President Obama completed his 20th news conference on Wednesday, November 14 at the White House and is making appointments to fill administration positions for his second term in office.
According to the Washington Post, President Obama has made 29 recess appointments.
During Wednesday's news conference, President Obama addressed a
wide range of issues from taxes to Benghazi to General David Petraeus' affair.
In an effort to rebuild the economy and reduce the deficit, he
has met with Labor and Civic leaders, CEO's of some of America's largest
companies and will meet with leaders of both Congress before the end of this
week.
Those leaders include Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
When it comes to climate change, in the coming weeks and months, he stated that he will be meeting with scientists, engineers, and elected officials to come up with a short term plan to reduce carbon.
He defended US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice and
stated that he would nominate Rice if he sees her as the best fit to be the
next Secretary of State upon current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
retirement.
Republican lawmakers like Senator John McCain aren't pleased with this possible nomination because of Rice's initial description of the violence in Libya that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other American officials as a "spontaneous outburst" rather than a "planned attack."
Obama said if McCain wants to go after someone, he should challenge the president, not Rice.
The incident made the news internationally because it was the first time in three decades that a sitting U.S. ambassador had been killed.
McCain said Rice should have known that it was a terrorist attack.
The President confirmed that nominations for his cabinet are
still being discussed.