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Ben Wolfgang

Ben Wolfgang

bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com

Ben Wolfgang is a national security correspondent at The Washington Times, a senior member of its Threat Status team, and the host and producer of the award-winning Threat Status Podcast. Ben covers national security, foreign policy, military affairs, the defense industry and the rapidly evolving landscape of military technology.
A Pennsylvania native, he joined The Washington Times in 2011 after serving as a political reporter at The Republican-Herald in Pottsville, Pa. Over the course of his career, Ben has covered the White House, Congress, and four presidential campaigns.
His reporting has earned recognition from some of journalism's most respected organizations, including the Virginia Press Association and the Society of Professional Journalists' Washington, D.C. Chapter, among other honors.
Ben has interviewed heads of state, chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, senior military commanders, cabinet secretaries, senior government officials, and the CEOs of many of the nation's largest and most influential defense companies.
Ben is a frequent guest on broadcast media, with appearances on C-SPAN, the Sirius XM POTUS channel, and other outlets.
He can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Ben Wolfgang

** FILE ** In Wednesday, this June 18, 2014, file photo, boys wait for medical appointments in a holding area where hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children were being processed and held at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Nogales Placement Center in Nogales, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, Pool)

White House promises enforcement surge on border

The Obama administration promised an enforcement "surge" on the southwest border last week to combat the flood of children and families trying to get into the U.S. illegally, saying that adding more judges to decide cases will allow the government to kick people out of the country faster.

June 20, 2014
Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos, front, and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrive to give a joint news conference at the presidential palace in Bogota, Colombia, Wednesday, June 18, 2014. Biden met with Santos just three days after the Colombian president won re-election in what was widely seen as an endorsement of talks to end the Western Hemisphere's last sizable armed conflict. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)

Biden botches World Cup history in Colombia

He was trying to pay Colombia a compliment, but Vice President Joseph R. Biden instead reminded the South American nation Wednesday of its painful recent past in World Cup soccer.

June 19, 2014
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, right, shakes hands with Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos after giving a joint news conference at the presidential palace in Bogota, Colombia, Wednesday, June 18, 2014. Biden met with Santos just three days after the Colombian president won re-election in what was widely seen as an endorsement of talks to end the Western Hemisphere's last sizable armed conflict. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)

On Colombia visit, Biden lauds ‘a nation transformed’

Praising Colombia's efforts to improve human rights and end ongoing conflicts with armed rebels, Vice President Joseph R. Biden on Wednesday described the South American country as "a nation transformed" and vowed that the U.S. will work closely with newly re-elected Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

June 18, 2014
** FILE ** Work has begun on the Keystone XL pipeline near Winona, Texas, but whether it will ever carry oil sands from central Canada to Gulf Coast refineries awaits a decision by President Obama. (Tyler [Texas] Morning Telegraph via Associated Press)

Senate panel clears bill to build Keystone XL pipeline

A Senate committee voted Wednesday to cut President Obama out of the process to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline, but another powerful Democrat still stands in the way of the project — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

June 18, 2014
Sen. John Barrasso, Wyoming Republican, has called Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. an Obama "puppet." (Associated Press)

Congress aims to bypass Obama on Keystone pipeline

The movement to bypass President Obama and approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline through congressional action has more momentum than ever, with a key Senate committee set to vote later this week on a bill to greenlight the massive Canada-to-Texas project.

June 16, 2014
Progressive populist: To her supporters, Sen. Elizabeth Warren gives a voice to frustrated voters who feel the leaders of both major political parties are too closely aligned with the rich and powerful. (Associated Press)

Elizabeth Warren assumes helm of populist wing of Democratic Party

She has flatly stated she won't run for president in 2016, but Sen. Elizabeth Warren nonetheless is emerging as one of her party's most influential members, armed with a potent message of economic populism that has rapidly made her a hero to many on the progressive left.

June 15, 2014
FILE - In this photo taken June 14, 2014, President Barack Obama speaks at the University of California, Irvine, at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif., where he told the graduating class that denying climate change is like arguing the moon is made of cheese, and issued a call to action on global warming. Obama's new pollution limits for power plants have set off an avalanche of information about what the rules will cost, how they’ll affect your health, and how far they’ll go toward curbing climate change. There’s just one problem: almost none of the estimates are is based in reality. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Obama orders striking employees back to work

Regional rail lines in greater Philadelphia were back up and running Sunday after President Obama stepped into a dispute between labor and management and ordered more than 400 engineers and electricians back to work.

June 15, 2014
Drones are about to be used for much more than military missions, and states already are preparing. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

PRIVACY: States not waiting for feds on drone privacy

The Obama administration is far behind schedule integrating drones into the national airspace and lawmakers on Capitol Hill are struggling to move legislation governing the craft, but a dozen states already have enacted regulations and laid out in detail how drones can and can't be used by law enforcement agencies and other entities.

June 12, 2014
White House principal deputy press secretary Josh Earnest speaks to the media during the daily news briefing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, June 10, 2014. Earnest answered questions including on the recent soldier deaths in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

White House outing of CIA officer results in no punishments

After inadvertently outing the CIA's top officer in Kabul last month, White House Counsel Neil Eggleston has recommended specific changes to administration protocol while the president is traveling abroad. However, a White House spokesman also said that nobody has been punished for naming the individual in a release that goes to hundreds of U.S. and foreign news outlets.

June 11, 2014
President Barack Obama listens to a question submitted on Tumblr, read by Tumblr Founder and CEO David Karp, left, during a Tumblr forum, Tuesday, June 10, 2014, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Obama says America ‘should be ashamed’ of its gun laws

Despite virtually no legislation on gun control and little hope for a breakthrough, President Obama made clear this week he still sees the issue as a top priority in his second term, publicly chastising lawmakers and gun-rights advocates and telling them they "should be ashamed" of U.S. firearms laws.

June 10, 2014