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Ben Wolfgang

Ben Wolfgang

bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com

Ben Wolfgang is a national security correspondent at The Washington Times, a senior member of its Threat Status team, and the host and producer of the award-winning Threat Status Podcast. Ben covers national security, foreign policy, military affairs, the defense industry and the rapidly evolving landscape of military technology.
A Pennsylvania native, he joined The Washington Times in 2011 after serving as a political reporter at The Republican-Herald in Pottsville, Pa. Over the course of his career, Ben has covered the White House, Congress, and four presidential campaigns.
His reporting has earned recognition from some of journalism's most respected organizations, including the Virginia Press Association and the Society of Professional Journalists' Washington, D.C. Chapter, among other honors.
Ben has interviewed heads of state, chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, senior military commanders, cabinet secretaries, senior government officials, and the CEOs of many of the nation's largest and most influential defense companies.
Ben is a frequent guest on broadcast media, with appearances on C-SPAN, the Sirius XM POTUS channel, and other outlets.
He can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Ben Wolfgang

President Obama, flanked by Mongolia's President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj (left) and Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Jan Eliasson, attends a roundtable event Monday in New York. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Obama confronts power politics at United Nations

As he came to office in 2009, President Obama looked to the United Nations as a vehicle to drive change in the Middle East and around the world. Four years later, the international body remains, as its critics long have suggested, more of an obstacle to action than a leader of it.

September 23, 2013
Iranian President Hasan Rouhani speaks during an interview with state television at the presidency in Tehran on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013. (Associated Press/Presidency Office, Rouzbeh Jadidoleslam)

White House: Still no Obama-Rouhani meeting scheduled

As President Obama arrived in New York ahead of his planned Tuesday speech to the U.N. General Assembly, a key outstanding question is whether he'll sit down with new Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, a meeting that potentially could signal a shift in relations between the two nations.

September 23, 2013
Syria and Iran are just two of the global issues facing President Obama as he prepares to address the United Nations General Assembly this week. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Obama faces host of challenges during high-stakes U.N. trip

Syria's chemical weapons program, how to deal with a new Iranian regime and tense Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations are just some of the issues that will confront President Obama as he travels to New York this week for a highly anticipated address to the United Nations General Assembly.

September 22, 2013
Ron Binz (From Ron Binz' Public Policy Consulting website)

Energy nominee Ron Binz loses voltage with contradictions, Obama coal rules

President Obama's nominee to a top energy post is hanging on by a thread after a poor performance last week at a confirmation hearing where he failed to win over key supporters and even appeared to have misled a Senate committee about his record of support for a coal-fired energy plant.

September 22, 2013
** FILE ** Sen. Joe Manchin III (right), West Virginia Democrat, accompanied by Sen. Patrick J. Toomey, Pennsylvania Republican, announces on Wednesday, April 10, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington that they have reached a bipartisan deal on expanding background checks to more gun buyers. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

As Navy Yard families mourn, Obama pushes gun control

On the same day that lawmakers acknowledged that any attempt to crack down on firearms stands virtually no chance on Capitol Hill, President Obama made his strongest plea to date on the need to confront gun violence.

September 22, 2013
Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Blame game heats up as start of shutdown looms

With little more than a week before a budget stalemate over Obamacare sets off a government shutdown, Democrats and Republicans dug in deeper Sunday, with lawmakers increasingly looking, pre-emptively, to pin blame on the other side.

September 22, 2013
**FILE** Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas enters his car after a meeting with French President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Sept. 12, 2013. (Associated Press)

Obama to meet Palestinian leader next week in NYC

The White House confirmed Friday that President Obama will hold a bilateral meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas next week in New York City during the global gathering of world leaders for the U.N. General Assembly.

September 20, 2013
President Obama announces his choices (from left) of MIT physics professor Ernest Moniz for energy secretary, Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency, and Wal-Mart Foundation President Sylvia Mathews Burwell to head the Office of Management and Budget during a ceremony Monday in the East Room of the White House. (Associated Press)

EPA coal rules tighter than expected, will fuel backlash in Congress

The Environmental Protection Agency's dramatic new power plant emissions standards already have touched off a firestorm within the coal industry and on Capitol Hill, with top Republicans promising to fight tooth-and-nail against President Obama's climate-change agenda.

September 20, 2013
EPA administrator Gina McCarthy testifies before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

EPA’s new rules for coal accelerate Obama’s agenda on climate change

Three months after President Obama vowed to get tough on climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday begins that mission by announcing long-awaited rules for new power plants that, while slightly watered down, will be tough on the beleaguered coal industry.

September 19, 2013
President Obama speaks in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex on Sept. 16, 2013, in Washington, about the economy. (Associated Press)

Obama lays down markers in coming budget battles with GOP

With most of Washington — and the nation — focused on Monday's mass shooting at Navy Yard, President Obama went ahead with a blistering political speech and offered a preview of bitter battles with Republicans this fall over the nation's debt ceiling and federal budget.

September 16, 2013