President Obama Wednesday backed off a campaign promise to make immigration reform a priority of his first term, saying work on the issue has begun but his agenda is already stretched.
“We want to move this process,” Obama said in a prime-time news conference at the White House. “I’m going to be moving it as quickly as I can — I’ve been accused of doing too much.”
On the evening of his 100th day in office, Obama met the press in the East Room of the White House for his third formal, nighttime news conference. During the presidential campaign, Obama told the League of United Latin American Citizens that he would make immigration reform a “top priority” in his first year.
Now, faced with two wars, an economic crisis, a flu pandemic and a roster of other issues, the president said on several issues that he already feels stretched thin.
“I’m always amused when I hear these, you know, criticisms of ‘Oh, you know, Obama wants to grow government,” Obama said. “No! I would love a nice, lean portfolio to deal with, but that’s not the hand that’s been dealt to us.”
On the possible swine flu pandemic, the president said he has received no recommendation from health officials to close the border with Mexico or enforce any quarantine, saying that would be like “closing the barn door after the horses are out.”
He urged Americans to take precautions, such as keeping sick kids home from school and asking those who feel sick to avoid public transportation like airplanes.
“We have ramped up screening efforts, as well as made sure that additional supplies are there on the border, so that we can prepare in the eventuality that we have to do more than we’re currently doing,” he said.
Obama, who had hoped to use the occasion to highlight the accomplishments of his first three months in office, detailed efforts being made on the economy, toward closing Guantanamo Bay prison and ending the war in Iraq.
He answered carefully when asked by a reporter whether the prior administration used torture.
The president has called waterboarding torture, and recently released a series of Bush administration-era memos detailing the use of waterboarding on detainees.
But so far, Obama has remained circumspect about whether prosecution is justified, and has not criticized former President Bush directly, despite intense pressure from some in the Democratic Party.
“I believe that waterboarding was torture,” Obama said. “And I think that whatever legal rationales were used, it was a mistake.”
Obama said he has read the classified documents that former Vice President Dick Cheney called on the government to release, purportedly detailing useful information gleaned from using enhanced interrogation methods on detainees.
“The public justifications for these techniques, which is that we got information from these individuals … doesn’t answer the core question, which is could we have gotten that same information without resorting to these techniques?” Obama said. “And it doesn’t answer the broader question, are we safer as a consequence of having used those techniques?”
Obama, who formally ended the use of such interrogation techniques, said nothing he’s seen in 100 days has made him second-guess that decision.
