Robin Roberts

How Robin Roberts Landed The Obama Interview

David Taintor | May 9, 2012, 6:58PM

ABC's Robin Roberts

The White House called ABC News on Tuesday to ask about Robin Roberts' schedule. The Good Morning America co-host works a pre-dawn to midday schedule during the week as part of the usual network morning show routine. But the White House wanted something far from routine: a sitdown interview between her and the President the next day. The questions would be of her choosing, but everyone knew the focus would be same-sex marriage.

"It doesn't take a huge leap to figure it out," a source at ABC told TPM.

After Vice President Joe Biden came out for gay marriage on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan followed suit on Monday, White House press secretary Jay Carney was grilled during Tuesday's press briefing on whether President Obama's own position on the issue had changed.

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ABC News

ABC News, Univision Look To Attract Growing Hispanic Population With New Cable Channel

David Taintor | May 7, 2012, 10:44AM

ABC News President Ben Sherwood and Univision Networks President Cesar Conde

ABC News and Univision announced on Monday plans to create an English-language, 24/7 cable network for Hispanics.

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Condoleezza Rice

Qaddafi Wrote Song For Rice: 'Black Flower in the White House'

Susan Crabtree | October 26, 2011, 10:35AM

In what may well be the most awkward personal moment in U.S. diplomatic history, in her new memoir Condoleezza Rice recalls a creepy 2008 meeting with then-Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi that ended with Qaddafi showing her photos of herself he had collected and a serenade of a song he had a famous Libyan composer write for her.

Rice's reaction? Run away, run away!!

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Barack Obama

Obama Has No Regrets For Acknowledging Economic Woes

Susan Crabtree | October 4, 2011, 2:12PM

President Barack Obama

President Obama is standing by his concession Monday in an interview with ABC News that Americans aren't better off than they were four years ago before the near collapse of the financial system and a deep economic recession -- both of which occurred at the tail end of President George W. Bush's term.

At a fundraiser in Dallas, Obama returned to the point he made in the interview, that Americans are still suffering through hard economic times.

"Of course they're still hurting," he said. "Every night I get letters and emails from families who are struggling."

He listed among his successes the auto bailout and Wall Street reform, noting Republican opposition to both.

The President doesn't regret acknowledging the truth, namely, that the economy is still flagging and is unlikely to quickly rebound any time soon, White House spokesman Jay Carney also told reporters Tuesday while traveling to Texas on Air Force One.

"It would be wrong to somehow suggest that the hole created by that recession was not very deep ... or that somehow we'll emerge from it overnight," Carney said.

But Carney also noted that "four years ago was 2007 -- prior to the point where the policies of the previous administration plunged us into the greatest recession since the Great Depression."

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Barack Obama

Bin Laden Bump Gone, Economic Pessimism Drags Down Obama's Approval Rating

Jon Terbush | June 7, 2011, 9:57AM

Barack Obama

One month after Osama bin Laden's death gave a big boost to President Obama's approval rating, an ABC News/ Washington Post poll released Tuesday finds that that spike has all but evaporated, as Americans' deep concerns about the struggling economy have significantly dragged down the President's job rating.

In addition, Obama received his worst marks ever on his handling of the economy and the federal deficit. As a result, his standing has slipped so much that he's now in a statistical dead heat with Mitt Romney in a theoretical test of the 2012 election.

As a whole, the survey shows broad discontent with the pace of the economic recovery, and it serves as a reminder that the economy's health will be a major factor heading into next year's elections.

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Presidential Approval Ratings

Poll: Obama's Approval Rating Dives As Economic Pessimism Hits Two Year High

Jon Terbush | April 19, 2011, 9:56AM

President Barack Obama

The percentage of Americans who say the economy is getting worse has risen to the highest level since the early months of President Obama's presidency, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Tuesday.

At the same time, Obama's approval rating has slipped to the point where a majority of Americans now disapprove of his job performance. But despite Obama's shaky standing, the president still led every potential Republican rival paired against him in potential head-to-head 2012 matchups, a sign that while he is weak, the GOP field right now is weaker.

In the poll, 44% of respondents said the economy was getting worse, up 10 points since last October. That's the highest level notched in the Washington Post-ABC News poll since March 2009 when 48% of Americans thought the economy was headed in the wrong direction.

Additionally, only 28% of adults now say the economy is headed in the right direction.

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Donald Trump

Donald Trump: 'Part Of The Beauty Of Me Is That I'm Very Rich' (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | March 17, 2011, 10:25AM

Say what you will about Donald Trump, but he sure knows his strengths. "Part of the beauty of me is that I'm very rich," he told ABC's Ashleigh Banfield.

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Barack Obama

Poll: Six In Ten Say Afghan War Not Worth Fighting

Jon Terbush | December 16, 2010, 12:35PM

Sixty percent of Americans now say the war in Afghanistan "is not worth fighting," according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released today. That's the highest level of dissatisfaction ever recorded in that survey.

Only 34% of respondents said the war, which in June became the longest war in U.S. history, has been worth fighting. That's less than the 43% of respondents who felt "strongly" that the war has not been worth fighting.

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Tax Cuts

Poll: Seven in Ten Americans Support Tax Deal

Jon Terbush | December 14, 2010, 8:31AM

President Barack Obama meets with Republican and Democratic leaders

As the Senate prepares to vote on the tax compromise brokered between Republicans and President Obama, a Washington Post-ABC News poll released yesterday shows that nearly seven in 10 Americans support the proposal.

Sixty-nine percent of those surveyed said they support the tax deal, compared to 29% who were opposed. Even when explicitly told of the prime objections to the package -- that it would add $900 billion to the deficit and give tax breaks to the wealthy -- 62% of all respondents said they still supported the deal.

However, despite high bipartisan backing for the deal as a whole, few said they strongly supported it, with respondents clearly split along party lines over the compromise's components.

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Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett: 'Trickle Down' Theory Hasn't Worked (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | November 21, 2010, 10:00AM

Warren Buffett

Billionaire Warren Buffett said that the Bush tax cuts should be allowed to expire for the richest Americans and that the "trickle down" economic theory hasn't worked.

"If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further," Buffett told ABC News in an interview set to air later this week. "But I think that people at the high end -- people like myself -- should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it."

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Rand Paul

Sen.-Elect Rand Paul: We'll Look At Cutting Everything (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 8, 2010, 9:57AM

Kentucky Senate Candidate Rand Paul (R)

Newly crowned Senator-elect Rand Paul (R-KY) brought his "message from the tea party" from Kentucky to his biggest national interview since handily winning the election over Democrat Jack Conway last Tuesday. In a nutshell, Paul stuck to his tea party guns in the brief sitdown on ABC's This Week. The movement's moment has arrived, Paul told host Christiane Amanpour. Now it's time to start cutting. Cutting everything.

"Republicans traditionally say, 'Oh, we'll cut domestic spending, but we won't touch the military,'" Paul explained. "The liberals -- the ones who are good -- will say, 'Oh, we'll cut the military, but we won't cut domestic spending.'"

As for Paul and his tea party friends, "Bottom line is, you have to look at everything across the board."

Amanpour pressed Paul for specific cuts, but for the most part Paul preferred to talk in the same sweeping generalizations about cuts that helped win him the election and helped the tea party win the hearts of so many conservatives this year.

"We don't need bigger government," Paul said. "We need to shrink the size of government."

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Andrew Breitbart

ABC Cuts Breitbart From Election Night Coverage

Rachel Slajda | November 2, 2010, 5:00PM

Andrew Breitbart

After several biting back-and-forths, ABC News announced today that it is cutting conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart from ABC's election night coverage.

The network was the target of much blowback after it announced that Breitbart -- who had a role in Shirley Sherrod's firing and has supported James O'Keefe's video activism -- would take part in a town hall-style event in Phoenix.

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2010 elections

Breitbart: ABC Told Me I'd Be Part Of Broadcast Coverage

Rachel Slajda | November 1, 2010, 1:12PM

Andrew Breitbart

In the continuing back-and-forth over what exactly right-wing blogger Andrew Breitbart will be contributing to ABC News's election night coverage, Breitbart now says he was told he'd be part of the news organization's broadcast coverage.

In emails Breitbart posted to his web site last night, an unnamed producer from ABC News explains that ABC is looking for "political figures and newsmakers to appear in our Town Hall style panel" in Phoenix, Ariz. The email notes that the town hall, which will take place at Arizona State University, "will broadcast on the ABC Television Network, abcnews.com, ABC News Now, and ABC News Radio."

ABC has shot back.

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Andrew Breitbart

ABC News Backs Away From Breitbart

Brian Beutler | October 30, 2010, 3:05PM

After facing a barrage of criticism for inviting conservative Andrew Breitbart to participate in election night activities, ABC News is now trying to put some space between themselves and the controversial activist.

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