Susan Crabtree

White House downplays meeting with Muslim Brotherhood

The White House is downplaying the significance of a meeting between administration officials and envoys from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood this week.

April 5, 2012

Hoodie-wearing pastor attends White House Easter breakfast

A Chicago bishop attending an Easter prayer breakfast at the White House on Wednesday was wearing a hoodie in apparent solidarity with Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager who was fatally shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Florida.

April 4, 2012

Obama takes a break for some bipartisanship

President Obama this week is showcasing two bipartisan bills he helped power over the finish line in Congress, inviting Republicans to the White House to celebrate one of the few brief moments of bipartisan unity in a politically contentious election year.

April 4, 2012

GOP mocks Obama’s ‘Darwinism’ attack

Kicking his campaign into high gear, President Obama on Tuesday said Republicans' vision of smaller government and lower taxes for the wealthy amounts to "thinly veiled social Darwinism," and cast his own fiscal blueprint, with its higher spending and taxes, as the way to sustain the social safety net.

April 3, 2012

Obama warns ‘unelected’ justices on health care

President Obama on Monday warned the Supreme Court against overturning his health care law and said he is "confident" the justices won't.

April 2, 2012

Obama clears Iran oil sanctions

President Obama on Friday signed off on tough new sanctions aimed at hitting Iran's oil exports, after determining there is enough crude supplies in the world market that taking the step won't harm U.S. allies or drive gas prices even higher.

March 30, 2012

Obama’s campaign cash haul trailing pace of ‘08

With the president's re-election fundraising drive thus far coming up short of his record-breaking 2008 pace, Team Obama — with the president and first lady Michelle Obama in the lead — is pushing hard to pump up the money figures ahead of Saturday's financial-reporting deadline.

March 29, 2012

Senate rejects Obama demand for end to oil tax breaks

President Obama on Thursday called for Congress to jettison $4 billion in annual subsidies to oil and gas companies, but minutes later the Senate blocked just such a proposal.

March 29, 2012

Boehner to Obama: Clarify your hot mic comments to Medvedev

With President Obama back in the U.S. after his trip to South Korea, Speaker John Boehner sent him a letter demanding answers about comments he made to the president of Russia earlier this week,which were caught on a hot mic.

March 28, 2012

Obama, Pakistani prime minister focus on ‘dialogue’

The White House was tight-lipped about the details of a Tuesday meeting between President Obama and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the status of negotiations over the CIA's drone campaign against al Qaeda in Pakistan.

March 27, 2012

Critics hit Obama’s energy move

President Obama's recent invitation to open an area in Alaska to energy drilling is playing to poor reviews from industry leaders and administration critics, who say the move is an attempt to mislead the public about the administration's willingness to open federal lands to more oil and gas production.

March 26, 2012

Obama weighs in on black teenager’s killing

President Obama weighed in for the first time on the killing of black teenager Trayvon Martin Friday in very personal terms, calling it a tragedy and urging the country to do "some soul-searching" about why it occurred.

March 23, 2012

Critics rip Obama claim that drilling in U.S. won’t drop gas prices

President Obama has been touring the country this week touting increased oil and gas production numbers during his time in office — but his selective quotes and figures tell only part of the story.

March 22, 2012

Obama to visit four states for damage control on energy issues

President Obama hits the road this week to try to shake off two persistent political liabilities — Keystone XL and Solyndra — and their ongoing damage to his re-election hopes.

March 20, 2012

Obama to visit DMZ during South Korea trip

President Obama plans to visit the demilitarized zone dividing North and South Korea on Sunday before an international nuclear summit in Seoul, according to a senior administration official.

March 20, 2012

Small office has big job as monitor of ethics in the House

To many Washington outsiders, congressional ethics is an oxymoron or fodder for late-night comedians, but watchdogs and longtime Washington observers point to one hopeful sign — an office they believe is helping members take ethics rules more seriously.

March 19, 2012

Obama grabs power on handling terror suspects

Although President Obama has failed to fulfill two campaign promises related to the war on terror — finding a quick exit strategy in Afghanistan and closing the Guantanamo Bay prison — he managed to carve himself some wiggle room when it comes to handling terror suspects.

March 13, 2012

Obama touts economy in North Carolina speech

One day after Super Tuesday, President Obama traveled to the swing state of North Carolina and doubled-down on his call for cutting tax subsidies for oil and gas companies in an ongoing attempt to cast Republicans as out of touch with middle-class workers.

March 7, 2012

Obama lags when it comes to meeting the press

Despite his pledge to run the most open and transparent White House in history, President Obama has held the exact same number of formal news conferences as his immediate predecessor and far fewer than the two presidents before that.

March 6, 2012

Obama rails at GOP candidates for ‘beating the drums of war’

In the first news conference of his re-election year, President Obama tried Tuesday to appeal to several key groups of voters — assuring the war-weary he's reluctant to launch attacks in Iran and Syria, praising women for supporting contraception, and promising Hispanics he'll achieve immigration reform if they vote out Republicans.