President Obama "goes further than he has before" in explaining "the balance between security and freedom," the Charlie Rose Show tweeted to hype its 45-minute interview that airs Monday night. And while a leaked transcript shows Obama does go into further detail than he has before, we've already heard most of these defenses. This is what they sound like this week.
Instead of putting pressure on Obama and the White House, which immediately rejected and then announced its intention to veto the idea, Plan B has brought more attention to infighting among Republicans.
In a press conference at the White House, the president formally announced a commission led by Vice President Joe Biden to draft a set of "concrete proposals no later than January" — a strong pledge that acknowledged a countrywide debate over the past week.
If the White House won't buy the House Republicans' backup plan, does that mean it's time for fiscal cliff panic?
Bork, considered one of the leading conservative constitutional scholars of his time, died in Virginia of heart complications, his contentious confirmation hearing to the Supreme Court leaving twin legacies.
On the same day that Obama backed a new ban on assault weapons, the NRA promised to offer "meaningful contributions" after 20 children were gunned down in their elementary school. So, what, you expect a wave of pro-gun control Republicans to suddenly appear?
White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Obama is "actively supportive" of Sen. Dianne Feinstein's bill to reinstate the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004. Will it be enough?
The gun lobby will soon break its public silence on the school shooting, Fox News reports. Here's an early indication of its plan.
There comes a point in every gun control debate when certain people feel the need to establish their Real American bona fides. The funny thing is, these certain people are also from New York City, or worse, Washington, D.C.
Within hours of its being floated publicly, the White House has already rejected House Speaker John Boehner's backup plan on the fiscal-cliff negotiations.
House Speaker John Boehner announced in a press conference Tuesday morning that he's suddenly pushing for a backup plan, which he also hopes will prod President Obama into a better deal for conservatives.
Even as reports surface that he has asked his cabinet to look into an assault-weapons ban and that an old Justice Department report may be back on the table, the president could use executive orders to impose some gun restrictions — today.
The senior ranking member of the Senate passed away at the age of 88.
As the gun debate reaches a fevered pitch, from Washington to Twitter to Newtown and back again, in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shootings, here is some much needed context.
A new e-book offers more insight into Romney's micomanagement approach to politics, and the three big ways in which it failed him.
Politicians are more willing to talk about gun control after the Connecticut massacre of 20 first graders and six of their teachers, but is there any chance legislation could pass the House?
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley will announce whom she's picked to replace Sen. Jim DeMint in a press conference Monday at noon, and The New York Times now reports that person will be Rep. Tim Scott.
Here's a tally of public figures who've called for a change in the wake of the tragedy. Or not.
It's been an emotional day for everyone: President Obama teared up while delivering a statement to the press on the Newtown school shooting Friday afternoon, pausing for several seconds and wiping under his eye while talking about the children who died.
In the wake of the Newtown school shooting — and a year full of gun violence — it's worth remembering that the NRA's favorite laws are passing.
On Friday, the TMZ cycle whirled on, when Romney's name got pulled into a petty crime. A man wearing a Romney mask robbed a bank in Sterling, Virginia, Point Break-style.
With more and more states legalizing marijuana, President Obama's administration hasn't said how it will reconcile federal laws against it, but in a new interview with ABC News's Barbara Walters, the president said he has "bigger fish to fry."
Mitt Romney lost women voters by 12 percentage points, but he lost women donors by way more.
Despite the Justice Department getting ready to enforce and the Senate ready for a hearing, it's a little funny that legalization really could spread the way dorm room stoners always imagined: states will figure out they can make lots of money taxing weed.
McCain's campaign to block Rice's appointment was as strange as it was successful. Here's a timeline of the big moments that forced Rice to withdraw her name from consideration for Secretary of State on Thursday afternoon — and probably now make John Kerry the frontrunner.
On Facebook Thursday afternoon South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley launched a fierce counter-counterattack to Stephen Colbert's counter-attack to Haley's Facebook attack last week. It involves salamanders.
Former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel is "likely" to be named the next Secretary of Defense by President Obama, Bloomberg is now reporting. Here's what to expect out of him.
In this time of great partisan fighting, there is one arena in which we are seeing a great breakthrough: Leaders inside and outside government, on both the right and the left, are publicly saying they refuse to work with "assholes."
Everyone seemed to ignored one thing that made Boehner's Thursday press conference new and special: a chart — from Paul Ryan, no less.
Some House Republicans are openly criticizing Speaker John Boehner, but right now, the threat that he could actually be deposed of his speakership remains small. So where's the mutiny coming from, exactly?
The unusual chain of events — and a series of press releases — are a little hard to follow, so here's a timeline that seems straight out of Homeland.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has revealed his intention to run on a WikiLeaks party ticket in 2013, and his chances aren't as slim as you might imagine — despite his residence in Ecuador following allegations of rape in Sweden.
An unpaid intern for New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez was arrested for being an illegal immigrant on December 6, because Homeland Security asked federal agents to delay the arrest until after the election, the Associated Press reports.
Why is the fiscal cliff so boring? It's not because it's about math. But whether or not you freak out over tax hikes depends on what you think about how many details Republicans have made public. A guide.
Forget for a moment whether they were true or not, and that one of them earned the title of "Lie of the Year" today. When it came to the biggest expenditure of his presidential campaign — TV ads — the technocratic and data-loving Mitt Romney allowed his campaign to waste a shocking amount of money.
Mitt Romney's campaign ad claiming President Obama "sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China" — implying Ohio jobs were being shipped overseas — has been awarded PolitiFact's dubious achievement.
John Heilemann and Mark Halperin are writing a followup to their 2008 bestseller, but this sequel is unlikely to be as thrilling as Terminator 2. (Paul Ryan is no Sarah Palin.)
His campaign may be correct that it's the media's fault that he didn't win his Senate race in Indiana, as it claimed in a fundraising email. If the media hadn't reported that he actually said rape pregnancies are a "gift from God," he might have won.
The South Carolina governor is thinking about replacing Sen. Jim DeMint with the ex-wife of Mark Sanford, who was governor when he disappeared on 2009 to "hike the Appalachian trial" while actually cheating on her with an Argentinian.
Thirteen years of history might not have happened, because of jerks, the host revealed at a recent fundraiser.
Five weeks after its losses in the election, the Republican Party is still trying to figure out how to talk to people who aren't older white males. So far, the strategy has crystallized to look something like this.
The most wonderful time of the year is also the time of the year in which we are bombarded with the most sexist commercials on television. Let's take a stroll through the Ghosts of Christmas Jewelry Ads Past.
John McCain is going to join a Senate committee just in time to vet Susan Rice, or whomever President Obama nominates for Secretary of State.
SNL's image of a "poor orange man" who needs to be left alone may be funny, but it may not be true: Georgia Rep. Tom Price isn't quite coming for John Boehner's speakership, even if some of the House GOP is coming for his head.
It's a sign that maybe there's an emerging conservative consensus, given the growing number of Republican lawmakers suggesting the party should cave on lettings tax rates go up for the top 2 percent of income earners.
The White House has released a photo of President Obama accepting Mitt Romney's concession call on Election Night, which is cool for historical purposes, but the thing you can't help but notice is how skinny the president has gotten.
The Fox News host continued his misguided fight Thursday night. When will he see the light?
Stephen Colbert has launched a Twitter campaign to replace the departing senator. And the problem is not that Colbert isn't qualified. It's that he's too qualified.
It's a little tricky to talk about this — the history Tim Scott might help start to re-write for the GOP as its only black Congressman turned Senator — without dwelling too much on the history of affirmative action... and South Carolina.
The South Carolina leader is quitting the Senate to run the conservative think tank that invented Obamacare. And if you take a look into his past, well, this guy really hates Obamacare.
Even though we don't know what's going on behind closed doors in the fiscal cliff negotiations — or on the phone lines (they talked!) — we can measure progress on the fight in a couple clear ways.
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