Obama to visit San Bernardino to meet victims of shooting

The president stops in California on his way to Hawaii for the holidays. Federal authorities say the pair had become self-radicalized in the years before Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 29, opened fire on Farook’s co-workers. Two suspects who are said to have been inspired by the Islamic State were killed in a shootout with police. “So this was an act of terrorism, created to kill innocent people”.

The president will not hold any public events in the city, a White House official said.

Yet Obama and his team fully understand they are likely to run into fierce resistance on Capitol Hill to any administrative attempts to tighten gun restrictions, rather than work through a GOP-controlled Congress – a hot-button maneuver the White House legal staff is now assessing.

The attack has made Americans increasingly nervous about their security. She said the recommendations will include measures to expand background checks.

Privately, aides said Obama is bristling at the thought of being irrelevant during the heat of the 2016 presidential race.

Closing out a tumultuous year, President Barack Obama sought to lay the groundwork Friday for his last year in office by vowing not to fade into the background, instead pledging to use his remaining months to push longstanding priorities to fruition.