President Obama sat with Michael Shear and Jackie Chalmers for a rare interview that covered topics such as the economy, the President’s ongoing issues with Congress as well as the racial tensions in the United States.
During the forty minute interview, Obama minced no words when speaking of Congress trying to block every legislative move that he has tried to make, in saying, “But there’s not an action that I take that you don’t have some folks in Congress who say that I’m usurping my authority. Some of those folks think I usurp my authority by having the gall to win the presidency. And I don’t think that’s a secret. But ultimately, I’m not concerned about their opinions — very few of them, by the way, are lawyers, much less constitutional lawyers.”
And even though the economy has shown improvement ever since he gave his last interview with the Times, the President reiterated that he must continue to take action in order to prevent the economic recovery from halting, considering the sequester cuts as well as the budget battles that he continues to have with Republicans in Congress.
He also predicted that if there was an economic slowdown, this could result in an increase of racial tensions as people will feel as if “they need to compete with other groups in order to get scraps from a shrinking pot”.
With Obama giving this interview after almost three years, it seems noteworthy as he has been known to and criticised for keeping the press at a distance – rarely making himself available for questioning in the past.