CARTAGENA, Colombia — President Barack Obama, speaking for the first time about allegations that Secret Service agents hired prostitutes, said Sunday that “of course I’ll be angry” if those accusations are proven true by an investigation.
The president never directly mentioned that the specific accusations, confirmed by media outlets, that agents were cavorting with prostitutes before the president arrived in Colombia.
The Secret Service sent 11 agents home and placed them on leave for misconduct as the agency reviews what happened.
Pres. Obama Pledges Immigration Reform Early In 2nd Term
President Barack Obama participates in a three-way conversation with Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff and Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos, not pictured, at the CEO Summit of the Americas, in Cartagena, Colombia, Saturday April 14, 2012.
In his most specific pledge yet to U. S. Hispanics, President Barack Obama said Saturday he would seek to tackle immigration policy in the first year of a second term. But he cautioned that he would need an amenable Congress to succeed.
“This is something I care deeply about,” he told Univision. “It’s personal to me.”
Pres. Obama said in the television interview that he would work on immigration this year, but said he can’t get support from Republicans in Congress.
Pres. Obama also tried to paint his Republican presidential challenger, Mitt Romney, as an extremist on immigration, saying that Romney supports laws that would potentially allow for people to be stopped and asked for citizenship papers based on an assumption that they are illegal.
Pres. Obama Pays $162,074 In Taxes On $789,674 Income
WASHINGTON — Pressuring Mitt Romney on taxes, President Barack Obama’s campaign re-released more than a decade of tax records Friday, a political maneuver designed to pressure the Republican presidential candidate to divulge tax records beyond two years and to stop “hiding” details of his huge personal wealth.
Pres. Obama’s own tax return for last year showed that he and his wife paid $162,074 in federal taxes on $789,674 in adjusted gross income, an effective tax rate of 20.5 percent. Their income plunged from $1.7 million in 2010, with declining sales of the president’s books. In 2009, the Obamas reported income of $5.5 million, fueled by the best-selling books.
Romney’s campaign has projected he will pay more than $6.2 million in taxes on $45 million in income in 2010 and 2011 but has not released tax information prior to the past two years.
