Bolton Installment Recap

During a speech in Berlin, President Obama paid tribute to 92-year-old Gail Halvorsen, a retired Air Force colonel who dropped candy to German children during the Berlin Airlift, saying, "We could not be more proud of him."

Asked by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, whether the FBI uses drones on U.S. soil for surveillance purposes, FBI Director Robert Mueller replied, "Yes," adding that the bureau uses drones "in a very, very minimal way, and very seldom."

Addressing the role of NSA surveillance programs in stopping terror threats, FBI Director Robert Mueller said, for most of the cases, it "has been a contributing factor - one dot amongst a number of dots - but there are those cases where it has been instrumental."

Saying we must seek the "security of world without nuclear weapons," President Obama announced that he will push the Senate to ratify the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty and that America will host a 2016 summit to help secure nuclear materials around the world.

Addressing the growing role of the United States in the Syrian civil war, President Obama said some of the coverage has gotten "a little over-cranked, in terms of the idea that somehow the United States is preparing to go all in and participate in another war. What we want to do is end a war."

President Obama assured an audience in Germany that America is not indiscriminately "rifling" through the emails of ordinary European citizens, describing the National Security Agency's surveillance programs as a "circumscribed" system that has averted threats in America, Germany, and elsewhere.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., asked during a House Intelligence Committee hearing whether the National Security Agency ever targeted for wiretapping the "political enemies" of the current administration.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy won't turn women off to the GOP because of "horrific acts" like Kermit Gosnell's.

Vice President Joe Biden said he knows "for a fact" that some lawmakers who voted down a comprehensive bill to strengthen gun safety laws "wonder now whether that was a prudent vote."

President Obama sounds cautiously optimistic about peace talks with the Taliban in Doha, and insists an "Afghan-owned peace process is the best way to end the violence" in a region torn apart by a bloody 12-year war.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said with a grin that "maybe" he'll lose his job if he brings a comprehensive immigration reform bill to the House floor without the backing of his conference.

General Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, argued former government contractor Edward Snowden's decision to leak information about the agency's controversial, top-secret data gathering programs had caused "irreversible and significant damage" to U.S. national security interests, and would ultimately benefit America's enemies.