The president declared the U.S. is still at war with terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. “We are at war with an organization that right now would kill as many Americans as they could if we did not stop them first. So this is a just war—a war waged proportionally, in last resort, and in self-defense,” Obama said at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.

The remarks come as Attorney General Eric Holder acknowledged on Wednesday for the first time that the U.S. killed four Americans in drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan, including militant cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

The president outlined the legal guidelines surrounding the use of armed drones. “I don’t not believe it would be constitutional for the government to target and kill any U.S. citizen…Nor should any president deploy armed drones over U.S. soil. But when a U.S. citizen goes abroad to wage war against American and is actively plotting to kill U.S. citizens…his citizenship should no more serve as a shield than a sniper shooting down an innocent crowd should be protected from a swat team,” he said, referencing al-Awlaki.

He acknowledged that the technology raises a number of questions about who is targeted, the civilian casualty toll, the risk of creating new enemies, accountability and morality. He argued, however, that it’s legal and when used sparingly can be effective and amount to few civilian deaths.

“As commander-in-chief, I must weigh these heartbreaking tragedies against the alternatives. To do nothing in the face of terrorist networks would invite far more civilian casualties—not just in our cities at home and facilities abroad, but also in the very places –like Sana’a and Kabul and Mogadishu—where terrorists seek a foothold,” said Obama. “Let us remember that the terrorists we are after target civilians, and the death toll from their acts of terrorism against Muslims dwarfs any estimate of civilian casualties from drone strikes.”

Obama said that he’s asked his administration to review proposals to extend oversight of the drone program and wants to work with Congress on establishing an independent court to review future potential strikes.

The president also addressed the controversial detention facility at Guantanamo Bay that holds several terror suspects. Obama has repeatedly argued on the campaign trail it’s unfair to hold prisoners without charge. Critics say his failure to close the detention camp has hurt U.S. standing in the Muslim world. He also announced he would lift the moratorium on transferring the prison’s Yemeni detainees to their home country in effort to lower the number of 166 people being detained, many of whom have gone on a hunger strike.

“Where appropriate, we will bring terrorists to justice in our courts and military justice system,” the president said.

The government of Yemen welcomed President Obama’s decision to lift the moratorium.

Yemen will “work with the United States to take all necessary steps to ensure the safe return of its detainees and will continue working towards their gradual rehabilitation and integration back into society,” said government spokesman Mohammed Albasha.

The speech was not without its drama, however. A heckler repeatedly interrupted the president during his remarks.

And Obama’s address was met with skepticism and outright anger by Republicans, including from drone strike critic Sen. Rand Paul, who famously gave a nearly 13 hour filibuster speech highlighting his concerns about president’s drone policy in March.

“I’m glad the president finally acknowledged that American citizens deserve some form of due process. But I still have concerns over whether flash cards and PowerPoint presentations represent due process; my preference would be to try accused U.S. citizens for treason in a court of law,” the Kentucky lawmaker said.

GOP Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina agreed that Gitmo should be closed at a press conference following the speech, but took the opportunity to criticize the administration’s foreign policy as a whole.

“What would I have the United States of America do? Lead. L-E-A-D. Four letter word. The president does not lead. And I get that from every single one of these leaders no matter where I go,” said McCain.

Graham said if Obama doesn’t change his policies “the Middle East is going to blow up and we’re going to get hit again here at home.”

The new bill on Thursday went before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, which Franks chairs. And for anyone who’s followed the House of Representatives’ recent approach to women’s health, Thursday’s picture must have been a trip down memory lane.

Well this looks familiar: every lawmaker at the House hearing on the nationwide 20-week abortion ban is a man. twitter.com/LEBassett/stat…

— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) May 23, 2013

Familiar, indeed!

Last year, a House hearing on President Obama’s birth control coverage mandate drew major flak for the nearly all-male panel of witnesses.

“These are the witnesses testifying on the birth control benefit right now on Capitol Hill. What is wrong with this picture?” wrote Planned Parenthood Action on its Facebook page.  The post, which showed a picture of five male religious representatives, received more than 21,000 shares.

Franks bill proposes banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy across the United States, even in cases involving rape, incest, or danger to the health of the mother. The bill goes against Roe v. Wade’s national protection of abortion rights until viability is reached, usually at 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Franks told reporters on Wednesday that he thinks there’s a “good chance” the bill will see a full House vote this year, given the recent murder conviction of rogue abortion-provider Kermit Gosnell.

Chief Deputy Whip Peter Roskam, R-Ill., a member of the committee, said Lerner telling the committee that she had “done nothing wrong” in the agency’s targeting of conservative groups was a “big mistake.”

“I think she forfeited her right, in so far as her claim that she didn’t lie to Congress,” Roskam said on Thursday’s The Daily Rundown. “That was a grievous error. Either she didn’t listen to her lawyer or her lawyer gave her very bad advice”

Roskam said he was surprised at Lerner’s opening comments, especially given the broad scope of her statement.

“It’s incredible to me that she actually did that because you can imagine almost anything that’s relevant to this inquiry falling within that scope,” said Roskam.

While some members of Congress have implied that the IRS scandal may lead back to the White House, Roskam said he didn’t believe that was the case.

“There’s no evidence that [the IRS scandal] leads to the Oval Office,” said Roskam. “I think this is the situation we need to be very careful and get the facts out and not come to conclusions and speculations before the facts speak for themselves.”

While McDonough and White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler knew of the inspector general’s investigation into the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups on April 24, and had intended to tell Obama once the audit was completed, the president learned from press reports when the story broke much earlier.

On Thursday’s The Daily Rundown, Podesta said that was the correct decision to wait until the investigation had been completed, and noted he had to make a similar choice when Bill and Hillary Clinton’s real estate investments were being probed during the 1990s.

“I think they made the right call in this regard,” said Podesta, who now chairs the progressive think tank the Center for American Progress. “If you go back to the original Whitewater investigation, it was about whether the White House interfered in an ongoing Treasury investigation. We spent seven years and $100 million and two independent counsels to find out no one did anything wrong. It would have brought be out whether he tried to influence it.

“In these situations, the counsel made the decision that this is not the kind of thing you notify a president of an investigation that is not complete because it wouldn’t be appropriate to do so,” said Podesta.  

“You are always slow off the dime when these things hit you in the face,” he added. “They did the right thing in asking for [acting IRS head Steven Miller’s] resignation and moved forward with that. So look, it always seems wobbly at the beginning but I think they’re on the right course with the IRS.”

“Let me be clear: I don’t trust the Republicans. And I don’t trust the Democrats,” the freshmen Republican from Texas said. “And I think a whole lot of Americans likewise don’t trust the Republicans and the Democrats, because it is leadership in both parties that has gotten us in this mess.”

That “mess,” Cruz was describing is the country’s budget, an issue where Democrats and Republicans have famously dueled in recent years.

Moderate Republicans in the Senate recently pushed for a committee to reconcile the differences between the competing House and Senate budgets, but conservatives like Cruz rejected the idea, because it involves involve raising the debt ceiling.

Sen. John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, characterized the mistrust as “bizarre,” prompting Cruz’s blunt statement.

This isn’t the first time Cruz has made brazen comments toward his own party: at a Tea Party town hall last month, Cruz called Republicans “squishes” on gun control.

On Thursday’s Morning Joe, Republican National Committee Reince Priebus said “Ted speaks for lots of Americans” who are sick of Congress, adding that his statement “isn’t unreasonable to a lot of Americans.”

“But is that how a leader should act?” asked former Tennessee Democratic Congressmen Harold Ford Jr.

Watch the full conversation below.

McClendon’s suspension follows two cases of other men in charge of sexual assault prevention in the military being accused of assaults themselves.

“Obviously he’s an idiot,” said Colonel Jack Jacobs, a Medal of Honor recipient and West Point instructor,  on Jansing & Co. Thursday.

Jacobs said there are a number of factors that can contribute to alleged cases like this one, including: lack of supervision, a lack of command emphasis, and complacency.

“I think when you have these cases over and over again and there’s no response and there’s no accountability for these kinds of rapes and crimes it allows the culture to continue,” Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said on NBC’s Today Thursday.

Former Army Specialist BriGette McCoy, who was raped while she was in the service and testified before Congress, talked openly about sexual assault in the military.

“I think this culture has been ongoing for a while and what’s happening now is just that we’re starting to see actually what’s going on,” McCoy said on Jansing & Co.

This year the magazine wrote that it chose women that go “beyond the traditional taxonomy of the power elite.”

The influential women hail from seven categories or power bases: billionaires, business, lifestyle, media, nonprofits and NGOs, politics, and technology. Forbes applied money, media presence, and impact to determine the rank within each category.

Several U.S. leaders made the annual list, including first lady Michelle Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Chairman of the NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group Bonnie Hammer, author J.K. Rowling, New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust, designer Tory Burch, singer Beyonce Knowles, and comedian Ellen DeGeneres were also recognized as powerful women.

The winners were selected from a preliminary group of more than 250 candidates from around the world.

Are you making things happen like these women? Join the conversation and tweet us your brilliant ideas on today’s topics to #AfternoonMoJoe.

“It’s the lamest excuse in the world when we have at least $200 billion worth of waste, fraud, and duplication to say ‘oh my gosh, we can’t do that,’ we have to go borrow money against the very kids you say you want to help!” the Republican senator said. “It’s morally wrong, it’s repugnant to me.”

Coburn slammed critics for questioning him on fiscal beliefs during the recovery as a “crass, political game.”

Those same critics point out that the debate over whether to offset aid packages with spending cuts delayed aid for the victims of Hurricane Sandy for 100 days, nearly emptying FEMA’s coffers.

• Obama’s new phase in dealing with terrorism: planning to announce restricting the use of unmanned drone strikes
• Obama administration set to restart transfers of detainees from Guantanamo Bay
• The White House ensuring that Obama had nothing to do with the IRS inquiry
• Conservative economists have signed a letter urging Congressional leaders to pass comprehensive immigration reform
• Reps Issa and Goodlatte to introduce legislation that would increase and improve high-skilled immigration programs
• Hard recovery in store for Oklahoma 
• Families honor young victims of Oklahoma tornado
• House panel moves to curb military sexual assaults
• Connecticut’s gun law faces challenge in federal court
• Texas school marshal bill headed to Gov. Perry’s desk
• Boy Scouts set to vote on lifting gay youth ban
• Ted Cruz: “I don’t trust the Republicans”
• RNC Chair Reince Priebus says there’s a double standard in the Obama administration leak investigations
• Preparing for 2016: Scott Walker fundraising in Iowa
• 7 million college students could see federal loan rates double this year unless Congress acts before July 1
• Nominations hearing considers Penny Pritzker to be Secretary of Commerce
• Barack Obama’s prom photos from 1979
• Almost all states observing huge drop in teen birth rates
• Fleet Week will not happen this year due to sequester

The ad, titled  “CLOSE GUANTANAMO NOW,” calls to “stop the torture” and “end the war crimes and violations of fundamental rights.” It contends that the president closed the office responsible for processing prisoners’ releases, made it more difficult for lawyers to meet with their clients by recently banning commercial flights to the prison, and has stalled waiting for Congress’ approval to shut down the internment prison.

At the military prison, 166 men still languish, more than 100 of them engaged in a months-long hunger strike in protest of their continued detention. But rather than address their grievances, the U.S. military is now shackling the hunger strikers to chairs to force sustenance into their stomachs through their noses.

“It was the hunger strike that inspired all of us to feel like this demand to close Guantanamo, release the cleared prisoners…had to be delivered right now,” Debra Sweet, director of World Can’t Wait, the group that first organized the call to action, told MSNBC. “We feel it is extremely important to get this message out.”

When the president speaks Thursday at the National Defense University about counterterrorism policies in his second term, he has the chance to recommit to the principles of transparency and human rights that he promised four years ago. During his first election campaign, he said he would close the prison at Guantanamo within a year.

World Can’t Wait is a national movement formed to halt and reverse war, repression, and theocracy initiated by the Bush administration, according to the website. The ad’s call to action began with the Guantanamo lawyers, followed by well-known figures and others who have taken a stand against the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Sweet said.

The list includes attorneys for Guantanamo prisoners, former military lawyers, former Guantanamo guards, and famous names including historian Noam Chomsky, actor John Cusack, filmmaker Michael Moore, and screenwriter Oliver Stone.

The group has an ongoing fundraising campaign in hopes of publishing the ad elsewhere in the United States and internationally, Sweet said.

“The exciting part is we were able to gather a lot of young and emerging activists who have not been in this circle of activity before,” she said. “This was a chance for voices of conscience in this society to have a vehicle to make this unified expression together.”

See the full-page ad here: