House Republicans react to Obama's address

House Republicans were quick to respond to President Obama's address Wednesday night, with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) both releasing statements.

Boehner said the president "recanted his earlier dismissals of ISIL's capabilities and rightly acknowledged the grave and growing threat posed by the spreading global epidemic of radicalized Islam. He has finally begun to make the case the nation has needed him to make for quite some time: that destroying the terrorist threat requires decisive action and must be the highest priority for the United States and other nations of the free world."

Boehner added, "A speech is not the same thing as a strategy, however. While the president presented a compelling case for action, many questions remain about the way in which the president intends to act."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

In his own statement, McCarthy said, "If our efforts to combat this scourge are to be successful, it will require a level of commitment to this fight against terrorism not yet seen by this president. A president who has made ending the war on terrorism the central focus of his foreign policy must now make winning it a priority. I stand ready to work with the president to destroy ISIL, win this fight, and ensure America's continued safety."