LIVE events: Mitch McConnell, Presidnt Obama hold news conferences
Expected LIVE events: U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and President Obama hold separate news conferences following the U.S. midterm elections.
By: FOX 5 Atlanta
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LIVE events: Mitch McConnell, Presidnt Obama hold news conferences - Video
President Obama said Wednesday he is prepared to ask Congress for new authority to combat the Islamic State organization, replacing the administrations reliance on laws passed more than a decade ago to justify its current military operations against the militants in Syria and Iraq.
We now have a different type of enemy, the strategy is different, Obama said at a White House news conference. It makes sense for us to make sure that the authorization from Congress reflects what we perceive to be not just our strategy over the next two or three months, but our strategy going forward.
Obama pledged nearly 18 months ago to work with lawmakers to refine and ultimately repeal the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, or AUMF, against al-Qaeda, and the 2002 authority against Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
But White House engagement with Congress on the issue has been minimal since then. The administration has cited the 2001 and 2002 laws as legal justification for airstrikes in Iraq and Syria that began several months ago.
At his news conference, Obama said that he had invited Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III to the White House Friday to brief congressional leaders about how our fight against ISIL is proceeding, to answer questions, and to assure that Congress is fully briefed on what were doing there. ISIL is one of several acronyms used to refer to the Islamic State.
The idea is to right-size and update whatever authorization Congress provides to suit the current fight rather than previous fights, Obama said. We will be listening to Congress, as well as us presenting what needs to be the set of authorities needed for the ongoing operation.
Discussions over new legislation, he said, may carry over into the next Congress.
In September, a week after Obama authorized airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria, Sen. Timothy Kaine (D-Va.) proposed new legislation for an AUMF against the group. The measure was limited to only one year, and prohibited the use of U.S. ground troops against militants in Iraq and Syria. It also provided a narrow definition of the groups that could be targeted under its authority.
The administration has adopted an elastic definition of associated forces tied to al-Qaeda to authorize drone strikes and other military action in Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere that had no role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that prompted the initial legislation.
Although al-Qaeda has specifically repudiated the Islamic State and the two groups have no current connection, the administration has said both the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs are appropriate legal justification because the Islamic State is rooted in a previous al-Qaeda group formed in Iraq a decade ago.
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Obama to seek congressional authorization for fight against Islamic State
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama walked into the White House nearly six years ago with a robust Senate majority and a promise to change politics.
Now, he's heading into his final years of office estranged from Democrats in the minority on Capitol Hill, facing Republicans uninterested in making big compromises and a public that has largely moved on from the heady early days of the administration.
Obama is "anxious to get back to work" and put the midterms behind him, according to a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, adding the president regards the final two years of his term as a "fourth quarter" with the potential for real action.
He is scheduled to address the midterm results on Wednesday afternoon, just as he did in 2010 when he labeled the Republican takeover the House a "shellacking." The White House invited bipartisan congressional leaders for a meeting on Friday afternoon to map out the lawmaking terrain for the next two years.
READ: Anger in exit polls
And administration aides are bullish about extending their strategy of going ahead with executive actions in areas where congressional cooperation appears impossible.
But for Obama, the time for major legislative moves that would build his legacy could be short. With the midterms out of the way, the attentions of both parties will soon shift to the 2016 presidential campaign, leaving little appetite for bipartisan agreement. Achieving any legislative deals will require a level of compromise the White House hasn't yet been open to; it will also depend on a fractured Republican Party's willingness to pass measures that have any hope of getting the president's signature.
In public, both sides say they're ready to find common ground --"We're ready to compromise," Vice President Joe Biden told CNN Monday -- though aides are more pessimistic in private.
Asked whether the president will be looking to compromise and take a more conciliatory tone with a GOP Senate, a White House official said the "better question is whether the GOP wants to work with us."
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Obama alone after midterm repudiation
President Barack Obama speaks during a press conference in the East Room of the White House on November 5, 2014 in Washington, DC. MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
Last Updated Nov 5, 2014 3:58 PM EST
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said Wednesday he has heard the message from voters who put Republicans in power in the U.S. Senate and extended their majority in the House of Representatives in a midterm election that was a clear repudiation of the president's leadership.
"To everyone who voted, I hear you," Mr. Obama said.
Mr. Obama said the Republican victories are a sign Americans want Washington "to get the job done" and he is eager to hear Republican ideas for governing together.
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Still, he vowed not to give up on his priorities, including job creation and changing the country's broken immigration system. He stood by his pledge to act on his own to reduce deportations improve border security by the end of the year.
Tuesday's vote gives Republicans momentum heading into the 2016 presidential race, which becomes the focus of American politics for the next two years. At issue now is whether Mr. Obama, congressional Democrats and the newly robust Republican majorities will be able to break the legislative gridlock that has gripped the U.S. capital in recent years.
Mr. Obama said that over the next two years, he will "measure ideas by whether they work for the American people" - not by whether they are proposed by Republicans or Democrats.
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Obama to those who voted for change: "I hear you"
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama said he hears the frustration of voters who handed control of the Senate to Republicans in an election that is being viewed as a repudiation of the White House.
"To those of you who voted, I hear you," Obama said Wednesday in his first public remarks since the election. To those who didn't vote, "I hear you too."
Obama said every election offers a "moment for reflection," but declined to use language like "shellacking" as he has in the past to characterize the scale of the defeat.
"There is no doubt Republicans had a good night," Obama said.
The election left Republicans with solid control of Congress, holding at least 52 seats in the Senate and the largest majority in the House since World War II, according to CNN projections.
Before Obama appeared before the cameras, Mitch McConnell, who is in line to be the next majority leader, challenged the President to heed the message sent by the election.
McConnell said the President could wield his veto and confront Republicans. But he advised Obama to follow Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, who built domestic legacies despite often having to deal with a Congress controlled by opposing parties.
McConnell said those two presidents are "good examples of accepting the government you have rather than fantasizing about the government you wished you had."
Sen. John McCain
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Obama reacts to rout: I hear you