With the House of Representatives on the verge of passing its "Deport As Many Children As Possible As Quickly As Possible Act of 2014" before heading off for their August recess, President Obama is scheduled to deliver a statement from the White House briefing room at 2:35 PM ET. You can tune in in the livestream above and we'll provide updates throughout.
11:46 AM PT: Here's the president, who says he'll take questions. He starts on an upbeat note on the economy: "We are now on a 6-month streak of 200,000 or more jobs per month—that's the first time that's happened since 1996."
11:47 AM PT: "The good news is the economy is clearly getting stronger. [...] Unfortunately, there are a series of steps that we could be taking [...] that would result in more job growth, higher incomes [...] and so far at least in Congress, we have not seen them willing or able to take these steps."
11:48 AM PT: Of the steps that could help the economy, Obama says "All of them have been blocked by Republicans in Congress." So he's naming names.
11:49 AM PT: On immigration: Instead of working in bipartisan fashion, "House Republicans are trying to pass the most extreme version" of their border legislation.
11:51 AM PT: President Obama mocks the GOP for on the one hand suing him for acting on his own, but on the other hand telling him to deal with immigration on his own.
11:52 AM PT: Obama rattles off a litany of things Republicans in Congress have failed to deal with: Student loans, infrastructure, minimum wage, diplomatic nominations.
11:53 AM PT: "Bottom-line: We have come a long way of the last five and a half years," but "we could much further along [...] if Congress would do the job they were sent here to do."
11:54 AM PT: Before taking questions, he ends with: "Congress should stop standing in the way of our country's success."
11:59 AM PT: In response to first question, Obama says U.S. condemned Hamas for killing Israeli soldiers after ceasefire and supports Israel's right to defend itself, but says Israel needs to do more to protect innocent civilians in Gaza, and says he believes a ceasefire is the best way to do that, followed by diplomatic negotiations on the underlying issues involved in the conflict.
12:00 PM PT:
I am
very concerned Obama's #tone towards the House GOP might discourage them from working with him.
— @SimonMaloy
12:06 PM PT: Next question is about whether the U.S. has lost his influence and whether President Obama himself has personally lost his ability to influence the world. In response to this poignant inquiry (from CBS reporter Bill Plante), Obama somehow restrains himself from either slugging the reporter or walking from the podium or even doubling over in laughter. Instead, he points out that sometimes you don't see results overnight, and that even though the U.S. hasn't resolved every conflict in the world that it has sought to resolve, it would remain dedicated to working towards resolving those conflict.
12:08 PM PT: And Fox's Wendel Goler follows up Plante's genius question by asking the president whether he believes he deserves any of the blame for the GOP's inability to get anything done.
12:10 PM PT: Obama's answer comes down to: Dude, we got a bipartisan bill through the Senate. (Remember, Marco Rubio was the lead GOP sponsor of that bill.) Yet the House Republicans refused to pass the bill, which means Republicans disagree with Republicans and can't get their own act together. So what the fuck do you think?
Of course, he didn't use those exact words. But that's still basically what he said.
12:14 PM PT:
Mr. President, Dick Morris said yesterday that he anticipates you will resign. do you have any comment?
— @samsteinhp
12:33 PM PT: Final question goes back to the fighting in Israel and Gaza, and President Obama once again calls for a ceasefire. He then tacked on a couple of comments about John Brennan, saying he maintains confidence in Brennan. He acknowledges that we tortured in the wake of 9/11, and says it was wrong. "We crossed a line [with torture], and that has to be understood." He also answered a question about next week's US-Africa summit (which I'm sure set off alarm bells in Donald Trump's head), and talked about his desire to expand America's relationship with Africa as an economic and security partner. On the Ebola outbreak, he says the CDC is working with the WHO to respond to it. He says anyone attending the summit who had any risk of Ebola exposure is being screened.
From a political point of view, the real headline out of this press conference is that President Obama is taking aim at House GOP obstruction, and is doing so with a clear eye to the November elections. He's still trying to root his appeal in bipartisan terms, but he's done pretending the House Republicans have demonstrated any interest whatsoever in working with him. It was quite a contrast from the early days of his term when he was loathe to ever suggest that Republicans were obstructing him or were acting in bad faith. And it's something we'll be seeing a lot more of for sure over the next few months.