 USA TODAY | Aamer Madhani and Catalina Camia USA TODAY |
 | 8:24PM EST November 14. 2012 - WASHINGTON — President Obama set a defiant tone Wednesday in his first news conference since he was re-elected, refusing to back down on taxes, defending his U.N. ambassador against GOP attacks and declining to criticize the FBI's handling of the investigation of his CIA director. Obama insisted that he was committed to keeping his promise to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, setting him at loggerheads with GOP lawmakers who say they are unwilling to consider raising taxes as the two sides ramp up negotiations on avoiding the looming "fiscal cliff." |
(Photo: H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY)Story Highlights
| He blistered two Republican senators who criticized United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice for her explanation of the attack Sept. 11 in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead. "If Sen. (John) McCain and Sen. (Lindsey) Graham and others want to go after somebody," he said, "they should go after me. ... To besmirch her reputation is outrageous." The president answered questions on topics ranging from his hopes for a partisan deal on immigration to his plan to collaborate on some issues with GOP presidential challenger Mitt Romney |
| Obama said a central facet of his successful re-election pitch to voters was a promise that the wealthiest Americans would see George W. Bush-era tax cuts expire at the end of this year. "I think every voter out there understood that that was an important debate, and the majority of voters agreed with me," he said. | He said he was "not going to slam the door" on Republicans if they offered alternatives to raising revenue to staunch the nation's deficit problem. But he underscored his and his advisers' long-standing opinion that it would be difficult to make up the revenue that would be lost if the Bush tax cuts were extended for America's top earners. |
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