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Rick Perry Tag

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Energy Department, will face the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources at 10AM EST. During the 2012 primary, Perry said he would abolish the Department of Energy if he became president. He also famously forgot the name of the department during one of the debates in November 2011. But that didn' bother Trump:
"As the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry created created a business climate that produced millions of new jobs and lower energy prices in his state, and he will bring that same approach to our entire country as Secretary of Energy," Trump said in a statement. "My administration is going to make sure we take advantage of our huge natural resource deposits to make America energy independent and create vast new wealth for our nation, and Rick Perry is going to do an amazing job as the leader of that process."

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen former Texas Governor Rick Perry as his Secretary of Energy. Perry served as agriculture commissioner in Texas before he became governor in 2000. His term ended in 2015. He ran for president in 2012 and 2016.

As we've blogged previously, Governor Perry is on this season of 'Dancing With the Stars'. So far, he's doing alright; hasn't been cut. In his latest DWTS appearance, Perry and his partner danced to the themes song from Green Acres. And here's a little taste: May...

Wednesday morning, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, dismissed the remaining charge against former Gov. Rick Perry. Perry had been indicted in 2014 by a Travis County grand jury for abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant, stemming from his threat and then veto of funding for the Public Integrity Unit of the Travis County District Attorney's Office. Perry had said he was vetoing the funds after then-Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, a Democrat, was arrested for drunken driving and caught on video being abusive and disrespectful to the law enforcement officers. Because of Lehmberg's conduct, said Perry, she had lost the public's confidence and was unfit to be running an "integrity" unit. She served a short jail sentence but refused to resign, and Perry carried out his veto threat. The coercion charge had been tossed out by the Third Court of Appeals in Austin last year on First Amendment grounds, and this dismissal now puts the rest of the case to an end.

During an address to the Eagle Forum in St. Louis this afternoon, former Texas Governor Rick Perry announced that he is suspending his presidential campaign. From ABC News:
“We have a tremendous field – the best in a generation – so I step aside knowing our party is in good hands, and as long as we listen to the grassroots, the cause of conservatism will be too.” "That is why today I am suspending my campaign for the presidency of the United States," he said, adding that he has "no regrets" about his run. He also took what appeared to be a veiled swipe at GOP frontrunner Donald Trump. "Demeaning people of Hispanic heritage is not just ignorant, it betrays the example of Christ," he said. In recent weeks, Perry has been particularly vocal in his criticism of the real estate mogul. Perry, who launched his campaign on June 4, has been polling in the low single digits throughout his campaign - most recently at 1 percent in the crucial first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa. He was slated to debate for the second time in the lower-tier debate on CNN next week.

Joining Lou Dobbs earlier this week, Former Texas Governor Rick Perry was asked to explain his stance on illegal immigration and border security. "I think we need to flesh everyone out from the stand point of of just the rhetoric. When somebody says, "let's build a wall," then I think it's appropriate to say, it's good to have this conversation, it's good that we are having this conversation that now for thirty years, this border has not been secured. We've known it's been a problem," said Perry. Dobbs interjected that he doesn't believe a single candidate talking about immigration issues because, "we've heard it all before."

Though the media vultures circle, Governor Rick Perry's campaign is not dead. Saturday, Perry joined Fox News to discuss among other things, the state of his presidential campaign. Shannon Bream asked, "Let's talk about where you go from here. There've been chatter about staffers leaving, payroll not being met. Where do you stand right now, how do you plan to move forward in key places like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina?" "Well I tell people I've been broke before, whether it's in my personal life or whether it's as the Governor of Texas. We had a $10 billion budget shortfall in 2003. You cut back, you make the reductions that you need to make and you move ahead and that's what we're doing," said Perry.

Joining Rep. Trey Gowdy and Sen. Tim Scott at a Presidential town hall forum in South Carolina Thursday, Governor Rick Perry took questions ranging from entitlement reform to national security. During a particularly emotional moment, Governor Perry went off script to discuss his deep-rooted feelings about military service. When asked by an audience member if he would close Gitmo, Perry answered, "listen, I'd keep Guantanamo Bay open. The bad guys don't need be over here. This president does not know how to, and I'm just going to editorialize here just a little bit -- this president does not know how to connect the dots. If he did, we would not be negotiating with Iran today. If he did, we would have the Castro brothers on their knees in Cuba, but we threw them a lifeline." Perry continued, "this president does not understand, either he doesn't have the experience of how foreign policy works, or he is so philosophically out of tune with the vast majority of Americans." When the conversation turned to Iraq, Perry's demeanor changed.

The Americans for Prosperity annual Defending the American Dream summit was held this weekend in Ohio, and hosted five of the 2016 Republican presidential candidates:  Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Rick Perry, and Bobby Jindal.  The clear favorite of those in attendance was Ted Cruz. Thomas Beaumont reports:
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was the hands-down favorite of the Americans for Prosperity annual summit in Columbus, Ohio, this weekend, if the number and volume of ovations during the speeches of five presidential candidates who addressed the annual convention of tea party activists was the measure. . . . .  Cruz, the tea party favorite since his 2010 election, sparked deafening cheers in the Columbus Convention Center auditorium even before he took the stage, entering to the 1980s power anthem "Eye of the Tiger." During his speech Saturday, he went on to promise to "repeal every word of Obamacare," and" rip to shreds this catastrophic Iranian nuclear deal." Each of Cruz's lines was met with applause and cheers from the more than 3,000 activists.

Late Monday evening, National Journal reported Rick Perry was no longer paying campaign staff in South Carolina. Naturally, the report raised speculation that Governor Perry's presidential campaign might be the first to run out of fuel. Later, several news outlets reported that Perry's entire campaign staff had been relegated to volunteer status and given the go-ahead to seek other employment. While Perry's campaign isn't rolling in dough, the Super PACs supporting the Governor's presidential bid certainly aren't broke. They're also not flush with cash. National Journal explained Tuesday:
But while his official campaign has been reduced to a volunteer operation, a trio of independent pro-Perry super PACs remain well-heeled, making it less likely Perry will be forced to exit the race entirely. "Oh God, yes, full steam ahead," said Austin Barbour, a senior adviser to Perry's super PACs. "Because we raised $16.8 million." The remarkable imbalance between the cash-strapped campaign and the flush super PAC will likely test the limits, already being pushed by other underfunded candidates, of how much responsibility can be pushed off onto unlimited-money outside groups. "We raised as much money as possible so that we would have the ability to spend it in whatever way we needed to spend it," Barbour said, "whether it was traditional super PAC ways on paid media or whatever other ways we need."

The seventh installment of RedState's annual conference concluded Sunday morning. 700 conservative activists from far and wide descended upon the Intercontinental Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. RedState Gathering was two and a half fun-filled days of high profile Republican speakers, bourbon, drama, and turkey sandwiches. The impressive list of speakers included ten governors, six Congressmen, a handful of conservative media folks, and spokespeople from various activist organizations. Most of the Republican Presidential field attended. After current GOP front-runner Donald Trump was uninvited to a reception at which he was scheduled to speak Saturday evening, the conference found its way into national headlines.

What did RedState Gathering goers think about Donald Trump's rescinded invite?

As we reported early Saturday morning, outgoing RedState Editor in Chief Erick Erickson uninvited Donald Trump. Remarks Trump make during an interview with CNN were, "a bridge to far," according to Erickson. Several RedState Gathering attendees shared their thoughts on Trump's forced absence with Ryan Lovelace of the Washington Examiner:

We're here in Atlanta for Red State's annual conference. Governor Perry shared a heartwarming story or as Perry called it, "a sad story but a good story." Perry recalled the time a grandmother of a fallen marine reached out to him. She was hoping Governor Perry would be able to assist in having her grandson's service black lab, Eli, returned to the family. Eli's, "the only connection the family has," remembered Perry. "He had this black lab that he idolized named Eli. Right before he deployed he told his mom that when he finished up this tour, he was going to return to Orange Grove and raise puppies with Eli. He got killed by small arms fire."