Obama Seeks to Grab Momentum After Election Losses

The president draws a hard line on immigration, chooses a new attorney general, and dispatches key aides to say he won’t back down from his agenda.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to members of the news media before a meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel (R) and other members of the president's cabinet at the White House November 7, 2014 in Washington, DC.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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President Barack Obama moved to seize the initiative from Republicans after his party’s election losses, drawing a hard line on immigration, choosing a new attorney general and dispatching key aides to say he won’t back down from his agenda.

Obama took that message to Republican leaders in a meeting yesterday, where he vowed to press forward with an executive order giving some undocumented immigrants a reprieve from deportation even after House Speaker John Boehner warned it would poison relations.