Todd: I Was Struck by Obama’s ‘Extremely Defensive’ Tone at Press Conference About ISIS

[RUSH TRANSCRIPT]

HOLT: "Especially in the wake of what happened here in Paris on Friday, of those terrorist acts that killed 129 people. The headline here in this news conference, the president essentially saying stay the course and that there will be no change in overall U.S. strategy in the war against ISIS. He was defensive at times, as reporters continued to ask him questions about a possible change in strategy. Let's go to NBC's Chuck Todd who's been watching along with us. Chuck, the president clearly feeling pressure to do something new in the wake of this. But he really held his ground here."

TODD: "He did, and I was struck by how defensive he was. How much he's paying attention to his political critics. He answered about six or seven specific charges or ideas that various critics of him, presidential candidate critics, or otherwise have made and he used them a [indecipherable]. I was surprised by his tone, I was surprised by the defensiveness he didn't channel what I think a lot of Americans are feeling right now is a -- a little bit of anger, a little bit of resolve and a little bit of resiliency. I get the policy argument that he's make, this is a policy that's going to work and I don't think these -- these other ideas are going to work. But, I was --  again, I go back to the tone of this -- press conference, extremely defensive. And almost not yet realizing that many of the reporters in that room, they're channeling the public in this case, Lester, as you know being in Paris, and we know that --the -- where the public is there. But, it's a lot of similar feelings here in the United States right now. So, that's the part of [indecipherable] just struck me is -- frankly an odd decision. Not odd that he's sticking to his policy, odd and how the tone he chose to use today."