President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he was "angry" at IRS officials who inappropriately targeted conservative groups for scrutiny, announcing that his administration had sought and accepted Steven Miller's resignation as interim commissioner of the IRS.

"I've reviewed the Treasury Department watchdog's report, and the misconduct that it uncovered was inexcusable," Obama said in a statement at the White House. "It's inexcusable, and Americans are right to be angry about it, and I'm angry about it."

The president said that he expected the IRS to act with even higher levels of integrity than other government agencies and that, to that end, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had sought and accepted Miller's resignation — something many Republicans had demanded.

Obama also pledged to work with Congress in its emerging investigation into the controversy, pledging his administration would work "hand in hand with Congress" to further its oversight. But the president also cautioned lawmakers to conduct their probe "in a way that doesn't smack of politics or partisan agendas."

"If the President is as concerned about this issue as he claims, he'll work openly and transparently with Congress to get to the bottom of the scandal — no stonewalling, no half-answers, no withholding of witnesses," the top Republican senator, Kentucky's Mitch McConnell, said in a statement.

The president said as well that he thought the problems at the IRS were "fixable," and he directed Lew to implement the IRS inspector general's recommendations.

Lew said in a statement that it was "clear that the IRS needs new leadership to restore public trust and confidence."  

"As the president noted, this type of misconduct at any agency, but especially the IRS, is inexcusable and unacceptable. And I will not tolerate it," he said.In an internal email to employees, Miller said he would be staying on until early June to help with an orderly transition.

Obama's remarks came amid news that two IRS employees who had engaged in activities targeting conservative groups had faced disciplinary action for their conduct.

The inspector general's release Monday found that incompetence and ineffective management at the tax-collecting agency led to employees' applying extra scrutiny to conservative and Tea Party advocacy groups. The report also found there was no evidence of outside pressure on officials to target conservative groups.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

President Barack Obama makes a statement on the IRS' targeting of conservative groups for extra scrutiny in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, May 15.

Still, the revelation has prompted an uproar among Republicans, who have openly suggested that the Obama administration might have used the IRS to target its political opponents.

"My question isn't about who's going to resign," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said at a weekly press conference on Capitol Hill. "My question is who's going to jail in this scandal."

Democrats have largely joined their Republican colleagues in expressing outrage toward the IRS employees' actions, and Obama himself condemned the agency Monday, calling the targeting of conservative groups "outrageous" and vowing to hold those responsible accountable.

"I'll do everything in my power to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again, by holding the responsible parties accountable, by putting in place new checks and new safeguards, and, going forward, my making sure the law is applied as it should be — in a fair and impartial way," Obama said.

This story was originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 3:57 PM EDT

Official Washington waits all year for this moment – the White House correspondents' dinner – where journalists, politicians and celebrities rub elbows and party.

The decades-long ritual also presents a chance for a president to charm the media and the nation.

And President Barack Obama did not abandon the tradition at Saturday night’s dinner. But he delivered both praise and criticism of the media's response to the terrorist attacks in Boston and the explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas.

Addressing journalists and Hollywood elites in attendance alongside comedian Conan O’Brien, the president praised not just law enforcement in Boston and responders in the Texas explosion, but also print and broadcast reporters who took the time to get the story right.

Related: 5 fantastic Correspondents' Dinner moments

“We’ve had some difficult days. But even when the days seem darkest -- we have seen humanity shine at its brightest,” Obama said of policemen and first responders.

“We also saw journalists at their best -- especially those who took the time to wade upstream through the torrent of digital rumors to chase down leads and verify facts, and painstakingly put the pieces together to inform and to educate and to tell stories that demanded to be told."

Obama praised both print journalism in the Boston Globe and NBC News’ Pete Williams for outstanding reporting.

Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama speaks during the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on Saturday night in Washington.

But the commander-in-chief also hurled some biting criticism at the Fourth Estate.

While Fox News may be for conservatives and CNN for liberals, Obama joked that CNN “covered all sides of the story, just in case one of them happens to be accurate” -- after CNN was criticized for incorrectly reporting an arrest in the Boston case.

“I remember when BuzzFeed was just something I did in college around 2 a.m.,” Obama said in a nod to the emerging social media site.

Obama acknowledged that while he’s had an adversarial relationship with the press at times, he does appreciate its contributions.

“The fact is, I really do respect the press,” said Obama. “My job is to be president, your job is to keep me humble. Frankly I think I’m doing my job better.”

Overall, it was a more relaxed Obama on display Saturday evening, walking to the podium to DJ Khaled’s “All I Do Is Win” and joking that even billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s hefty $100 million investment against his reelection backfired.

Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

First lady Michelle Obama laughs during the correspondents' dinner on Saturday.

“You could buy an island and call it ‘Nobama’ for that money. Sheldon would have been better off offering me $100 million to drop out of the race,” Obama laughed. “I probably wouldn’t have taken it, but I’d have thought about it.”

As for how the past four years had aged him at 51, Obama joked, “I’m not the strapping young Muslim Socialist I used to be.”

The president had some self-deprecating moments, even looking ahead to who might succeed him in 2016, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

“I mean, the guy has not even finished a single term in the Senate and he thinks he’s ready to be president,” said Obama, a reference to his own Senate career. “Kids these days!”

On his adversarial relationship with Republicans in Congress, Obama laughed that if the GOP wanted to expand their minority outreach, they didn’t have to look far.

“Call me self-centered, but I can think of one minority they can start with,” the president said, mockingly raising his hand. “Think of me as a trial run.”

O’Brien, the TBS late-night host, followed the president and took some swipes at the media, too.

O’Brien joked that if the dinner was the high school cafeteria, Fox News would have been the “jock,” MSNBC the “nerds,” bloggers were the goths, NPR sat at the “table for kids with peanut allergies" and Al Jazeera was the “weird foreign exchange student no one talks to.”

The comedian singled out one potential 2016 hopeful -- Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J. -- mocking the departure of moderates from his party.

“There was some confusion with the seating chart,” O’Brien joked. “For a moment, someone accidentally sat Chris Christie with the Republicans.”

The annual dinner, which draws the city’s top journalists and Hollywood stars, is the pinnacle of a weekend of brunches and parties, but serves a greater purpose for the White House Correspondents’ Association: to fund scholarships for high school students.

WHCA President and Fox News Correspondent Ed Henry said before the speeches that O’Brien had donated his $10,000 honorarium back to the scholarship fund, a first for a performer at the dinner.

Yuri Gripas / Reuters

Former Rep. Gabby Giffords listens as President Barack Obama speaks in the White House Rose Garden about Congress' vote on Wednesday on gun background checks.

Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords authored a scathing op-ed in The New York Times on Wednesday, blasting the 46 senators who voted against a measure to expand gun background checks.

"Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m furious," wrote the Arizona Democrat, who was gravely wounded in a 2011 shooting.

In the article, Giffords called on Americans to express their disappointment in Congress for failing to pass the measure, which would have extended existing background check rules to gun sales made online and at gun shows. 

She also called on supporters to remember their frustration on Election Day.

"I am asking for mothers to stop these lawmakers at the grocery store and tell them: You’ve lost my vote. I am asking activists to unsubscribe from these senators’ e-mail lists and to stop giving them money. I’m asking citizens to go to their offices and say: You’ve disappointed me, and there will be consequences," she wrote.

After the background check compromise failed to get the necessary 60 votes to move ahead, Giffords appeared with President Barack Obama and parents of victims of last year's Newtown school shooting to admonish Congress for failing to move forward legislation meant to decrease gun violence.

"Senators say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby," Giffords wrote. "But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets."

The former congresswoman was shot in the head in January 2011 during an attack in Tucson, Ariz., that took the lives of six others. Faced with a lengthy recovery, she was forced to resign from Congress, and she and husband Mark Kelly have become leading voices in the effort to curb the nation's gun laws.

Earlier this year the couple announced the start of Americans for Responsible Solutions, a political action committee aimed at preventing gun violence while protecting responsible gun ownership.

Wednesday's vote, which was seen as the best chance for comprehensive changes to laws that govern who is able to purchase a firearm, was a major blow for advocates of stricter gun control.

"Our democracy’s history is littered with names we neither remember nor celebrate — people who stood in the way of progress while protecting the powerful. On Wednesday, a number of senators voted to join that list," Giffords wrote.

Courtesy Catholic Diocese of Wichita

Father Emil Kapaun, a pipe-smoking Army chaplain who later saved men in battle and in captivity.

In a moment laced with modern irony and timeless glory, President Barack Obama awarded Thursday the Medal of Honor — the nation’s highest military decoration — to an Army chaplain and sainthood candidate who died 62 years ago in a North Korean prison camp.

Father Emil Kapaun, once a Kansas farm boy, has been hailed for decades by fellow POWs as a rousing, one-man resistance front, rallying starving inmates with clean water and stolen food while enraging his captors by openly mocking their pro-communist speeches. But days before the Catholic priest succumbed at age 35, ill with dysentery, pneumonia and a blood clot in his leg, he also raised his hand to bless and forgive the guards.

At the White House, Obama posthumously offered the medal, encased in glass, to Kapaun's tearful nephew, Ray, in front of several former American prisoners who suffered with the chaplain. Meanwhile, in the Asian country where the honoree once flashed his quiet bravado, North Korean forces are reportedly readying a missile for launch.

“Interesting timing, isn’t it?” said Amy Pavlacka, spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Wichita where the chaplain served before the Korean War. “Father Kapaun took care of every person he could. He even sat with his enemy. If, globally, we all could just take a piece of that, if all of us had learned anything from him, I don’t know that we’d be in this current situation.”

His brazen battlefield reputation — a swift departure from his gentle Kansas demeanor — was cemented in the months before Chinese forces overran U.S. soldiers and snatched survivors during the November 1950 Battle of Unsan. The chaplain had repeatedly dashed through machine gun fire to pull wounded soldiers to safety, according to witness accounts compiled by Roy Wenzl, co-author of a new book on Kapaun.

An Army captain in life, Kapaun is being touted for Catholic sainthood, an arduous process that typically takes years or even decades and ultimately requires the pope's approval. 

“This is an amazing story,” Obama said. “Father Kapaun has been called a shepherd in combat boots. His fellow prisoners, who felt his grace and his mercy, called him a saint, a blessing from God.” 

'The Good Thief'
After he and other Americans were imprisoned at a camp near the Chinese border with sub-zero temperatures looming, U.S. troops died at a rate of 20 to 40 per night due to lack of food and clean water, Wenzl said. The chaplain remolded strips of roofing tin into pots so that dirty snow could be scraped from the soil then boiled for drinking. He was dubbed “The Good Thief” after successfully pilfering provisions from the Chinese soldiers.

Courtesy Catholic Diocese of Wichita

Father Kapaun, right, helps carry a wounded soldier to safety in Korea.

Courtesy Catholic Diocese of Wichita

Father Kapaun was known as a bike lover even in the Army.

Food remained so scarce, however, some American prisoners began to swipe scraps from their fellow inmates. The priest offered a community solution through a subtle suggestion.

“Father Kapaun put his own rations on the floor and said a prayer: ‘Lord, thank you for this food that we not only can eat but that we can share.’ In his own quiet way,” Wenzl said, “that was calculated for effect.”

As were the chaplain’s antics when captors tried to use hunger, the frigid weather and torrents of spoken propaganda in an effort coerce U.S. prisoners to abandon their country and adopt communism.

Assuming de facto leadership, Kapaun urged the men to “keep eating, don’t give up,” according to Wenzl. “He told them, ‘We’re going to get out of here. The Army won’t leave us.’” Publicy, he frequently embarrassed the Chinese speakers during their orchestrated talks on communism to the POWs, which the troops had dubbed “brainwashing.”

“It wasn’t just that he was patriotic. It wasn’t that simple. He thought if the men gave up on their flag, their loyalty, their country, and to their oath as soldiers,” Wenzl said, “they would give up on life.”

Slideshow: Medal of Honor recipients

/

A look at heroes from a post-9/11 era of war

Launch slideshow

More then two years after Kapaun died in an isolated shed that the guards called a “hospital,” the Korean War ended. Both sides exchanged prisoners of war. When some of the troops emerged from that camp near China, the first story they told other Americans was an account of their POW chaplain — and how he had kindled their spirits in the dead cold of a hopeless winter.

“A group of our POWs emerged carrying a large, wooden crucifix, nearly four feet tall," Obama said. "They had spent months on it, secretly collecting firewood, carving it — the cross and the body — using radio wire for a crown of thorns. It was a tribute to their friend, their chaplain, their fellow prisoner, who had touched their souls and saved their lives.”

Related: Obama awards Medal of Honor to Afghan battle hero Clinton Romesha

Lee County, Fla., Sheriff's Office

Stanley Scott Viner was charged with intimidation by sending a threat to kill or injure and with threatening a public servant.

A Florida man was in custody Friday on charges of threatening to kill President Barack Obama and the entire local sheriff's department, authorities said.

The man, Stanley Scott Viner, 48, of Lehigh Acres, was held on $200,000 bond in the Lee County jail after his arrest Thursday, court records showed.

Viner is accused of having sent a long, expletive-filled email message to sheriff's deputies threatening to kill Obama. The writer referred to himself as God and said he also intended to kill a Lee County deputy "and his family then the entire Lee County Sheriff's Department," according to the arrest report.

NBC station WBBH of Fort Myers quoted detectives as saying Viner was angry at a deputy who lives near his home. He claimed that the deputy arrested him and that the sheriff's office took his backpack — neither of which actually happened, according to the sheriff's office.

Viner was charged with intimidation by sending a threat to kill or injure and with threatening a public servant. The sheriff's office said the Secret Service was immediately notified of the threat.

Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com

Sure, it’s got a weird name. But the effects of sequestration may hit all too close to home for some Americans if lawmakers allow the cuts to take full effect later this month. One day after President Barack Obama signed an order to cut spending by $1.2 trillion over a decade, NBC News takes a look at how people may feel the pinch from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles. 

New York
Young children in New York City’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods might be among those affected by sequestration as Head Start programs face a 5 percent cut, NBC New York reported. In the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, the SCO Morris Koppelman Center is the only Head Start program in an area where almost half of neighborhood children live below the poverty line. “It’s extremely difficult and very frightening to think what will happen to the families and the children in the community,” Shana Hewitt, program director at the Morris Koppelman Center, told NBC New York.

Texas

Lone Star state schools, air travel, military operations and more stand to be trimmed, NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported. The Texas state budget may lose $334 million in cuts to public education programs, and more than 285 schools stand to lose federal funding starting July 1 if lawmakers don’t come to an agreement. Special education, English language classes, nutrition programs, early child intervention and family protective services could also be hit. The Texas Education Agency alone may lose grants totaling as much as $167.7 million, according to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth.

Maryland
The military may see as much $100 million for operations vanish in Maryland, NBC Washington reported. Military facilities in Maryland may lose $95 million in base operations, and furloughs of civilian employees could result in a $359 million payroll reduction, according to a letter the Pentagon sent Gov. Martin O'Malley, the station reported. Outside defense spending, the Washington, D.C. Metro transit system could see a loss of $22 million between lost grants and decreased ridership.

California
Parents in California also worried about the potential impact on their young children as Head Start programs were trimmed, NBC Los Angeles reported. “We can’t pay for it,” Ismael Lopez said of other preschool options for his son. “Everything is so expensive.” Cuts to funding for schools, the military and disability services could total $500 million, and primary and secondary education may see a $87.6 million cut, according to NBC Los Angeles.

Connecticut
The budget cuts include slashing funds for the Federal Aviation Administration by about $600 million nationwide, NBC Connecticut reported. How much any resulting delays may cost airline passengers in travel time at the state’s airports won’t be known until the cuts settle in, said aviation consultant Ed Garlick. "We won't really know until we get into it. It could be minutes. It could be hours," he told NBC Connecticut.

Florida
Florida residents spoke out about their fears that the spending cuts may cast a cloud over the Sunshine State. “I think people are going to be affected locally, and I think people need to be angrier than they are at the fact that Congress is not working together to serve us as people,” attorney Lynn Dannheisser told NBC Miami. Community hospitals and institutions of higher learning, including the University of Miami and Florida International University, may stand to see some of their funding dry up as a result of the cuts.

Chicago
Scott Air Force Base, a major employer in Illinois, could be hit hard by the cuts, according to NBC Chicago. Head Start programs in Illinois would likely be hit, too. "It's not just cold-hearted. It's stupid economic policy," said Diana Rauner, president of the Ounce of Prevention Fund, a nonprofit that serves 1,300 Chicago children. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago is considering closing its doors for one work day a week if the cuts take full effect, said court clerk Tom Bruton.

Philadelphia
The program Meals on Wheels is preparing for a worst-case scenario, according to NBC Philadelphia. Cuts to the program could mean waiting lists or stopping deliveries to home-bound clients altogether. "They wouldn't be able to stay at home and then they would probably end up in a nursing homes, which would cost the government a fortune," Bill Decamp of Lehigh Valley told NBC Philadelphia.

Related:

• Sequester deadline day is here, but the effects won't be instantaneous
• As Obama signs the order, sequester is enacted
• Sequester storm gathers over D.C. economy

TransCanada Corp. via Reuters file

The Keystone XL oil pipeline, pictured under construction Jan. 18, 2012, in North Dakota.

This story has been updated to reflect a correction.

Construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline would create "numerous" and "substantial" impacts on the environment, the State Department said Friday in a draft environmental impact statement. But the project is a better bet than any of the alternatives, it said in essentially clearing the project to go ahead.

The report concluded that the Canadian synthetic crude oil the pipeline is slated to transport into the U.S. produces 17 percent more greenhouse gases than natural crude oil already refined here. In addition, it said the construction phase of the project would result in carbon dioxide emissions equiavalent to about 626,000 passenger vehicles operating for a full year.

Without directly saying so, the report signaled the State Department's belief that the pipeline should go ahead, concluding that other modes of transportation would have the same impacts and that proposed alternatives — including an above-ground route and a smaller-diameter pipe — "were not reasonable."

And on a central issue of discussion, it concluded that blocking the pipeline wouldn't make any difference in the U.S.'s high consumption of oil.

Reaction from environmental groups was swift.

"The Sierra Club is outraged by the State Department's deeply flawed analysis today on Keystone XL," the Sierra Club tweeted.

Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, said the report failed to appreciate the pipeline's potential effect on climate change.

"People who think our climate wouldn't be negatively impacted by Keystone XL have their heads in the (tar) sands," he said in a statement. "... LCV will work to ensure that the millions of Americans opposed to this dangerous pipeline have their voices heard during the comment period and that Keystone XL is rejected once and for all."

But House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, welcomed the report, which he said "makes clear there is no reason for this critical pipeline to be blocked one more day."

"After four years of needless delays, it is time for President Obama to stand up for middle-class jobs and energy security and approve the Keystone pipeline," Boehner said.

The environmental statement is only a draft, not a final decision whether to greenlight the project. A public comment period of 45 days is next.

A final decision on the $5.3 billion pipeline, a project of TransCanada Corp., has been pending for more than four years as environmental activists battle to kill it, contending that it contributes to the U.S.'s dependence on "dirty fuel" that generates higher emissions than crude oil refined in the U.S.

The pipeline would transport synthetic crude oil from oil sands in northeastern Alberta to refineries running along the spine of the U.S. all the way down to Texas. Along the way, the 2,000-page report said, it could also:

• Disturb highly erodible soil along nearly half of the 875-mile U.S. segment — including 4,715 acres of "prime farmland soil."
• Degrade streams and other surface water.
• Encroach on the habitats of 13 federally protected species or species being considered for that designation, including the whooping crane and the greater sage grouse.
• Be susceptible to potentially disastrous leaks and spill.

On the other side of the balance, the report noted the potential for economic development and growth in impoverished communities along the pipeline's pathway, saying it could create about 42,000 jobs during the construction period, about 3,900 of them directly employed in construction activities. The report noted that after construction is completed, the project would generate 35 permanent and 15 temporary jobs, primarily for routine inspections, maintenance and repairs.

President Barack Obama will have the final say on the project, which is being reviewed by the State Department, not the Environmental Protection Agency, because the pipeline would cross national borders. Obama signaled his support for the southern section of the line last year, but he gave environmentalists a measure of hope in January, when he promised to do more to fight climate change in his inaugural address. 

Tens of thousands of protesters jammed the National Mall in Washington on Feb. 17 to urge Obama to reject pipeline. They adopted the slogan "Forward" — cribbing Obama's own campaign slogan.

The final decision will be a crucial one for Canada, which may need to look elsewhere for new energy markets if the pipeline is rejected.

Tom Capra, Catherine Chomiak and Frank Thorp of NBC News contributed to this report. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com

This story reflects the following correction: This story misstated the State Department's projection of the number of construction jobs the Keystone XL pipeline project would create. The department's draft environmental impact statement said the project could create about 42,000 jobs during the construction period, about 3,900 of them directly employed in construction activities. The report noted that after construction is completed, the project would generate 35 permanent and 15 temporary jobs, primarily for routine inspections, maintenance and repairs.

This story was originally published on Fri Mar 1, 2013 5:50 PM EST

The Obama administration urged the Supreme Court on Friday to throw out a section of a 1996 federal law that prohibits recognition of same-sex marriage.

The brief was filed Friday in United States v. Windsor, a case challenging Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, the law that legally declares marriage to be only between a man and a woman. That section allows state and federal authorities to deny benefits to same-sex couples that are commonplace for heterosexual couples, like insurance for government workers and Social Security survivors' benefits.

Oral arguments are scheduled for March 27.

Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com

In its brief (.pdf), the U.S. bluntly declares: "Section 3 of DOMA violates the fundamental constitutional guarantee of equal protection. 

"The law denies to tens of thousands of same-sex couples who are legally married under state law an array of important federal benefits that are available to legally married opposite-sex couples," said the brief, which was signed by Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, the government's chief trial lawyer. "Because this discrimination cannot be justified as substantially furthering any important governmental interest, Section 3 is unconstitutional."

In a footnote, the brief mentions California's Proposition 8 and similar measures in other states as evidence that anti-gay discrimination remains a major problem.

In effect, the U.S. is asking the court to change DOMA to set a higher bar for courts to approve laws that discriminate against gay men and lesbians, Lyle Denniston, a Supreme Court expert, wrote on the influential ScotusBlog.

President Barack Obama announced in 2011 that the U.S. would no longer enforce DOMA, but "this is the first time the federal government has proposed that constitutional test in a gay rights case before the Supreme Court," Denniston writes. "The court itself has never specified just what constitutional standard it will apply in such cases, but it may have to settle that this term."

Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

Related:

• 'What's right is right': Widowed lesbian pushes for equal military benefits
• Panetta extends some benefits to same-sex spouses, partners of gay troops