During the “Daily Show” interview, Obama also blamed intelligence agencies and his deputies for the White House’s discordant response to the Benghazi attack.
“Every piece of information that we get, as we got it, we laid it out to the American people. The picture eventually gets fully filled in,” he said.
“The government is a big operation and any given time something screws up. And you make sure that you find out what’s broken and you fix it,” he said.
Obama also cited a need to comply with “international law” when he was asked how he protects national security.
“We’ve gone after al-Qaida and its leadership. … Sometimes you’ve got to make some tough calls,” he replied, “but you can do so in a way that’s consistent with international law and with American law.”
In other comments, Obama said he still wants to close the Guantanamo prison and blamed Congress for blocking him.
“I still want to close Guantanamo. We haven’t been able to get that through Congress,” he claimed.
When Stewart asked him to explain his national security policy, Obama responded that “whatever else I have done throughout the course of my presidency, the one thing that I’ve been absolutely clear about is that America’s security comes [first], and the American people need to know exactly how I make decisions when it comes to war, peace, security, and protecting Americans,” he insisted.
“And they will continue to get that over the next four years of my presidency.”
