President Obama has kept his word. Two days before Donald Trump was sworn in as President of the United States, President Obama told us in his final press conference that he would speak out when “I think our core values may be at stake.” Two days before leaving office, Obama said he would continue to […]

According to many Republicans, the phrase “Radical Islamic Terrorism” possesses such power that without its utterance at every opportunity, the United States would be doomed to failure in the fight against terrorism. That notion was at the center of years-long criticism of President Obama and Hillary Clinton, and a central pillar of Donald Trump’s tough-guy posture during […]

Donald Trump has long claimed that the United States has lost the respect of the world and that he is the savior who can restore it. When Obama was reelected, Trump tweeted that “the world is laughing at us,” a claim he has repeated on the campaign trail. “Russia, China, Japan, Mexico, all countries will respect us far […]

President Barack Obama leaves office with a historic approval rating and a long list of important accomplishments, and while his farewell address Tuesday night recounted some of the notable progress of the past eight years and maintained a still-hopeful outlook, it was also suffused with a clear theme: https://twitter.com/aseitzwald/status/819015675612188674 In reality, the President used the […]

In Quinnipiac’s November 22 poll, 45 percent of people who responded said that Donald Trump does not care about average Americans. In that the same pollster’s February 22 poll, the percentage is now 53 percent, an increase of 8 percent. Overall, the poll now shows only 38 percent of people approving of his presidency, which […]

A pointed reminder from President Obama: Watch President Obama note that “Vladimir Putin is not on our team.” (FYI: @POTUS is right) pic.twitter.com/fGw4sLelke — HawaiiDelilah (@HawaiiDelilah) January 7, 2017 GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Bottom line: This time, Vladimir Putin got what he wanted? BARACK OBAMA: Well, look, I think that what is true is that the Russians […]

The White House has produced a lovely compilation of people — from average U.S. citizens to celebrities to world leaders — recalling meaningful moments and key accomplishments of President Obama’s presidency. “Yes, we can.” President Obama spoke these three words for the first time in January 2008 in New Hampshire. And for the past eight […]

The differences between the two parties are vast and varied, but there is perhaps no issue that more starkly represents their current ideological contention than the Affordable Care Act. Today, the outgoing president and his party huddled to defend his signature healthcare initiative, while the incoming president and his party strategized how to repeal it. […]

President Obama’s time in the White House is rapidly drawing to a close. But while the powers of the presidency still reside with him, he is working hard to forestall at least some of the damage to the nation’s people and land his successor is sure to wreak. Obama has previously announced a series of strong […]

Congressional Republicans have made repealing the Affordable Care Act a pillar of their agenda, fighting against its passage and voting more than 60 times to erase it from the law books. And President-elect Donald Trump put repealing Obamacare front and center in his campaign, stating in his platform, “On day one of the Trump Administration, […]

On December 15, President Obama made it clear his administration planned to take action against Russia for their unprecedented interference in the U.S. presidential election, saying: “I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections … we need to take action. And we will — […]

For the ninth time, President Obama has been chosen as the most admired man of the year in Gallup’s poll of most admired men and women, and for the twenty-first time, Hillary Clinton has been chosen as the most admired woman. President Obama drew 22 percent of the vote for most admired man, besting the […]

The building of Israeli settlements on disputed lands, which has long been a major point of contention in the Israel/Palestine peace process, took a major turn last week when the U.S. abstained on a resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity rather than exercising its veto power. The Obama administration has vetoed every similar measure in the past, but […]

On Inauguration Day in 2009, Republicans held a planning session to discuss ways they could completely counteract and hamstring everything President Obama did. By killing compromise immigration legislation, shutting down the government, suing the president over executive actions, holding hearings on the taxpayers’ dime to try to implicate his appointees in scandals and conspiracy theories, illegally writing to the Iranian mullahs […]

It is a new year, and while the country is preparing for its new administration, President Obama took to Twitter to remind us all of what the past eight years under his governance has brought us. As we look ahead to the future, I wanted to take a moment to look back on the remarkable […]

If you have felt like 2016 was a dreadful year and you are glad to see the back of it, you are certainly not alone. We are entering 2017 in a much different space than we had hoped and expected to be: Instead of celebrating the nation’s first female president whose competent leadership would build […]

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has joined Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Jack Reed (D-RI) in requesting, via a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), a select, independent investigation into the nature and extent of Russian hacking during the presidential election. Following news of the CIA assessment which concluded Russia intervened […]

I have always admired President Barack Obama, but I would be lying if I said I had always been his greatest fan. To be frank, I was not a huge supporter of his during his first campaign — though I vigorously defended him and proudly voted for him. I supported many of his policy proposals. […]

The New York Times reports that President Obama, in an effort to enshrine new environmental protections before he leaves office next month, has used a little-known act from the 1950s to issue a unilateral ban on certain offshore drilling: Mr. Obama invoked an obscure provision of a 1953 law, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, […]

President Obama just gave his final press conference of the year, the entirety of which can be viewed here. In his typically unflappable and measured demeanor, he started by recounting many of the successes of his eight years in office, then took questions, many of which focused on Russian interference in the election. Obama reiterated […]

Speaking to NPR, President Obama made it clear that his administration plans to take action against Russia for their unprecedented interference in the U.S. presidential election: In an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep that will air Friday on Morning Edition, Obama said, ‘I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to […]

Two dozen states with Republican state majorities and/or Republican governors have tried to “defund” Planned Parenthood by attempting to block public funds to clinics. It is a cynical ploy to try to further hollow out the right to abortion guaranteed by Roe v. Wade, and the Obama administration is making a last-minute bid to try […]

In a bipartisan effort to increase access to mental health care across the United States, President Barack Obama signed important legislation that would expand states’ ability to integrate mental and physical care and identify gaps in coverage. The 21st Century Cures Act, which contains broad funding for cancer research and substance abuse treatment, also includes a mental […]

The Washington Post reports: The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter. Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government […]

CNN reports: “The President has directed the Intelligence Community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process. It is to capture lessons learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders,” White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser Lisa Monaco said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast with […]

While President-elect Donald Trump has been busy provoking international tensions via Twitter, our current president continues to set the example for grace and inspiration in a world leader. For most of his address at MacDill Air Force Base, President Obama soberly and realistically discussed the successes and challenges we face in fighting terrorism, but, in the final […]

In his final State of the Union address, President Obama tasked Vice-President Joe Biden with leading “a new national effort to end cancer as we know it.” Known as the Cancer Moonshot, the audacious goal is “to make a decade’s worth of advances in cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, in five years.” Tonight, Biden presided […]

The November jobs report showcases President Obama’s successful stewardship of the economy, which added 178,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate fell to 4.6 percent, its lowest level since August of 2007. As NPR notes, “4.6 percent unemployment is what most economists consider ‘full employment’ (although employment varies by region and demographic, so the fruits of full employment […]

By February of 2016, Congressional Republicans had tried — unsuccessfully — to repeal the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) more than 60 times. Despite the fact that more than 20 million people are now covered under the ACA’s provisions, Republicans have repeatedly deemed it a failure that needs to be dismantled. But that was then. […]

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and six other members of the Intelligence Committee have released a letter asking President Obama to declassify information related to Russia and the U.S. election. The body of the letter, dated November 29, reads: We believe there is additional information concerning the Russian Government and the U.S. election that should be […]