@petesouza: Pres Obama walks w Veterans Affairs Sec. Eric Shinseki on the WH south grounds this morning
Posts Tagged ‘Shinseki
30
May
14
The President’s Day
President Obama announces that he has accepted the resignation of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki during a press conference in the Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington
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Deputy Veterans Affairs Secretary Sloan Gibson leaves the White House after being named by President Barack Obama to run the Veterans Affairs Department on an interim basis while President Obama searches for a replacement for Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki who resigned Friday.
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President Barack Obama gives White House press secretary Jay Carney a hug after announcing that Carney will step down later next month, during a surprise visit to the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. The president announced Carney’s departure in a surprise appearance at in the White House press briefing room Friday. He said principal deputy press secretary Josh Earnest will take over the job
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Will miss my friend Jay Carney shown here on Air Force One this week. http://t.co/SNnPaAmUc4
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(@petesouza) May 30, 2025****
Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, share the stage and a laugh during the daily briefing at the White House
President Barack Obama, flanked by Attorney Holder Eric Holder, Education Secretary Arne Duncan,and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker; speaks about a report from “My Brother’s Keeper,” an initiative to expand opportunity for young men and boys of color
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President Barack Obama attends a hurricane preparedness meeting at FEMA Headquarters in Washington, DC
The President’s statement on the resignation of Secretary Shinseki
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Look at the worthless shills, Shinseki did more for his country in a day than they’ll do combined in a lifetime. pic.twitter.com/S5eFz92ilY
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) May 30, 2025
One of the greatest advocates for veterans in this country has been hounded out of office by media and unworthy politicians. It is a sad day
— john miller (@deaconmill) May 30, 2025
30
May
14
Rise and Shine
On This Day:
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Today (all times Eastern)
* President Obama appears on Kelly and Michael - check your local listings here
10:15: President Obama meets with Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, Oval Office
11:0: The President meets with the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force
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11:15 EDT: President Obama Makes a Statement
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1:0: Jay Carney briefs the press
2:15: The President attends a hurricane preparedness meeting, FEMA Headquarters
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O.B.A.M.A - Obviously Better At Managing Adorables. pic.twitter.com/2oIA1RH1nL
— amk4obama (@amk4obama) May 30, 2025
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Fareed Zakaria: Obama’s leadership is right for today
…. Obama is battling a knee-jerk sentiment in Washington in which the only kind of international leadership that means anything is the use of military force. “Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail,” he said in his speech Wednesday at West Point.
A similar sentiment was expressed in the farewell address of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a strong leader who refused to intervene in the Suez crisis, the French collapse in Vietnam, two Taiwan Strait confrontations and the Hungarian uprising of 1956.
At the time, many critics blasted the president for his passivity and wished that he would be more interventionist. A Democratic Advisory Council committee headed by Acheson called Eisenhower’s foreign policy “weak, vacillating, and tardy.” But Eisenhower kept his powder dry, confident that force was not the only way to show strength. “I’ll tell you what leadership is,” he told his speechwriter. “It’s persuasion — and conciliation — and education — and patience . It’s long, slow, tough work. That’s the only kind of leadership I know — or believe in — or will practice.”
Maybe that’s the Obama Doctrine.
Full article here
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Fred Kaplan: Obama Lays Siege to His Critics
President Obama’s speech at West Point on Wednesday morning could be called a tribute to common sense, except that the sense it made is so uncommon. The ensuing cable pundits’ complaints—that it was insufficiently “muscular” or “robust”—only proved how necessary this speech was.
Obama’s point was not (contrary to some commentators’ claims) to draw a “middle-of-the-road” line between isolationism and unilateralism. That’s a line so broad almost anyone could walk it.
The president’s main point was to emphasize that not every problem has a military solution; that the proper measure of strength and leadership is not merely the eagerness to deploy military power; that, in fact, America’s costliest mistakes have stemmed not from restraint but from rushing to armed adventures “without thinking through the consequences, without building international support and legitimacy for our action, without leveling with the American people about the sacrifice required.”
More here
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Graduating cadets listen to President Obama deliver the commencement address at West Point, May 28, 2025 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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NPR: Transcript And Audio: President Obama’s Full NPR Interview
NPR’s Steve Inskeep interviewed President Obama on Wednesday about foreign policy, including his approaches to Syria, Ukraine and China, as well as his remaining White House priorities and his effort to close Guantanamo Bay prison. A full transcript of the interview follows:
STEVE INSKEEP: I want to begin this way. You’re here at this historic place, trying to speak with a sense of history. And I was thinking of past presidents that I know you have studied and commented on. And a couple came to mind who were able to express what they were trying to do in the world in about a sentence. Reagan wanted to roll back communism by whatever means. Lincoln has a famous letter in which he says, I would save the union by the shortest means under the Constitution. As you look at the moment of history that you occupy, do you think you can put into a sentence what you are trying to accomplish in the world?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I’m not sure I can do it in a sentence because we’re fortunate in many ways. We don’t face an existential crisis. We don’t face a civil war. We don’t face a Soviet Union that is trying to rally a bloc of countries and that could threaten our way of life. Instead, what we have is, as I say in the speech, this moment in which we are incredibly fortunate to have a strong economy that is getting stronger, no military peer that threatens us, no nation-state that anytime soon intends to go to war with us. But we have a world order that is changing very rapidly and that can generate diffuse threats, all of which we have to deal with.
More here
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My Brother’s Keeper Task Force Report to the President - PDF
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Greg Sargent: GOP retreat on Obamacare continues apace
A new report this morning confirms that House Republicans are likely to delay plans to offer an alternative to Obamacare until after the elections; that multiple Republican candidates are retreating from repeal; and that they are increasingly mouthing support for the law’s general goals. Once again: There’s no real policy space for a meaningful alternative, but the base still sees repeal as its lodestar, yet everyone else opposes repeal, forcing Republicans to claim they’d scrap it and replace it with something or other doing all the popular things in it, without saying what.
More here
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Why is it that most of the people calling for Shinseki’s head have never had to deal with VA, while those that have dealt with VA aren’t?
— john miller (@deaconmill) May 30, 2025
McCain is right. Treatment of veterans in Arizona is disgraceful. If only there were a prominent veteran in Arizona who could have helped
— Donald J. Drumpf (@RealDonalDrumpf) May 30, 2025
#maddow I think John McCain should resign. This VA thing happened in his state. Where was he? On the Sunday talkies
— Pat Fuller (@bannerite) May 29, 2025
Huge standing ovation and applause for VASec Shinseki at the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans here at the Hyatt. These guys love him — philewing (@philewing) May 30, 2025
Reporters follow VA Secretary Eric Shinseki after his remarks to The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans pic.twitter.com/6cuFPBSbem — Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) May 30, 2025
Today’s speech: Secretary Shinseki on Homelessness Among Veterans http://t.co/wB1zRH2dTK — meta (@metaquest) May 30, 2025
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Justin Wolfers (NYT): Deceptive Dip in G.D.P. Points to Perils of Election Forecasting
An economic report issued [yesterday] provides a good example of the hazards facing election forecasters. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that in the first quarter of this year, Gross Domestic Product, a broad indicator of the health of the economy, shrank at an annual rate of 1 percent. Even worse, an alternative and more accurate measure, called Gross Domestic Income, shrank at an annual rate of 2.3 percent. If that persisted, we’d call it a sharp recession.
But no one is using the R-word. Nor should they. Markets have taken the news in their stride, and few economists have changed their view that the economy is growing and will continue to through 2014. Likewise, consumers remain confident about their economic prospects. Their confidence rests partly on other indicators that suggested far better growth throughout the quarter, such as nonfarm payrolls, which grew by 569,000 over the same period.
More here
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The 16 questions @NBCNews should have asked Edward Snowden but didn’t. http://t.co/MMFIslVJhY — Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) May 29, 2025
MLK and Marlon Brando pic.twitter.com/ng8S25mzFZ — Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) May 29, 2025
Guys steals 1.7 million documents. Forgets to print out e-mails he exchanged w/NSA officials expressing concerns abt NSA programs #oops — Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) May 30, 2025
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National Journal: Lies, Damn Lies, and Global-Warming Rules
The president is about to take a major step to fight global warming. Here’s what you need to know.
President Obama promised to take action on global warming with or without Congress’s permission. Next week, he’ll tell the world how he plans to do it.
The administration is preparing to release the central pillar of Obama’s climate-change agenda: a proposal for far-reaching rules that will require power companies to cut carbon emissions.
The rules will mark the most significant federal action on climate change since Democrats’ cap-and-trade bill died in the Senate four years ago, and they’re Obama’s best shot at adding broad action on global warming to his legacy.
The rules will also touch off a political war of the first order, offering battleground for environmentalists, industry groups, and politicians to fight over the nation’s energy future.
Here’s what to watch for when the administration pulls back the curtain.
More here
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Must Read: Sandy Hook principal’s daughter on Joe the Plumber’s ‘Dead Kid’ callousness: http://t.co/2XjQfDmdBX #notonemore
— Moms Demand Action (@MomsDemand) May 29, 2025
#gunsense pic.twitter.com/upIaEOb9cq — Pedro (@gabino_58) May 29, 2025
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ThinkProgress: Redskins’ Twitter Campaign To Defend Their Name Goes About As Well As You’d Expect
The Washington Redskins — desperate to defend the name that Native Americans, members of Congress, a majority of the United States Senate, religious leaders, civil rights groups, several current and former NFL players, United Nations Human Rights representatives, and even President Obama have said should be changed because it is a “dictionary-defined” racial slur — started a Twitter campaign to rally support Thursday afternoon.
It started with this tweet asking fans to tell Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has made a habit of chiding the team over its name, how they felt:
More here
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“I’d rather be born black, American, female, in the 20th century, and I was. What luck I have!” —Maya Angelou: http://t.co/uhtdTQ3f33
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 28, 2025
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USA Today: Biden to attend U.S. World Cup soccer match
The United States men’s World Cup soccer team will have a particularly vocal fan when it takes on Ghana next month: Joe Biden.
The vice president will attend the U.S.-Ghana match on June 16 in Natal, Brazil, as part of a trip that will also take him to Colombia and the Dominican Republic as well as Brazil.
More here
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The #Clippers are being purchased by the ex-head of Microsoft, so count on next year’s team being slow, error-prone and full of viruses.
— God (@TheTweetOfGod) May 29, 2025
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I’m not sure whether to love this video, or be freaked out by it:
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I shouldn’t laugh, but:
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On This Day
Sen Obama attends a rally in Great Falls, Montana, whilst campaining in the race for the White House. May 30, 2025
Sen. Obama addresses a rally at The Four Seasons Arena May 30, 2025 in Great Falls, Montana
27
May
14
Rise and Shine
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Today (all times Eastern)
11:15: The President views Science Fair projects, State Dining Room
11:45: Delivers remarks at the White House Science Fair, East Room
1:0: Jay Carney briefs the press
* The First Lady is hosting a discussion with school leaders on nutrition (don’t have the time for the event yet)
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The Week Ahead
Wednesday
The President travels to West Point, New York to deliver the commencement address at the United States Military Academy at West Point
Thursday
The President will host a summit at the White House on youth sports safety and concussions, where he will be joined by stakeholders, including young athletes, parents, coaches, experts, professional athletes, and military service members. At the White House Healthy Kids and Safe Sports Concussion Summit, the President will announce new commitments by both the public and private sectors to raise awareness about how to identify, treat and prevent concussions, and conduct additional research in the field of sports-related concussions that will help us better address these problems
Friday
The President will attend a hurricane preparedness meeting at FEMA Headquarters
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National Memo: VoteVets Chair Jon Soltz: Critics Demanding Shinseki Resignation Are ‘Hypocrites’
Jon Soltz is a co-founder and chairman of VoteVets, a political advocacy group with over 200,000 supporters that is the largest progressive organization of veterans in the United States – and has produced some of the most effective advertising in the last several election cycles…..
Joe Conason: How bad are the problems at the VA?
Jon Soltz: The problems at the VA have always been there. At times they’ve been worse than others. I think part of the reason we’re seeing the backlog right now is that President Obama has opened up the claims process [in the VA health care system] to a lot of people. So he made it easier for a lot of people to make claims. Under previous administrations, you used to have to fight to make a claim if you were a Vietnam veteran affected by Agent Orange, or a Gulf War veteran with Gulf War syndrome…..
Conason: Do you believe that General Eric Shinseki, the VA Secretary, should resign — as some veterans groups have demanded?
Soltz: The only veterans organization making that demand is the American Legion. Nobody else has. I find that hypocritical because they supported a bill that was in the Senate – the $21 billion veterans package sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders – and it was stopped by Mitch McConnell, yet they haven’t called for Mitch McConnell to resign. So there’s obviously a lot of partisan politics here. The issue with General Shinseki is [that] he was right about the Iraq War. It’s sort of unconscionable to fire somebody who is now trying to clean up the mess that was left by a prior administration: All of these new Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were not created by Barack Obama and his administration.
More here
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Pete Souza: White House colonnade, May 26
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Steve Benen: Vets to Burr: ‘You clearly represent the worst of politics’
For Republicans, the politics of the VA scandal were pretty straightforward. All GOP officials had to do was express outrage – an emotion that spanned the partisan and ideological spectrum – and demand that the White House improve the system through which veterans receive care.
But Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, apparently couldn’t leave well enough alone.
The conservative Republican, who never served a day in the military, decided it’d be a good idea to start condemning veterans’ groups that had not yet called for VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign….
It’s hard to know what Burr was thinking. Perhaps the senator assumed he could pressure the veterans’ groups, bullying them into calling for Gen. Shinseki’s ouster. But if that was the Republican’s strategy, it became clear over the weekend that Burr’s gambit did not go according to plan.
More here
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Jonathan Cohn: Obama’s New Rules for Coal Plants Are a B.F.D. The Ensuing Political Fight May Be Even Bigger
Conventional wisdom holds that second term presidencies rarely yield accomplishments and that this second term president, in particular, has lost the ability to get much done. In one week, President Obama has a chance to prove that the conventional wisdom is wrong.
And he can do it while helping to stop the planet from cooking.
On June 2, Obama will to unveil a new set of federal regulations on power plants, designed primarily to keep coal-fired plants from spewing so much carbon into the atmosphere. The hope is that these new regulations will slow down climate change—at first incrementally, by reducing emissions from existing plants in the U.S., and then more dramatically, by providing the Administration with more leverage to negotiate a far-reaching, international treaty on emissions from multiple sources.
Along with other steps the administration has taken, like setting higher fuel standards for cars and trucks, the new regulations could make climate change action one of Obama’s signature achievements—something historians will cite alongside Obamacare, rescue of the auto industry, and the Recovery Act.
More here
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For $50 million/year, you can get the GOP to deny that gun violence & climate change exist. They’ll pretend 2001-08 never happened for free
— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) May 26, 2025
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ThinkProgress: Lawmakers Push For Background Checks After Victim’s Family Slams NRA
After Christopher Michaels-Martinez, 20, died in a shooting near University of California, Santa Barbara, his father blamed the pro-gun lobby’s “craven, irresponsible” politics for preventing legislation that could have saved Christopher’s life. Seven people, including the shooter, died Friday.
“Our family has a message for every parent out there: You don’t think it will happen to your child until it does,” an anguished Richard Martine told reporters. “Why did Chris die? Chris died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA. They talk about gun rights. What about Chris’s right to live? When will this insanity stop? When will enough people say: ‘Stop this madness. We don’t have to live like this?’ Too many have died. We should say to ourselves: Not one more.”
At least five lawmakers and officials have joined the anguished father’s call to confront the NRA, reviving demand for congressional action on gun violence.
More here
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Freaking genius. Hilarious and so horrible. RT @BobbyBigWheel Behold: arguing with gun nuts on Twitter bingo pic.twitter.com/qGwwGWSWsc
— BWD (@theonlyadult) May 26, 2025
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Washington Post: Obama plans trip to Indian reservation, officials say
President Obama is planning to travel to a Native American reservation in North Dakota in June, a rare visit by a sitting U.S. president to Indian country, according to officials familiar with the plans.
The Obama administration has supported a series of measures to improve the welfare of Native Americans. The president has also signed the Tribal Law and Order Act to address the high crime rate in tribal communities and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013, which included a historic provision to allow the nation’s 566 federally recognized tribes to prosecute non-Indians who commit certain crimes of violence against Native women.
More here
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Vincent Harding, 82, civil rights activist http://t.co/58qEP7XyQf via @phillydotcom
— Alycee (@jazziz2) May 27, 2025
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BBC: Nigeria army ‘knows where Boko Haram are holding girls’
The Nigerian military say they know where the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram are but they will not attempt a rescue.
Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff said it was “good news for the parents,” although he admitted the military would not risk “going there with force.”
More than 200 girls were abducted by Boko Haram gunmen from their school in northern Nigeria in April.
Earlier, the BBC learned that a deal to release some of the girls was close but was called off by the government.
More here
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@WhiteHouse: “Today, we pause to remember our fallen troops, to mourn their loss & to pray for their loved ones.” — President Obama
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UK Independent: European elections 2014: Will surge in support for far right parties bring down the EU and its governments?
So is the bloc’s implosion just a matter of time?
Hardly. Despite the blustering rhetoric from Ms Le Pen and Nigel Farage, pro-European forces still dominate the 751-seat parliament.
The centre-right European People’s Party has 213 seats in current projections, and the Socialists and Democrats group – which includes Labour MEPs – has 190 seats. Combine that with the 117 seats shared between the Liberals and the Greens, and there is a clear majority of moderates. These parties are also united in their abhorrence of the extreme right, so have extra incentive to form alliances to block the influence of the fringe parties.
Who exactly are these fringe parties that have made the gains?
More here
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Would you vote on your wedding day? Ukrainians did! https://t.co/mrOgb7Uxv0 |EMPR #UkraineVotes #ukraineelections pic.twitter.com/aopPH4yBqg
— Euromaidan PR (@EuromaidanPR) May 27, 2025
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The right of others to easily purchase guns is more important than your right not to be killed by them. #IAmTheNRA
— God (@TheTweetOfGod) May 25, 2025
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@TheObamaDiary The future is now. pic.twitter.com/IJUzX9SR6Q
— Nelson (@Yardarm756DD) May 27, 2025
:-)
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On This Day
Sen. Obama greets supporter Peggy Pound of Nevada after speaking about home foreclosures at the College of Southern Nevada May 27, 2025
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President Obama appears in front of a bank of solar panels as he speaks about using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to invest in solar energy May 27, 2025 at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada
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President Obama receives a jersey from players Brian Zoubek and Jon Scheyer of the Duke Blue Devils during a Rose Garden event May 27, 2025 at the White House
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From left: First Lady Michelle Obama; Brenda Linnington, the wife of U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Michael S. Linnington, the commanding general of the Military District of Washington; Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel; Hagel’s wife, Lilibet; Deanie Dempsey; and Dempsey’s husband, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stand by as President Barack Obama, second from right, and Linnington, right, arrive for a Memorial Day wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, May 27, 2025
President Obama hugs a relative of a family member buried at section 60 in Arlington Cemetery, May 27, 2025
First Lady Michelle Obama greet visitors to Section 60 on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery, May 27, 2025
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MoooOOOooorning! Completely ran out of time so missing lots of news - will try to catch up through the day.
26
May
14
Honoring Heroes
President Barack Obama places a wreath at the Tomb of the Unkowns at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day
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President Barack Obama speaks during Memorial Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia
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Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, and President Barack Obama, stand as the National Anthem is played during a Memorial Day Observance at Arlington National Cemetery
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David Jackson: President Obama Honors Veterans ‘Who Gave Their All’
President Obama on Monday honored all the Americans who have given their lives for their country, from the Civil War of a century-and-a-half ago to the Afghanistan war that is wrapping up this year. In Memorial Day remarks delivered a day after a surprise visit to Afghanistan, Obama said the U.S. troops there “are coming home” from the conflict that began a month after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “By the end of this year, our war in Afghanistan will finally come to an end,” Obama said during the annual Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. During his speech, Obama praised veterans from all the nation’s wars. “Everything that we hold precious in this country was made possible by Americans who gave their all,” Obama said.
"Let us never forget their service and always be worthy of the sacrifices made in our name." —President Obama #MemorialDay
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Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 26, 2025The president delivered his Memorial Day speech just four hours after his return to the White House. During his Sunday trip to Afghanistan, Obama received a briefing from commanders at Bagram Air Force, spoke at a rally for the troops, and visited wounded warriors at the base hospital. Shortly after arriving back at the White House early Monday morning, Obama hosted a Memorial Day breakfast. Guests included senior members of the military leadership, as well as veterans’ and military families’ organizations. Obama then traveled to the Arlington cemetery, where he placed the traditional wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
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President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel bow their head in prayer during a ceremony on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia
