carry on

Obama Sticks to Issues on Leno

Makes first comment on terror threat on ‘The Tonight Show.’

Don’t panic: just be prudent. That was the message President Barack Obama relayed from Jay Leno’s couch Tuesday night. Appearing on The Tonight Show, the president made his first public comments on the string of embassy closures in the Middle East, warning travelers over a possible terror threat. Americans shouldn’t “overreact” but should act “prudently,” he said, adding, “the odds of dying in a terrorist attack are a lot lower than they are of dying in a car accident.” This week, the State Department shuttered more than a dozen embassies and consulates after intercepting al Qaeda messages that seemed to indicate an attack in Yemen. Obama also commented on the current outrage over the NSA programs, saying: “We don’t have a domestic spying program. What we do have is some mechanisms that can track a phone number or an email address that is connected to a terrorist attack...That information is useful."