to give $500,000 to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

Sue Veres Royal, the group’s executive director at the time who was later “dismissed,” alleged that this amounted to a “quid pro quo.”

She told the Times the foundation had rejected an invitation from the Happy Hearts Fund “more than once.” That changed, she said, when “there was a thinly veiled solicitation and then the offer of an honorarium.”

Representatives for Nemcova and the foundation countered that the money was not solicited — and would be used for projects in Haiti.

The revelations are the latest to raise questions about possible favor-trading at the foundation, as Hillary Clinton mounts her run for the Democratic presidential nomination and her supporters try to tamp down controversy surrounding the family charity.

The fundraiser in question was initially meant to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami — Nemcova, a well-known Czech model, founded the charity after surviving the 2004 disaster, while in Thailand.

The Times reported that the fund first asked Bill Clinton to be an honoree in 2011, and again in 2013. They were turned down. But another invitation letter was reportedly sent in August 2013, offering to work around Clinton’s schedule, and shifting the focus from Indonesia to Haiti.

The invitation added that the fund “would like to also share the proceeds of the event with the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, committing at least $500,000 in partnership on a joint educational project in Haiti, of your selection.”

He accepted.

The Times report pointed out that the foundation donation effectively rerouted money raised at the gala to an organization with a significantly larger budget. According to the Times, the $500,000 donation was worth almost a quarter of the event’s net proceeds and could have funded the construction of several schools in Indonesia.

Charity experts told the Times it is rare for such honorees to get money from a gala’s proceeds.

The former president and aides to Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, are pushing back on some of the critical reports surrounding the foundation.

On Friday, the former president said in a letter to supporters that the foundation remains a “non-partisan” philanthropy and he’s determined to continue its mission.

The former president said in the letter that “it’s the political season in America” and the impact of the organization has “largely been ignored” recently.

Top aides to Hillary Clinton also said late Thursday they see no permanent damage to her campaign over questions about the Clinton Foundation and other ethics issues, while acknowledging they expect an extremely competitive general election fought on other issues like the economy next year.

One top Clinton campaign official said they have a good story to tell about the philanthropic work of the Clintons and will make that case in the days ahead. The aides spoke at a briefing with reporters at Clinton’s campaign headquarters in Brooklyn.

Fox News’ Ed Henry and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From suggesting combating ISIS with jobs to dismissing questions about Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s conduct as “rumor,” spokeswoman Marie Harf has woven a rich tapestry as the voice of the State Department.

But she’s moving on.

The department announced late Tuesday that starting June 1, Harf will be moving out of the briefing room and beginning a “new role” as senior adviser for strategic communications to Secretary of State John Kerry. (Ex-Pentagon spokesman John Kirby has already assumed the role of spokesman, while former deputy spokesman Mark Toner is moving into his old job.)

Here’s a look back at some of Harf’s more memorable moments:

June 3, 2014: In response to questioning by Fox News at the briefing, Harf downplayed criticism of the recently announced trade of five Taliban fighters for Bergdahl.

She downplayed “conflicting reports” and “rumor” when asked about accounts from Bergdahl’s platoon-mates that he walked off base.

“There’s a lot of rumor and telephone game that’s being played here,” she said.

After continued questioning, she said: “It happened five years ago.”

Bergdahl would later be charged with desertion. Former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan Gen. Stanley McChrystal also told Fox News this week it was his initial understanding as well that Bergdahl walked off his base before he disappeared.

Sept. 25, 2014: Harf was asked, in an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, to respond to a warning that the U.S. would lose if President Obama did not approve ground troops to fight the Islamic State in Iraq.

“I’m not exactly sure what ‘lose’ means,” Harf said, arguing the solution is “targeted military action.” She said the prior U.S. engagement in Iraq, with tens of thousands of U.S. troops on the ground, couldn’t prevent terrorism.

Feb. 16, 2015: Speaking on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Harf suggested that jobs programs are needed to help take on the Islamic State.

“We’re killing a lot of them, and we’re going to keep killing more of them. … But we cannot win this war by killing them,” she said. “We need … to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it’s lack of opportunity for jobs, whether –”

Harf was interrupted by host Chris Matthews, who pointed out, “There’s always going to be poor people. There’s always going to be poor Muslims.” She acknowledged there’s “no easy solution” and said the U.S. would still take out ISIS leaders. But Harf said: “If we can help countries work at the root causes of this — what makes these 17-year-old kids pick up an AK-47 instead of trying to start a business?”

Feb. 17, 2015: Responding to critics of her remarks on helping fight terror by creating jobs, Harf said her statements were just “too nuanced” for her critics.

“Longer term, we cannot kill every terrorist around the world, nor should we try,” Harf said on CNN. “How do you get at the root causes of this? Look, it might be too nuanced an argument for some, like I’ve seen over the past 24 hours some of the commentary out there, but it’s really the smart way that Democrats, Republicans, military commanders, our partners in the Arab world think we need to combat this.” Harf went on to say the approach doesn’t fit “into a sound bite.”

March 6, 2015: Fielding questions at the briefing about ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of private email, Harf was asked if the department would release a 2011 cable — obtained by Fox News — showing her office told employees not to use personal email for security reasons.

“I think everyone can read it at FoxNews.com,” she quipped.

She then assured, “That was in no way an endorsement,” before adding: “I don’t mean to be flip about it.”

Everyone can still read it at FoxNews.com, here.

After several weeks of speculation whether the Department of Justice would investigate wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton in their “Pay for Play” scheme through their family’s foundation, the FBI has in fact launched a formal investigation.

At stake is more than $100 million purportedly paid to the Clintons through their foundation–The Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. Reports have surfaced that the foundation served as nothing more than a pool into which bribes were paid, soliciting political favors from Hillary Clinton during her tenure as Secretary of State.

When we look at the failures in the black community today, there seem to be lots of “activists” who want to tell us the problem lies in poor police relations — militant policing and presence. About two weeks ago I was on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show. The issue was about the black community and the other guests ranted on about everything other than what the real problem is — the decimation of the black family. Now, I must apologize because I’ve been sharing that the illegitimacy rate in the black community was 72 percent. I was wrong. It’s now 75 percent.

As Dr. Walter E. Williams writes for CNSnews.com, “Hustlers and people with little understanding want us to believe that today’s black problems are the continuing result of a legacy of slavery, poverty and racial discrimination. The fact is that most of the social pathology seen in poor black neighborhoods is entirely new in black history. Let’s look at some of it. Today the overwhelming majority of black children are raised in single female-headed families. As early as the 1880s, three-quarters of black families were two-parent. In 1925 New York City, 85 percent of black families were two-parent. One study of 19th-century slave families found that in up to three-fourths of the families, all the children had the same mother and father.”

“Today’s black illegitimacy rate of nearly 75 percent is also entirely new. In 1940, black illegitimacy stood at 14 percent. It had risen to 25 percent by 1965, when Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action” and was widely condemned as a racist. By 1980, the black illegitimacy rate had more than doubled, to 56 percent, and it has been growing since. Both during slavery and as late as 1920, a teenage girl raising a child without a man present was rare among blacks.”

“Much of today’s pathology seen among many blacks is an outgrowth of the welfare state that has made self-destructive behavior less costly for the individual. Having children without the benefit of marriage is less burdensome if the mother receives housing subsidies, welfare payments and food stamps. Plus, the social stigma associated with unwed motherhood has vanished. Female-headed households, whether black or white, are a ticket for dependency and all of its associated problems. Ignored in all discussions is the fact that the poverty rate among black married couples has been in single digits since 1994.”

Those are facts and there is only one group that MUST be held responsible for this degradation and decimation of the black family — white liberal progressive socialists. It was fifty years ago when President Lyndon Johnson came up with the brilliant idea of the government giving a check to a woman having a child out of wedlock. But worse, the checks would continue to come as long as no man was to be found in the home.

So Johnson delivered a one-two punch: he told mainly young black girls having babies out of wedlock and not as part of a family was a financially beneficially course of action, and he told young black men they weren’t responsible or accountable for the most basic of tasks — being a father.

Now, here is the alternative that the white liberal progressives would present — just kill the child — again, promoting an utter disregard and disrespect for the sanctity of life in the black community.

But then again, Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger, had some very interesting thoughts on this topic, in her “Plan for Peace” from Birth Control Review (April 1932, pp. 107-108) “Article 1. The purpose of the American Baby Code shall be to provide for a better distribution of babies… and to protect society against the propagation and increase of the unfit. Article 4. No woman shall have the legal right to bear a child, and no man shall have the right to become a father, without a permit…Article 6. No permit for parenthood shall be valid for more than one birth.”

Or how about this from Woman, Morality and Birth Control: “We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”

Doggone, I guess I’m one of those “more rebellious members.”

My point is that it seems the liberal progressive socialists have had a dedicated objective to destroy the once strong black family. It is a two-pronged assault — either through the expanded welfare nanny-state or by the outright murder of black babies. And sadly, Sanger was correct, white liberal progressives found colored ministers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson who have placated the black community into advancing its own suicide.

And so the unemployment rate skyrockets and the education opportunities dwindle — thanks to the white liberal progressive teachers unions, NEA/AFT. It’s truly as Jason Riley asks in his book Please Stop Helping Us.

And so we have the first black first lady, Michele Obama, who instead of talking about resurrecting Booker T. Washington’s three point agenda — education, entrepreneurship, and self-reliance — has bought into the white liberal progressive socialist message of black victimhood and dependence, instead of black success, achievement, and victory. Instead of addressing these horrific statistics in which she and President Barack Obama exist, that only 25 percent of black children have a two-parent home, they choose to be the messengers of the white liberal progressives and help keep the black community on the 21st century economic plantation.

And tell me, who are the “sellouts?”

By Allen West

A massive military exercise planned in states across the American West has touched off a political firestorm, with several top Texas officials now questioning the military’s plans – if only to calm the Internet and constituent furor surrounding it.

The seven-state war simulation exercise, known as “Jade Helm 15,” is planned for this summer. It involves training exercises on private and public land – while such exercises are hardly unique, even the military acknowledges the “size and scope” of this one sets it apart.

While the White House and Pentagon are downplaying concerns, this hasn’t stopped a barrage of blogs and tweets warning about whether the federal government is preparing for “martial law.” Even actor Chuck Norris is keeping his “eyes of a ranger” on the situation.

Western-state officials are now caught between a desire to calm their residents – and yet not appear to stoke any conspiracy theories.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott already has asked the State Guard to monitor the training exercises, after officials faced worried residents at a packed town hall meeting.

This alone triggered accusations that the Republican governor is “pandering to idiots.”

On Monday, the governor defended his actions. “There was, frankly, an overreaction to the simple fact that someone has to be in charge with gathering and disseminating information,” said Abbott, speaking to reporters. “We stepped in to play that role, which is a role to be applauded.”

On Tuesday, Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert also released a lengthy statement saying his office has been “inundated” with calls on the matter.

“This military practice has some concerned that the U.S. Army is preparing for modern-day martial law,” he said. “Certainly, I can understand these concerns.”

At the same time, Gohmert said he understands why military officials want to test whether Special Forces groups can move around a civilian population and handle various threat scenarios.

Gohmert explained that his concerns stem from the way the military is approaching the exercise. He cited a widely circulated map which details the seven states that are part of the exercise – California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Texas. The map has Utah and Texas colored red and labels them “hostile.” It labels other states as “permissive,” leaning hostile” and “leaning friendly.”

Gohmert said he was “rather appalled” that the “hostile” areas “have a Republican majority, ‘cling to their guns and religion,’ and believe in the sanctity of the United States Constitution.”

He called this an “affront” to residents there and urged the military to change its approach and tone. “The map of the exercise needs to change, the names on the map need to change, and the tone of the exercise needs to be completely revamped so the federal government is not intentionally practicing war against its own states,” he said.

And Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican presidential candidate, told Bloomberg he’s reached out to the Pentagon to “inquire about this exercise.” He said he has no reason to doubt the Pentagon’s assurances, but he understands residents’ concerns – and backs Abbott’s actions.

But the White House and Pentagon are pushing back. Last week, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said he has “no idea what [Abbott is] thinking.”

“In no way will the constitutional rights or civil liberties of any American citizen be infringed upon while this exercise is being conducted,” Earnest said.

Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren likewise said it “poses no threat” to civil liberties.

“This is a several weeks long training exercise with the purpose to refine the skills of our special operations forces,” he said, while batting back “strange Internet conspiracy theories” and “wild speculation” about the operation.

Special Operations Command said in a March press release that the exercise, from July 15 through Sept. 15, will only take place on “pre-coordinated” public and private lands – with permission from landowners and officials. Much of it would be in “remote areas,” though residents may see an uptick in “vehicle and military air traffic and its associated noise.”

An official with Special Operations Command also told Fox 13 Salt Lake City that the purpose was to replicate “potential terrain” soldiers might find themselves in overseas. As for labeling states like Utah “hostile,” the official said that was part of the design. “It is fictional and is not intended to represent any belief that the state of Utah is hostile,” the official said.

The politics have gotten tricky for western state lawmakers, however, as it puts them between concerned residents and America’s soldiers.

In Texas, Democratic Party Deputy Executive Director Manny Garcia called on Abbott to apologize to the military, accusing the governor of giving “credence to conspiracy theorists by ordering the Texas State Guard to monitor U.S. military operations.”

Meanwhile, Chuck Norris, a.k.a. “Walker, Texas Ranger,” is backing up the governor.

Writing on the conservative website WorldNetDaily, he said: “Concerned Texans and Americans are in no way calling into question our brave and courageous men and women in uniform. They are merely following orders. What’s under question are those who are pulling the strings at the top of Jade Helm 15 back in Washington. The U.S. government says, ‘It’s just a training exercise.’ But I’m not sure the term ‘just’ has any reference to reality when the government uses it.”

By Ashton Edwards and Max Roth, The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Conservative author and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson officially launched his 2016 White House bid by trashing politicians from both major parties, and urged voters to trust their own judgment.

“I think it’s time for the people to rise up and take the government back,” he said on a stage in Detroit.

Conservative author and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson officially launched his 2016 White House bid by trashing politicians from both major parties, and urged voters to trust their own judgment.

“I think it’s time for the people to rise up and take the government back,” he said on a stage in Detroit.

“The political class won’t like me saying stuff like that,” Carson said. “I’ll tell you a secret, the political class comes from both parties.”

Carson cited the decision by both parties to allow the national debt to rise as a chief of example of how the entrenched political class has robbed America of its future. He criticized politicians for applauding slower increases in the national debt, which is already far too high.

“They are completely out to lunch. We have got to drive that thing back down,” he said.

“You need to know who your representatives are, and you need to know how they voted, not how they said they voted,” he said. “And if they voted to keep raising that debt ceiling, to keep compromising the future of our children and our grandchildren, you need to throw them out of office.”

Carson also warned that the modern press has played a role in selling the broken government to the public. He said politicians and the press have conspired to convince people that unemployment is not a major concern today, even though millions of people don’t count as unemployed simply because they have stopped looking for work.

“Unless you understand those kinds of things, it’s eminently possible for slick politicians and biased media to convince you that everything is wonderful when your eyes tell you something different,” he said.

“I’m saying to people around this nation right now, stop being loyal to a party or to a man, and use your brain to think for yourself,” he said.

Conservative author and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson officially launched his 2016 White House bid by trashing politicians from both major parties, and urged voters to trust their own judgment.

“I think it’s time for the people to rise up and take the government back,” he said on a stage in Detroit.

“The political class won’t like me saying stuff like that,” Carson said. “I’ll tell you a secret, the political class comes from both parties.”

Carson cited the decision by both parties to allow the national debt to rise as a chief of example of how the entrenched political class has robbed America of its future. He criticized politicians for applauding slower increases in the national debt, which is already far too high.

“They are completely out to lunch. We have got to drive that thing back down,” he said.

“You need to know who your representatives are, and you need to know how they voted, not how they said they voted,” he said. “And if they voted to keep raising that debt ceiling, to keep compromising the future of our children and our grandchildren, you need to throw them out of office.”

Carson also warned that the modern press has played a role in selling the broken government to the public. He said politicians and the press have conspired to convince people that unemployment is not a major concern today, even though millions of people don’t count as unemployed simply because they have stopped looking for work.

“Unless you understand those kinds of things, it’s eminently possible for slick politicians and biased media to convince you that everything is wonderful when your eyes tell you something different,” he said.

“I’m saying to people around this nation right now, stop being loyal to a party or to a man, and use your brain to think for yourself,” he said.

He later delivered a special message to the press, noting that it’s protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution because it was seen as an entity on the side the people.

“Our founders envisioned a press that was on side of the people, not a press that was on the side of the Democrats or the Republicans, or the Confederates or the anti-Confederates,” he said.

“This is a direct appeal to media,” he said. “You guys have an almost sacred position in a true democracy. Please don’t abuse it.”

Carson, an unabashed conservative, followed more than 30 minutes of live gospel music, and said Americans need a leader who is able to tap into the individualism of America that has been repressed by the government. He said social spending is one area he wants to fix if he were to win the White House.

“I have no desire to get rid of safety nets for people who need them. I have a strong desire to get rid of programs that create dependency in able-bodied people,” he said. “We’re not doing people a favor when we pat them on the head and say, ‘There there, you poor little thing, we’re going to take care of all your needs.’”

He said a Carson presidency would lead to a much more efficient government, a sentiment that seems to reflect his decades of being in business, not in politics.

“We are going to change the government into something that looks more like a well-run business than a behemoth of inefficiency,” he said. He also quickly dismissed the idea that he isn’t qualified to be president because he hasn’t worked in politics.

“I don’t have a lot of experience busting budgets,” he said. “I can name a lot of people in politics who’ve been there all their lives, and you probably wouldn’t want them to polish your shoe.”

By Pete Kasperowicz