Obama: "You don't want to mess with" SEC chair nominee Mary Jo White

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Denis McDonough, President Obama's chief of staff, was among a handful of senior aides informed of the Treasury inspector general's findings that the IRS was targeting conservative groups for heightened scrutiny in their tax-exempt application process - but insisted he did not intervene in the "ongoing" investigation, or tell the president.

Unveiling an annual report on the global status of religious freedom, Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday reinforced America's commitment to promoting freedom of religion worldwide, and pledged to push restrictive countries - including U.S. allies - toward expanded rights even if it makes them "uncomfortable."

During remarks at a Democratic fundraiser, President Obama avoiding mentioning recent controversies but criticized the "tendency in Washington to put politics ahead of policy, to put the next election ahead of the next generation," saying, "that mindset is what we need to change" if we hope to move America forward.

As a young man, "Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down," said President Obama during a commencement address at Morehouse College in Atlanta, "but one of the things you've learned over the last four years is that there's no longer any room for excuses."

President Obama channeled optimism on America's economic future in his weekly address on Saturday, noting positive news on deficit reduction, the housing market, the auto industry, and the energy sector to make his case that "in a lot of sectors, things are looking up."

The IRS is charged with overseeing part of the implementation of the president's healthcare reform law, and that's a problem, according to Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., who warned in the weekly GOP address today that the recent targeting scandal at the tax agency proves "that the IRS needs less power, not more."