This Day in History: One Small Step for a President, One Huge Leap for Digital Communications at the White House

Kajal Singh
December 06, 2014
09:00 AM EDT

This Day
jul
4
In History

On December 6, 1923, President Calvin Coolidge took one small step for a president and one huge leap for digital communications at the White House. On this day in history, President Coolidge became the first president to address the American people on broadcast radio.

What was the radio broadcast all about?

President Coolidge delivered a message about national priorities and the state of the nation to a joint session of Congress. Nowadays, that speech is known as the State of the Union address.

Over the years, technology has greatly changed the way Presidents deliver the State of the Union address. We've moved from broadcast radio to television, and now the Internet. Here's a timeline of some of the digital "firsts" when it comes to the State of the Union address:

Kajal Singh is an intern in the White House Office of Digital Strategy.
Related Topics: Grab Bag, Georgia, New York

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
December 06, 2014

Statement by the President on the Death of Luke Somers

The United States strongly condemns the barbaric murder of Luke Somers at the hands of Al-Qa'ida terrorists during a rescue operation conducted by U.S. forces in Yemen in partnership with the Yemeni government.  On behalf of the American people, I offer my deepest condolences to Luke's family and to his loved ones.  I also offer my thoughts and prayers to the family of a non-U.S. citizen hostage who was also murdered by these terrorists during the rescue operation.  Their despair and sorrow at this time are beyond words.

It is my highest responsibility to do everything possible to protect American citizens.  As this and previous hostage rescue operations demonstrate, the United States will spare no effort to use all of its military, intelligence, and diplomatic capabilities to bring Americans home safely, wherever they are located.  And terrorists who seek to harm our citizens will feel the long arm of American justice.

Luke Somers was kidnapped fifteen months ago in Yemen and held hostage by Al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).  Since his capture, the United States has been using every tool at our disposal to secure his release.  Earlier this week, a video released by his terrorist captors announced that Luke would be killed within 72 hours.  Other information also indicated that Luke's life was in imminent danger.  Based on this assessment, and as soon as there was reliable intelligence and an operational plan, I authorized a rescue attempt yesterday.  I also authorized the rescue of any other hostages held in the same location as Luke.

Luke was a photojournalist who sought through his images to convey the lives of Yemenis to the outside world.  He came to Yemen in peace and was held against his will and threatened by a despicable terrorist organization.  The callous disregard for Luke's life is more proof of the depths of AQAP's depravity, and further reason why the world must never cease in seeking to defeat their evil ideology.

As Commander-in-Chief, I am grateful to the U.S. forces who carried out this mission as well as the previous attempt to rescue Luke, and to the dedicated intelligence, law enforcement, and diplomatic professionals who supported their efforts.  I also deeply appreciate the support and assistance provided by President Hadi and the Yemeni government, and reiterate our strong commitment to combating the shared threat posed by AQAP.

We remember Luke and his family, as well as the families of those Americans who are still being held captive overseas and those who have lost loved ones to the brutality of these and other terrorists.  We remain determined to do our utmost to bring them home, and to hold those who have done them harm accountable.

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
December 06, 2014

Weekly Address: Ensuring Americans Feel the Gains of a Growing Economy

WASHINGTON, DC — In this week’s address, the President highlighted the good news in Friday’s jobs report – that American businesses added 314,000 new jobs this past month, making November the tenth month in a row that the private sector has added at least 200,000 new jobs. Even with a full month to go, 2014 has already been the best year of job creation since the 1990s. This number brings total private-sector job creation to 10.9 million over 57 consecutive months – the longest streak on record. But even with this real, tangible evidence of our progress, there is always more that can be done. Congress needs to pass a budget and keep the government from a Christmas shutdown. We have an opportunity to work together to support the continued growth of higher-paying jobs by investing in infrastructure, reforming the business tax code, expanding markets for America’s goods and services, making common sense reforms to the immigration system, and increasing the minimum wage.

The audio of the address and video of the address will be available online at www.whitehouse.gov at 6:00 a.m. ET, December 6, 2014.

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
The White House
December 6, 2014

Hi, everybody.  Just in time for the holiday season, we now have another piece of good news about the pace of our economic recovery.

Last month, our businesses created 314,000 new jobs.  And that’s not a fluke – it keeps up the solid pace of job creation we’ve seen all year long.  November was the tenth month in a row we’ve added more than 200,000 jobs.  So far this year, our economy has created 2.65 million new jobs.  That’s the most of any year since the 1990s – even with a full month to go.  All told, our businesses have created 10.9 million new jobs over the past 57 months.  And that’s the longest streak of private-sector job creation on record.

We also know that the upswing in job growth this year has come in industries with higher wages.  Overall wages are on the rise.  And that’s some very welcome news for millions of hardworking Americans.  Because even though corporate profits and the stock market have hit all-time highs, the typical family isn’t bringing home more than they did 15 years ago.  And that still has to change.  And a vibrant jobs market gives us the opportunity to keep up this progress, and begin to undo that decades-long middle-class squeeze. 

But first, we need the outgoing Congress to pass a budget and keep our government open.  A Christmas shutdown is not a good idea.  Then, when the new Congress convenes in January, we need to work together to invest in the things that support faster growth in higher-paying jobs.

Building new roads and bridges creates jobs.  Growing our exports creates jobs.  Reforming our outdated tax system and our broken immigration system creates jobs. Raising the minimum wage would benefit nearly 28 million American workers, giving them more money to spend at local businesses – and that helps those businesses create jobs. 

America, we still have a lot of work to do together.  But we do have real, tangible evidence of our progress.  10.9 million new jobs.  10 million more Americans with health insurance.  Manufacturing has grown.  Our deficits have shrunk.  Our dependence on foreign oil is down.  Clean energy is up.  More young Americans are graduating from high school and earning college degrees than ever before.  Over the last four years, this country has put more people back to work than Europe, Japan, and every advanced economy combined. 

The United States of America continues to outperform much of the world.  And we are going to keep it up until every American feels the gains of a growing economy where it matters most – in your own lives. 

Thanks, and have a great weekend.

Weekly Address: Ensuring Americans Feel the Gains of a Growing Economy

David Hudson
David Hudson
December 06, 2014
06:00 AM EDT
President Barack Obama tapes the Weekly Address in the Map Room of the White House, Dec. 5, 2014

President Barack Obama tapes the Weekly Address in the Map Room of the White House, Dec. 5, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)

In this week’s address, the President highlighted the good news in Friday’s jobs report – that American businesses added 314,000 new jobs this past month, making November the tenth month in a row that the private sector has added at least 200,000 new jobs. Even with a full month to go, 2014 has already been the best year of job creation since the 1990s. This number brings total private-sector job creation to 10.9 million over 57 consecutive months – the longest streak on record.

But even with this real, tangible evidence of our progress, there is always more that can be done. Congress needs to pass a budget and keep the government from a Christmas shutdown. We have an opportunity to work together to support the continued growth of higher-paying jobs by investing in infrastructure, reforming the business tax code, expanding markets for America’s goods and services, making common-sense reforms to the immigration system, and increasing the minimum wage.

Transcript | mp4 | mp3

Related Topics: Jobs, Economy

Weekly Address: Ensuring Americans Feel the Gains of a Growing Economy

December 06, 2014 | 2:56 | Public Domain

In this week’s address, the President highlighted the good news in Friday’s jobs report – that American businesses added 314,000 new jobs this past month, making November the tenth month in a row that the private sector has added at least 200,000 new jobs.

Download mp4 (109MB) | mp3 (3MB)

President Obama Speaks to Newly-Elected Governors

December 05, 2014 | 2:00 | Public Domain

On December 5, 2014, President Obama delivered remarks before a meeting with newly-elected governors.

Download mp4 (71MB) | mp3 (2MB)

President Obama meets with the King of Jordan

December 05, 2014 | 9:12 | Public Domain

On December 5, 2014, President Obama met with King Abdullah II of Jordan in the Oval Office.

Download mp4 (338MB) | mp3 (9MB)

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
December 05, 2014

Remarks by the President Before Meeting with Newly Elected Governors

Oval Office

4:58 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Well, it is a great pleasure to welcome these newly elected governors to the Oval Office. They represent a wide variety of states but they all have a common interest, and that is making sure that their constituents -- who are also my constituents -- are able to gain opportunity, work hard, prosper, feel secure. And that happens best when we work together, whether we’re talking about Democrats and Republicans and independents working together, or whether we’re talking about state, federal and local officials working together.

So I’m looking forward to having a great conversation with them on how we can build on some of the progress that’s already been made. This morning, we had a great jobs report showing over 300,000 new jobs created. We now have seen 57 straight months of private-sector job growth and the most jobs created this year since the 1990s. That’s due to a lot of factors, but the main reason is because we’ve got great businesses and great workers. But what we want to make sure is that the government is not an impediment but is instead an accelerant of that kind of job growth, and I know that all the governors here feel the same way.

So I’m looking forward to talking to them about how we can help on education, transportation, the health and safety of their people. And my main message to them is that we’re here to help. The good news about governors is they usually don’t have time to be ideological because people expect them to deliver. And that’s very much my attitude going into my last two years of office. So I look forward to having an opportunity to get to know all of them individually, but also to be able to deliver on behalf of their people.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you so much.

END
5:01 P.M. EST

Weekly Wrap Up: Building Trust Between Communities and Law Enforcement

Kajal Singh
December 05, 2014
05:16 PM EDT

It's been a busy week here at the White House. In case you've missed some of our top stories this week, here's a recap.

A Plan to Build Trust Between Communities and Local Police

Recent events in Ferguson, Missouri and around the country have highlighted the importance of strong, collaborative relationships between local police and the communities that they protect.

That’s why on Monday, President Obama announced new steps that we’re taking to strengthen the relationship between law enforcement agencies and the communities that they are obligated to protect and serve. Take a look at some of the steps we’re taking below:

President Obama and Vice President Biden meet with elected officials, community and faith leaders, and law enforcement officials on community policing

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with elected officials, community and faith leaders, and law enforcement officials to discuss how communities and law enforcement can work together to build trust to strengthen neighborhoods across the country. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

Kajal Singh is an intern in the White House Office of Digital Strategy.
Related Topics: Grab Bag, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, Pennsylvania

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
December 05, 2014

Remarks by President Obama and His Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan after Bilateral Meeting

Oval Office
 
12:10 P.M. EST
 
PRESIDENT OBAMA:Well, it's a great pleasure once again to welcome my friend, His Majesty King Abdullah, and the delegation from Jordan here to the Oval Office.
 
Jordan is one of our most effective and capable and steadfast partners in not only the Middle East, but around the world.And my personal friendship with His Majesty is something that I greatly appreciate.I always enjoy talking to him both for his honesty and his good counsel.
 
We had an extensive discussion about some of the challenges that we face in the region.At the top of the list, obviously, was our efforts to debilitate and ultimately destroy ISIL both in Iraq and in Syria.Jordan has been a rock-solid partner in that coalition to defeat ISIL.And the Jordanian military has been working side by side with U.S. and other militaries from around the world in making slow, but steady progress, providing assistance to Baghdad, providing assistance to the moderate opposition inside of Syria, and to begin rolling back some of the gains that ISIL has made.
 
We recognize it's a long-term and extremely complex challenge, but it's one that we feel optimistic we’ll be able to succeed at.And I stressed my strong gratitude to His Majesty for all the efforts that his men and women in uniform have made.
 
We also had a chance to talk about the fact that this is not just a military campaign; this is also diplomatic and a social and political effort, that it's a matter of winning over hearts and minds and isolating the extremists in the region.And I think Jordan is an important leader in that.His Majesty shared with me some of the ideas about organizing within Islam to make sure that the overwhelming majority of peace-loving Muslims are able to, within their region and within their own communities, step by step isolate and ultimately eradicate this strain that has done so much damage in the region.
 
We had a chance to discuss some of the other regional issues that are of great importance.We share a concern about continuing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, and Jordan has been a strong partner in working with us to try to broker a genuine two-state solution and peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
 
Obviously, in the aftermath of Gaza and some of the challenges in Jerusalem, the environment has not been conducive for the sort of peace initiatives that we’d like to see, but we are going to continue to share ideas, recognizing that ultimately what’s going to be good for the Israelis and the Palestinians is their capacity to live together side by side in peace and security, and for Palestinians to have their own state.
 
I briefed His Majesty about our negotiations with Iran and indicated to him that we prefer no deal to a bad deal, but that we continue to hold out the possibility that we can eliminate the risk of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon and give Iran an opportunity to rejoin the community of nations.Whether Iran seizes that opportunity or not is something that we have not yet been able to determine, but we will keep on trying over the next several months.And we will continue to keep Jordan apprised.
 
And we had a chance to discuss some of the important security issues that extend beyond Syria and Iraq, including Boko Haram, al-Shabaab, what’s happening in North Africa, and how we can more effectively craft the kind of working partnerships and coalitions to counter terror wherever it may appear.
 
Because Jordan is such an important partner, because they are carrying such an important burden, including accommodating hundreds of thousands of Syrians who’ve been displaced because of the Syrian civil war, I am very proud of the continued support that we've been able to provide Jordan, a small, resource-poor country, but one that consistently steps up and meets its responsibilities.And as a consequence, I told His Majesty here today that we are going to continue with a memorandum of understanding, but that we are actually going to be increasing the amounts to a billion dollars a year, and that we are going to be providing an additional loan guarantee -- all of which is designed to reinforce the sort of political and economic reforms that are taking place inside of Jordan so that not only can the people of Jordan prosper and be self-sufficient, but they can continue to provide an anchor for important efforts that enhance U.S. national security over the long term.
 
So, Your Majesty, you’re a great friend and partner, and we very much appreciate the visit.We wish you and your family well.His Majesty’s son is a student here and I understand just finished classes, so hopefully he’ll be able to enjoy a good holiday season -- although I understand exams are actually after the holidays.That’s always a bad deal.(Laughter.)
 
HIS MAJESTY KING ABDULLAH:It is.
 
PRESIDENT OBAMA:It means he’s got to do a little bit of studying during the break.
 
But it’s wonderful to see you.
 
HIS MAJESTY KING ABDULLAH:Thank you.Well, if you’ll allow me, Mr. President, thank you very much on behalf of all of us in Jordan, to thank you, the American people and Congress for, as you mentioned, the very gracious support to Jordan, the budget support and revenue, which comes at a very difficult time, as you mentioned, of us hosting almost 1.5 million Syrian refugees -- 20 percent of our population.And this will have a tremendous impact on Jordanians on all levels.So from all of us, a very gracious thank you to you and your people for this very timely support for our country.
 
Obviously, Jordanians and Americans have been standing shoulder to shoulder against extremism for many years, but to a new level with this coalition against ISIL.And our troops are very proud to be working together, combatting ISIL in Syria as well as in Iraq.We are working together to support our friends in Iraq and the Iraqi government.And this is something that we continue to do with great pride.
 
As the President alluded to, that we have a long-term commitment to bring a comprehensive solution to the Syrian crisis.I believe that the process is moving in the right direction, and we have spent some time on seeing how we can move the process forward.
 
We’d also like to thank the President very much on his continued efforts to bring the Israelis and Palestinians closer together, because obviously we need to be able to find a solution between the Israelis and Palestinians as we have moved to now this global challenge of extremism that all of us face -- Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus -- all of us together against this fight against evil.
 
So this is now a generational fight where all of us are fighting extremism all over the world, and we all have to fight together as a united front.
 
So we’re very proud of this relationship with the United States.And as the President alluded to, it’s not just -- although the priorities against ISIL is actually across our region.And I’m very proud of this relationship, very proud of our personal friendship, and of the President’s vision to alleviate the suffering of the region and his steadfast commitment to Muslims across the world to fight this extremist threat.
 
PRESIDENT OBAMA:Thank you very much.
 
Thank you, everybody.
 
END
12:20 P.M. EST