Obama will use ultimate bully pulpit to make his case on Islamic State

Reporting from Washington —  President Obama hasn’t lacked for opportunities recently to try to reassure Americans that he has a strategy for countering the danger posed by Islamic State at home and abroad.

What he has lacked is the nation’s full attention.

Since the attacks that killed 130 in Paris three weeks ago, the president has spoken with reporters no fewer than 30 times, including at four news conferences at which counterterrorism was a dominant theme.

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The president’s decision to address the nation at 8 p.m. EST on Sunday night from the Oval Office -- the ultimate bully pulpit -- is an acknowledgment that his message is not getting through. It is only the third time since he took office in 2009 that he has chosen that high-powered setting.

In the view of White House aides, Obama’s message on terrorism has been drowned out by the heated rhetoric of Republicans vying to replace him next year, and by the president’s own insistence on pressing ahead with other priorities, such as global warming and his “pivot” to Asia.

The calculus changed after the shooting deaths of 14 people Wednesday in San Bernardino, the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001. It put pressure on Obama to act more forcefully to try to convince Americans his administration is doing everything possible to keep them safe.

When he addresses the nation from behind the famed Resolute desk, Obama will provide an update on the FBI-led investigation into the young couple who carried out the San Bernardino attack, officials said.

He also will explain how the terrorist threat has evolved since Islamic State first emerged in 2014, including its use of social media to promote ideology and attract foreign fighters, and its success raising money through taxes, tolls, extortion and smuggling in areas it controls, officials say.

Administration officials argued that they have stopped so many plots and potential plots over the last 18 months -- the FBI has arrested at least 56 people this year alone -- that the group’s followers have grown more secretive, and thus more dangerous.

“We are now at a point where because we in fact have been successful at stopping a number of plots, a threat has evolved,” U.S. Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch said on “Meet The Press” on Sunday. “We do see these lone-wolf actors. We do see these encouragements for troubled individuals to pick up a gun and act out of this ideology.”

Aides said Obama will use his speech not only to explain his strategy before the largest audience possible, but also to counter rhetoric from the president’s critics that stokes Americans’ fears.

“The president understands that the country’s very concerned about this issue,” Lynch said. “What you’re going to hear from him is a discussion about what government’s doing to ensure all of our highest priority, the protection of the American people. … [What] you’re [also] going to hear the president say is to call on the American people to pull out the best in themselves and not give into fear at this time.”

That’s not a new message from the president.

After the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, Obama urged Americans not to “succumb to fear” as he outlined progress in the attempts to push Islamic State fighters out of key areas in Iraq and Syria. France and Britain have both begun bombing Islamic State positions in the last three weeks.

“Our coalition will not relent,” Obama said. “We will not accept the idea that terrorist assaults on restaurants and theaters and hotels are the new normal – or that we are powerless to stop them.”

He delivered that message, however, from the sidelines of a summit in Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia. It was after midnight back home.

A week later in Paris, he said he was confident he could continue building momentum and resources to “degrade and ultimately destroy” Islamic State.

But he also defended the other priority that took him to the French capital in the first place: an international agreement to mitigate the effects of climate change.

“This one trend -- climate change -- affects all trends,” he said.

In the wake of San Bernardino, the president and other officials have discussed gun safety measures as much if not more than a counterterrorism response. It is unclear whether that would be a component of Obama’s message again Sunday.

But he is likely to call on Congress to act in other specific areas – including a renewal of his request for a new authorization to use military force against Islamic State.

Follow @mikememoli for more White House coverage.