Obama Considering Address to Nation on Syria
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Anton Denisov/Host Photo Agency via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — President Obama is considering a high-profile address to the nation on the need for military intervention in Syria — a speech that could come as early as this week — according to top lawmakers and administration officials.
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said on Thursday that there is no speech planned at this point, but that Obama is looking at “multiple opportunities” to make the case directly to Congress and the American people.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that he has “no doubt” the president will make a speech from the Oval Office in the coming days.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., also said on Wednesday that Obama would make a direct appeal to the American public on Syria “probably later this week.”
Obama is expected to return to Washington from Russia and the G-20 summit late Friday night. His weekend schedule has not been announced.
The White House on Thursday cancelled Obama’s planned overnight trip to California on Monday, when he was to address the AFL-CIO conference and attend a Democratic fundraiser. Also on Monday, Congress officially returns to Washington from its summer recess.
“I think the president needs to sit in the Oval Office, look at every American in the eye, and explain the reason why this is important,” Menendez said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “And I think he’ll do that.”
Obama has only given two live televised addresses from the Oval Office — once during the June 2010 BP oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, the other to announce the end of combat operations in Iraq two months later. He has most often preferred to formally address the nation from the stately Cross Hall entrance to the East Room, where he has stood many times, including to announce the death of Osama bin Laden.
Last weekend, Obama announced his decision to take military action against Syria — and seek congressional approval — from a podium in the Rose Garden just outside the Oval Office.
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