President Obama Friday defended his administration's massive seizure of private citizens' phone records, email and Internet activities as "modest encroachments on privacy" that are necessary to fight the war on terrorism.
In his third attempt in four days to explain his position on chemical weapon attacks in Syria, President Obama Friday night all but ruled out sending U.S. troops to fight in the civil war.
Congressional leaders emerged from a meeting with President Obama Friday expressing optimism about a new "framework" for an agreement that would stave off the looming "fiscal cliff" of steeper tax hikes and spending cuts for the federal government by the end of the year.
Republicans blasted President Obama Friday for campaigning in Virginia near the largest U.S. naval base while ignoring their proposed solution to avoid looming defense cuts.
President Obama Friday telephoned the Georgetown University law school student who spoke out about contraceptive policy to express his disappointment at the "crude" and "reprehensible" comments directed at her by Rush Limbaugh, the White House said.
President Obama's indignant defense this week of his administration's energy policies has done nothing to deter GOP critics, as gas prices continue to rise amid worries that their continued climb could throw the economic recovery off course.
Seizing on news of another drop in the unemployment rate, President Obama Friday urged Congress to extend a payroll tax holiday for workers and spur the economic recovery even as he called for more than $5 billion in new spending.
Just days after the administration said it was eliminating hundreds of unnecessary regulations, House Speaker John A. Boehner fired off a letter blasting President Obama for a 15 percent increase in the number of new rules and demanding cost estimates for some of them by the time Congress returns from break.
With regard to the surveillance of Web data and emails, Mr. Obama insisted, "This does not apply to U.S. citizens, and it does not apply to people living in the United States."
"Nobody is listening to your telephone calls," Mr. Obama said at a hastily arranged news conference in San Jose, Calif. "They're not looking at peoples' names and they're not looking at content.
