Barack Obama: “And our politics has gotten so nasty. That's the word I was looking for -- but not just nasty, also cynical and…”

A drift towards extremism was "not inevitable

I’m going to insist that we can do better than we’re doing right now.

It is a basic principle of American democracy that the government can’t selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say.

The fact that any president, or any administration, is willing to engage in such transparent efforts to intimidate someone should outrage all Americans, regardless of how they feel about Congresswoman Omar’s political views.