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Ben Wolfgang

Ben Wolfgang

bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com

Ben Wolfgang is a National Security Correspondent for The Washington Times. His reporting is regularly featured in the daily Threat Status newsletter.
Previously, he covered energy and the environment, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016, and also spent two years as a White House correspondent during the Obama administration.
Before coming to The Times in 2011, Ben worked as political reporter at The Republican-Herald in Pottsville, Pa.
He can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Ben Wolfgang

Russian President Vladimir Putin reacts during a news conference after meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych in Moscow on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013. Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow has agreed to sharply cut the price for its natural gas supplies to Ukraine and will buy $15 billion worth of Ukrainian government bonds, but says there was no discussion about Ukraine joining a free trade pact of three ex-Soviet nations. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

White House hints Olympic envoys a shot at Putin over gay rights

With a wink and a nod, the White House on Wednesday admitted it's sending a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin by choosing openly gay athletes to represent the U.S. at February's Olympic Winter Games opening ceremony in Sochi.

December 18, 2013
White House press secretary Jay Carney listens to a question during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013. Carney answered questions about a federal judge that made headlines this week by declaring that the National Security Agency's bulk collection of millions of Americans' telephone records is likely unconstitutional. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Under pressure, White House to unveil key surveillance report

In a change of course, the White House on Wednesday afternoon will publicly release an internal report on government surveillance efforts, a highly anticipated document that also will include recommendations for how the federal government can best balance its intelligence-gathering efforts with Americans' right to privacy.

December 18, 2013
**FILE** Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (center), Vermont Democrat, speaks with committee members and Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer (right) of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 22, 2013, during the committee's hearing on immigration reform. (Associated Press)

Top Democrats reject court ruling over NSA spying on Americans

Top Democrats pushed back Tuesday against a federal judge's ruling that the NSA's phone-records collection program violates privacy rights, asking for higher courts to quickly get involved and bring legal certainty to the murky world of intelligence gathering.

December 17, 2013
President Barack Obama meets with technology executives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington,Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013. From left are, Mark Pincus, founder, Chief Product Officer & Chairman, Zynga, Marissa Mayer, President and CEO, Yahoo!, and Obama. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Apple, Google, Facebook tell Obama: Rein in government snooping

The nation's leading technology companies took their concerns over government surveillance directly to the source Tuesday, pressing President Obama to rein in what is widely viewed as excessive and intrusive data-collection and snooping.

December 17, 2013
ILLUSTRATION This image released by Netflix shows Kevin Spacey as U.S. Congressman Frank Underwood in a scene from the Netflix original series, "House of Cards." Spacey was nominated for an Emmy Award for best actor in a drama series on, Thursday July 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Netflix, Melinda Sue Gordon) ** FILE **

Obama envious of ‘House of Cards’

President Obama, while talking to a Netflix executive, says he wishes Washington were as "ruthlessly efficient" as portrayed on network's show "House of Cards."

December 17, 2013
**FILE** President Obama pauses as he speaks about the new health care law during a White House Youth Summit on Dec. 4, 2013, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington. Americans who already have health insurance are blaming President Barack Obama's health care overhaul for their rising premiums and deductibles, and overall 3 in 4 say the rollout of coverage for the uninsured has gone poorly. (Associated Press)

Obama administration refuses to negotiate on debt ceiling increase

Despite the recent bipartisan breakthrough on the budget, the White House insisted Monday it will not negotiate with congressional Republicans on the next debt ceiling increase and will demand an unconditional increase before the government hits its borrowing limit early next year.

December 16, 2013
** FILE ** This photo taken Dec. 11, 2013, shows House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., right, accompanied by House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio speaking during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

White House: Once again, no negotiations on debt ceiling

With the threat of a government shutdown off the table for the next two years, attention now has turned to another looming fight over the nation's debt ceiling — and the White House has no interest in negotiating with Republicans as that limit approaches.

December 16, 2013
In this Dec. 14, 2012, file photo, Robert and Alissa Parker, at right, leave a firehouse staging area following a shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Gunman Adam Lanza opened fire inside the school, killing 26 children and adults, including the Parkers' daughter Emilie Parker, 6. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)

A year after Newtown, answers and action remain elusive

One year after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., all sides of the debate — from President Obama and single-issue groups led by outgoing New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and others to powerful gun advocacy voices — sound much the same as they did 12 months ago in the immediate aftermath of one of the worst shootings in American history.

December 14, 2013
Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer noted during arguments Tuesday the fact the Environmental Protection Agency has been granted by courts wide latitude in how it interprets the Clean Air Act. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

High court likely to allow Obama’s clean-air rules

The fate of key clean-air regulations — central to the President Obama's larger environmental agenda — now rests with the Supreme Court, which on Tuesday hinted it may throw the administration a lifeline and allow controversial pollution rules to be reinstated.

December 10, 2013
North Carolina and Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, are the latest to come under direct fire from a White House that admittedly is waging a full-blown PR offensive on Medicaid expansion in response to Obamacare's rocky rollout. (Associated Press)

White House PR blitz hits states that rejected Medicaid expansion

The Obama administration's all-out public relations push to sell its health care reform law increasingly is targeting individual governors, who will bear much of the blame, the White House says, if millions of poor Americans remain uninsured.

December 9, 2013
** FILE ** This Nov. 17, 2001 file photo shows Nelson Mandela and his wife Graca Machel sharing a private moment during a ceremony to rename a school Nelson Mandela Park Public School in Toronto. The former South African president, who spent much of 2013 in and out of the hospital, died Thursday, Dec. 5, 2013 at age 95. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn)

Obama: Nelson Mandela now ‘belongs to the ages’

President Obama was a junior senator from Illinois and was only beginning his meteoric political rise, which ultimately propelled him into the White House in 2008 and into the history books as America's first black president. Nelson Mandela, by contrast, was nearing the end of his incredible journey, having emerged from decades in prison during South Africa's dark apartheid era to become his own nation's first black leader.

December 5, 2013
President Barack Obama speaks about the new health care law during a White House Youth Summit, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Obama returns to class warfare as poll numbers plunge

Turning his attention yet again to the economy, President Obama on Wednesday zeroed in on the "defining challenge" of this generation — growing income inequality between the richest 1 percent and the rest of America.

December 4, 2013