The time is nearing for a potentially definitive U.S. response to
alleged Syrian government atrocities and an increasingly violent
military crackdown in Egypt, President Barack Obama said in an exclusive
interview broadcast Friday on CNN's "New Day."
The U.S. remains "one indispensable nation" in the volatile Middle East and elsewhere, Obama told "New Day" anchor Chris Cuomo.
"We have to think through strategically what's going to be in our long term national interests."
Asked by Cuomo whether
the U.S. government is now facing a "more abbreviated time frame" on key
decisions in Egypt and Syria, Obama repeatedly gave a one-word
response: yes.
The president sat down
with Cuomo on Thursday evening -- after having delivered a speech in
Syracuse, New York -- to discuss a wide range of critical domestic and
international issues. These included upheavals abroad, soaring college
tuition at home, a possible government shutdown this fall, and
politically sensitive revelations of illegal surveillance by the
National Security Agency.
Asked about claims by anti-regime activists in Syria that Bashar al-Assad's government used chemical weapons in an attack
that was said to have killed more than 1,300 people, Obama responded
that officials are "right now gathering information" and that "what
we've seen indicates that this is clearly a big event of grave concern."
"It is very troublesome," the president stressed.
Obama said U.S.
officials are pushing "to prompt better action" from the United Nations,
and are calling on the Syrian government to allow an investigation of
the site of the alleged attack outside Damascus.
"We don't expect cooperation (from the Syrian government), given their past history," Obama conceded.
He quickly followed up
with a warning, however, that "core national interests" of the U.S. are
now involved in Syria's civil war, "both in terms of us making sure that
weapons of mass destruction are not proliferating, as well as needing
to protect our allies, our bases in the region."
A new push on college affordability
Obama spoke to CNN on the first day of a bus tour selling his new higher education affordability proposal,
which includes a plan to create a college ratings system designed to
better inform parents and students while pressuring colleges and
universities to lower skyrocketing tuition costs.
The president told Cuomo
that the rapidly rising cost of a college education has been fueled
both by liberals who haven't demanded that colleges control costs, and
conservatives who downplay the burden placed on students.
"The problem we've got
right now is that when it comes to liberals, they've tended to say,
'Let's just give more money to the system and increase student loans and
grants and aid,'" Obama argued. "And then, you know, you've got some on
the right who've said, 'Money doesn't matter, and young people should
be able to figure it out on their own.'"
In 2011, students owed an average of nearly $27,000 in loans, making it second only to mortgages in consumer debt.
Lawmakers on Capitol
Hill recently struck a deal maintaining current low interest rates on
loans. Higher education loan rates are now tied to the market rates,
however, which means they will rise in the future.
Obama called the
congressional compromise a "stop-gap measure" that doesn't deal with the
underlying problems of rising costs of higher education.
Pressure for tougher action on Syria
Cuomo asked Obama to
respond to harsh criticism from his 2008 presidential rival, Arizona GOP
Sen. John McCain, who recently argued on "New Day" that America's credibility in the region has been damaged by a slow administration response in both Syria and Egypt.
"I am sympathetic to
Senator McCain's passion for helping people work through what is an
extraordinarily difficult and heartbreaking situation, both in Syria and
in Egypt," Obama replied.
"But what I think the
American people also expect me to do as president is to think through
what we do from the perspective of what is in our long term national
interests."
Obama warned against
getting "mired in very difficult situations ... (and) being drawn into
very expensive, difficult, costly interventions that actually breed more
resentment in the region."
Cuomo noted it has now
been a year since Obama first said the use of chemical weapons in Syria
would cross a "red line" and force a tough U.S. response.
Administration officials
confirmed in June that chemical agents were used in April, resulting in
an uptick of military aid to rebels that did little to assuage White
House critics.
"If the U.S. goes in and
attacks another country without a U.N. mandate and without clear
evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of
whether international law supports it," Obama told Cuomo.
"Do we have the coalition to make it work?" he asked. "You know, those are considerations that we have to take into account."
The costs of military
action "have to take those into account as we try to work within an
international framework to do everything we can to see Assad ousted,"
Obama concluded.
The crisis in Egypt
Cuomo also asked Obama
about a growing congressional push to cut off over $1.2 billion in U.S.
aid to the military-backed government in Egypt, where a military
crackdown on supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsy has resulted
in the killing of roughly 900 people.
So far, the Pentagon has
canceled upcoming military exercises and delayed the delivery of
fighter jets, and is reviewing all other aspects of assistance,
including military and economic help.
"My sense ... with Egypt
is that the aid itself may not reverse what the interim government
does," Obama said. "But I think what most Americans would say is that we
have to be very careful about being seen as aiding and abetting actions
that we think run contrary to our values and our ideals."
The president said the
administration is currently "doing a full evaluation of the
U.S.-Egyptian relationship," and that there is "no doubt that we can't
return to business as usual, given what's happened."
"There was a space right
after Mr. Morsy was removed in which we did a lot of heavy lifting and a
lot of diplomatic work to try to encourage the military to move in a
path of reconciliation," the president added. But "they did not take
that opportunity."
A looming fight with congressional Republicans
Obama was slightly less
diplomatic in his discussion of politics back in Washington, where a
number of GOP congressional critics are spoiling for a fight this fall
over the possibility of a partial government shutdown after September 30
and the need to raise the federal debt limit.
Specifically,
conservatives in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives are
debating using both issues as leverage to force new budget cuts and
defund Obamacare, the president's signature health care reform law.
"There is nobody out
there who thinks that us not paying bills we've already racked up is
good for the economy (or) is appropriate," Obama argued. "Nobody thinks
that. So why are we even talking about?"
As for shutting down the
government, that's "bad for not just people who work for the
government, but all the contractors ... and the defense folks and
everybody who is impacted by the services that they receive from the
federal government," Obama said.
But "Republicans, after having taken 40 votes to try to get rid of Obamacare, see this as their last gasp."
The NSA and privacy concerns
Asked about the latest
revelation that the National Security Agency inadvertently pulled some
Americans' e-mails, Obama argued that the news shows "all these
safeguards, checks, audits, (and) oversight worked."
Obama said he is
confident no one at the NSA is "trying to abuse this program or listen
in on people's e-mail." But he said there are "legitimate concerns that
people have" regarding rapidly changing surveillance technology.
"There's no doubt that,
for all the work that's been done to protect the American people's
privacy, the capabilities of the NSA are scary to people," Obama said.
"What I recognize is
that we're going to have to continue to improve the safeguards. And as
technology moves forward, that means that we may be able to build
technologies that give people more assurance," he added
The Washington Post
reported last week that an internal audit of the NSA found the agency
had broken privacy rules "thousands of times each year" since 2008.
The 2012 audit, the Post
reported, found 2,776 incidents of "unauthorized collection, storage,
access to or distribution of legally protected communications" in the
preceding 12 months.
The newspaper received
the internal audit from NSA leaker Edward Snowden, who sparked the
controversy over domestic surveillance when he first stepped forward in
June.
An empty nest and a new dog
Asked about life at home
at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Obama said he's starting to brace himself
for the day when his daughters, Sasha and Malia, head off to college.
"What I'm discovering is
that each year, I get more excited about spending time with them," the
president said. But "they get a little less excited" about spending time
with their parents.
The first couple is dealing with the change in part with the help of a new dog -- a Portuguese water dog named Sunny.
"I think there is an
element from Michelle and me, we see what's coming, and we need to make
sure that we have somebody who greets us at the door when we get home,"
Obama noted.
The Obamas also have another Portuguese water dog, Bo, who was brought by the first family to the White House in 2009
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