I signed up for military service in the months following 9/11, and later, as a military intelligence officer, I felt called, like so many others, to volunteer for deployment and service in Afghanistan.

Voter suppression is at the very core of the Trump re-election strategy.

The president is in charge of the military so that a single individual - accountable to Americans - is responsible for its successes and failures.

Because President Obama had an overall strategy, military and civilian leaders under his command could make reactive decisions that advanced the president's goals. In the military, we call that commander's intent: When there's a decision to be made and you don't have exact guidance at that moment, you at least know overall what your boss wants.

I've just been competitive all my life. That draws from a competitive family. We're all athletes, and we're all trying to win no matter what it is, whether it's Scrabble or basketball.

Because of my faith and my imagination, I was able to enjoy my childhood, even though it was tough.

The more a nation gets into darkness, the more it's going to hate the light. The more it's going to run from the light. And we have a generation of people who have given themselves to darkness, and they've embraced atheism, because it gets them away from moral responsibility to God.

You have to have a little soul in your singing. The kind of soul that's in the spirituals. That's why I'd like to include spiritual material in the sets I do. It's a part of my life.