Blog Posts by Rachel Rose Hartman and Olivier Knox

President Obama meets with members of his national security team, April 19, 2013. (Pete Souza/White House)

President Barack Obama called Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino on Friday afternoon to express his condolences for an MIT police officer killed overnight during a manhunt for the suspects behind Monday's Boston Marathon bombing, according to a White House official.

MIT police officer Sean Collier, 26, of Somerville, Mass., was shot and killed during the manhunt, and another police officer, Richard H. Donahue Jr., 33, was shot and is in stable condition at Mt. Auburn Hospital, according to the Boston Globe.

Appearing to echo remarks he made Thursday at an interfaith service for the three individuals killed and over 170 injured in Monday's twin bombings at the race's finish line, the official said the president stated in his phone calls that the country is behind the people of Boston and Massachusetts, and that the full force of the government will continue to be made available to them as they pursue those responsible for the attacks.

News of Obama's phone calls to Patrick and Menino were released following a day behind closed doors for the president, as the nation searched for details about suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who is on the run. Tsarnaev's brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was also a suspect and was killed by police during a shootout.

Obama was most recently briefed in the Oval Office by Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco in a meeting that ended shortly before 4 p.m. ET.

Earlier in the day, a cadre of top terrorist, homeland security and justice officials briefed the president in the White House Situation Room for an hour on Friday morning about the ongoing situation in Boston, a White House official said.

The complete list of participants who briefed the president and Vice President Joe Biden during that meeting were: Attorney General Eric Holder; FBI Director Robert Mueller; chief of staff Denis McDonough; National Security Adviser Tom Donilon; Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco; Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken; Deputy Chief of Staff Alyssa Mastromonaco; Deputy National Security Adviser For Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes; Deputy Counsel to the President Avril Haines; and National Security Adviser to the Vice President Jake Sullivan.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Secretary of State John Kerry and CIA Director John Brennan participated by video, the White House official said.

No additional details about that briefing were released by the White House.

Read More »from Obama offers condolences for officer killed during Boston manhunt

President Obama arrives Thursday for his meeting with Senate Republicans. (J. Scott Applewhite/ AP)President Barack Obama’s third and final day of in-person courtship of Congress found him lunching on lobster Thursday with Senate Republicans, and chewing over prospects for reforming the nation’s tax code, entitlements and regulatory structure.

Despite occasional bursts of audible applause from the closed-door session, neither side reported any breakthroughs after the 90-minute discussion. Republicans emerging from the meeting emphasized that Obama held the key to any concrete progress.

“We’re just not president,” Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee told reporters. “We may all want to be, but we’re not.”

Obama, who described the session as a "great conversation" as he swiftly exited the meeting room, appeared to please some Senate Republicans with talk of corporate tax and entitlement reforms.

"I think on the corporate side, it sounded like we have an agreement," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said cheerfully—well, as cheerfully as the typically stoic McConnell could

Read More »from Banter, no breakthrough, as Obama lunches with Senate Republicans

President Barack Obama (Jason Reed/Reuters)Amid criticism of the president's new nonprofit advocacy group, Organizing for Action, and its ties to the president, the White House on Monday defended President Barack Obama's decision to address the group by seeking to distance it from the president.

"This group is trying to promote a policy agenda," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters at Monday's briefing when questioned about the goals and actions of the group, which was born from the president's campaign committees.

OFA is "planning on coordinating with the White House, is it not?" NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd asked Carney.

"OFA, again, was set up to promote the president's public policy agenda," Carney said. He argued that OFA is not aiming to help the president in an electoral capacity—which would break campaign finance rules about nonprofits—and instead has a nonpartisan agenda.

The group will be spending money "on the American people's behalf," Carney said. The group was set up to allow for unlimited corporate, individual and union donations—something that has drawn criticism from watchdog groups.

Carney argued that the president's decision, first reported Monday, to speak to the group Wednesday night is no different than his decision to speak to the Democratic National Committee and other campaign groups. (But, of course, this isn't a campaign group.)

Carney used Monday's briefing to once again reject the accusation that OFA donors can pay for access to the president.

"Any notion, as we've talked about, that there's a price set for that—a meeting with the president—is absurd and wrong," Carney added, repeating the response he first issued two weeks ago following news reports suggesting OFA donors could pay for such access.

Read More »from White House defends Obama decision to address donors and volunteers of new political machine

Republican Chuck Hagel testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Jan. 31, 2103. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)The White House on Thursday afternoon flatly rejected a request made earlier in the day by 15 Republican senators to withdraw Chuck Hagel's nomination as defense secretary.

"This waste of time is not just meaningless political posturing—because we firmly believe that Sen. Hagel will be confirmed—but the waste of time is of consequence," White House press secretary Jay Carney said during Thursday's briefing. His comments came in response to a question about the Republicans' letter.

Carney added that Hagel, a Republican former Nebraska senator and two-time Purple Heart recipient, also received a huge boost on Thursday when Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama announced his support for Hagel's nomination.

"He's probably as good as we're going to get," Shelby told the Decatur Daily of Hagel, who now appears to have the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster—barring some last-minute surprise.

Carney also said at Thursday's briefing that several Republican senators over the weekend had voiced support during TV interviews for an up-or-down vote on Hagel, and that Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah had come out against a Republican filibuster.

"A clear majority in the U.S. Senate supports Sen. Hagel's confirmation, so today's actions ... run against both the majority will of the Senate and against our national interest," Carney said.

Carney stressed the pressing need for a new defense secretary, noting the 66,000 American troops currently in Afghanistan and this week's meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

Read More »from White House rejects GOP senators’ request to withdraw Hagel

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell this week expressed firm support for a guest worker program to help bring in more low-skilled workers for farm labor and other industries.

In an exclusive interview with Yahoo News, the Kentucky Republican said any legislation pushed by the Senate “Gang of Eight” must include such a provision.

“We need a good guest worker program. The one we have now is not working very well,” McConnell told Chief Washington Correspondent Olivier Knox, noting it was difficult for farmers to harvest crops without such low-wage assistance. "So there’s a practical reality to needing a guest worker program, and I’m sure that will be a part of the final bill.”

McConnell’s comments are significant given that a guest worker program, which would allow an employer to sponsor a non-U.S. citizen as an employee for labor purposes, has been opposed by labor unions and others who see it as a threat to low wage U.S. workers.

McConnell did not endorse any of the Read More »from Yahoo News interview: Mitch McConnell on immigration, guns, bourbon and Sen. Ashley Judd