Obama warned that taking additional action without hard evidence could compromise the U. S. position internationally.
"If we end up rushing to judgment without hard, effective evidence, then we can find ourselves where we can't mobilize the international community to support what we do," Obama said. But he added that, should it be confirmed that the regime of Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons, his administration would take new action.
"If I can establish ... the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, that is a game changer because that portends potentially more devastating attacks on civilians and it raises the strong possibility that those chemical weapons would fall in the wrong hands," Obama said. "We would have to rethink the range of options available to us. There are options on the shelf right now that we have not deployed."
Obama is holding the news conference on the 100th day of his second term — a period in which he's faced two difficult political defeats, the first domestic terrorist attack since 2001 and the worsening of the conflict in Syria.
Obama suffered a difficult setback earlier this month when Congress rejected a law expanding background checks for gun purchases, a measure for which he has campaigned emotionally since the mass murder of schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn., in December.
In March, Congress allowed deep cuts to domestic and defense spending to begin to take a place, reductions that threaten the vision of public investment on which the president based his re-election campaign.
In just the past two weeks, Obama has had to console the nation after two national tragedies — the first on April 15 when two bombs detonated at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring many more. It was the first terrorist attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001. Two days later, a fertilizer plant in West, Tex., exploded, killing 15 people and injuring far more.
Obama has since traveled to both grieving communities to console those whose lives had been painfully disrupted.
The president, who travels to Mexico and Latin America on Thursday, faces less political opposition in his pursuit of an overhaul of immigration laws.
Obama has had two domestic news conferences this year, one the day that the deep spending cuts, known as sequestration, began to take place and the other shortly after the New Year.
His demeanor has evolved — defiant at the start of the year, ready to pursue changes to immigration, guns and the budget, but humbler by the second news conference, when it was clear that the strength of his re-election and public opinion wouldn't fundamentally alter the balance of power between the Republican-led House and the White House.
He has also had several news conferences overseas, as he will in Mexico and Costa Rica later this week.
Obama has been meeting with lawmakers in private sessions in the hopes that better personal relationships and open communication can ease polarized politics and steadfast differences on policy. The effort has generated nice words but no change in policy yet.
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