>> they're not getting it from drug dealer, they're to the getting off the internet. they're not purchasing it from down the street. they're getting from their homes. >> ifill: and jeffrey brown explores moves by five states to restrict access to abortion services. >> most americans have a common sense approach to abortion where they want parental consent-- consent, informed consent. americans believe they can make these personal decisions. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and by b.p./ >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: president obama marked the first 100 days of his second term today, using a news conference to demand action on his agenda, from guantanamo to guns. newshour correspondent kwame holman begins our coverage. >> do you still have the juice to get the rest of your agenda through this congress? >> if you put it that way, jonathan, maybe i should just pack up and go home. golly. >> reporter: president obama joked and jabbed in the white house briefing room as he pressed the point that he's no lame duck and that he'll keep pushing his priority. >> we understand that we're in a divided government right now. republicans control the house of representatives. in the senate this habit of requiring 60 votes for even the most modest piece of legislation has gummed up the works there. despite that, i'm actually confident that there are a range of things we'll be able to get done. >> reporter: for instance he said he believes congress will approve sweeping immigration reform. and he insisted he hasn't given up on closing the prison at guantanamo, cuba, as he vowed to do in his first presidential campaign. >> i think it is critical for us to understand that guantanamo is not necessary to keep america safe. it is expensive. it is inefficient. it hurts us in terms of our international standings. it lessens cooperation with our allies on counterterrorism efforts. it is a recruitment tool for extremists. it needs to be closed. >> reporter: congress has balancinged at transferring detainees to the mainland u.s. but more than half of the 166 captives now are waging a hunger strike for better conditions and an end to years of legal limbo. >> i don't want these individuals to die. obviously the pentagon is trying to manage the situation as best as they can. but i think all of us should reflect on why exactly are we doing this. why are we doing this? i'm going to go back at this. i've asked my team to review everything that's currently being done in guantanamo. everything that we can do administratively and i'm going to reengage with congress to try to make the case that this is not something that is in the best interests of the american people. >> reporter: likewise, the president said it's not in the country's best interest to keep the across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester. >> it slowed our growth. it's resulting in people being thrown out of work. and it's hurting folks all across the country. and the fact that congress responded to the short-term problem of flight delays by giving us the option of shipping monies that's designed to repair and improve airports over the long-term to fix the short-term problem, well that's not a solution. >> reporter: and that was a recurring theme, mr. obama arguing that the failure to address guantanamo or budget problems or gun violence lies squarely on congress's doorstep as he told abc new's jonathan carl. >> jonathan, you seem to suggest that somehow these folks over there have no responsibilities and that my job is to somehow get them to behave. that's their job. >> reporter: by the same token the president accused republicans in congress and state houses of obstructing his health-care reform law. he acknowledged some glitches but said they don't affect most people. >> despite all the hue and cry and sky is falling predictions about this stuff, if you have already gotthelf insurance, then that part of obamacare that affects you, it's pretty much already in place. and that's about 85% of the country. what is left to be implemented is those provisions to help the 10 to 15% of the american public that is unlucky enough that they don't have health insurance. >> reporter: while much of the 48 minute white house news conference dealt with domestic policy and tensions with congress, the questions also turned abroad. the main focus, the ongoing conflict in syria and signs that bash ar al-assad may have used chemical weapons against the rebels. president obama indicated he's ready to consider military options if the case is proved. >> what we now have is evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of syria. but we don't know how they were used, when they were used, who used them. we don't have a chain of custody that establishes what exactly happened. >> reporter: in short, he said the american people and the world expect him to make sure he's gotthe facts before acting. >> if we end up rushing to judgement without hard, effective evidence, then we can find ourselves in the position where we can't mobilize the international community to support what we do. there may be objections even among some people in the region who are sympathetic with the opposition if we take action so it's important for us to do this in a prudent way. >> reporter: late today "the washington post" reported the president now is preparing to send lethal weaponry to the syrian rebels. the account said a final decision is likely within weeks. as for another security threat, the boston bombings, the president says so far it appears the department of homeland security and the fbi did their jobs in the months leading to the attacks. >> the fbi investigated that older brother. it's not as if the fbi did nothing. they not only investigated the older brother, they interviewed the older brother. they concluded that there were no signs that he was engaging in extremist activity. so that much we know. >> reporter: still the president promised a thorough review of whether sensitive intelligence was missed. >> woodruff: the president made >> ifill: the president made one straightforward pledge today, to keep the promise he made before he was elected to shut down the detention center at guantanamo bay. but is that even possible? charlie savage has been covering the issue for the "new york times." president said that keeping guantanamo open is not necessary to keep the country safe. what does he base that on? >> well, president obama's plan for closing guantanamo involves bringing the detainees there who can't be sent home because they're deemed too dangerous to release or because they are from countries where security conditions are poor, taking those detainees and bringing them to another prison inside the united states. his original plan which congress blocked was to use an empty maximum security prison in illinois to amp up its security further to supermax conditions. and his motion there is we have terrorist all over the country, the supermax prisons in particular, and that's fine. it's not like that is actually a threat to national security. so we can still detainee in wartime detention, is his view, without having to necessarily do it at guantanamo where things are so much more expensive and where there is this symbolic public relations problem that causes all sorts of foreign policy problems for the country. >> ifill: first of all how many detainees are we talking about here? >> there are currently 166 detainees remaining at guantanamo. that's down from 240 when he took office, and about 800 total whom the bush administration brought there. president obama has not brought anyone to guantanamo. >> ifill: and when you mention at the expense and the president mentioned the expense, what are we talk approximating about? >> it's more expensive to build anything there. it's more-- because it is so far away, you have to barge things in around cuba. it's more expensive to operate anything there. and currently the facilities there are sort of falling apart. the south comm which overseas gain tan to-- guantanamo has a pending request for $200 million in new construction to replace deteriorate facilities which it says needs to be done right now. this would effectively build permanent structures to replace what had been temporary guard baracks and camps and so forth set up over ten years ago. >> ifill: the president also made another claim today, assertion. he said that the presence of guantanamo makes if a recruitment tool for extremists. is there any evidence to back that up? >> well, certainly intelligence agencies have occasionally picked up propaganda or you see radical muslim clerics and so forth mentioning guantanamo in a list of grievances. i would say in the current era probably drone strikes occupy the number one spot on that list. but there's also this continuing problem involving the low level detainees at guantanamo. not the high level guys that are never going to get out like khalid sheikh mohammed. we're talking about half the detainee population, 86 have been cleared unanimously by national security agencies for more than three years to be released if security conditions have been met. and the outward flow of those detainees has dried up for several years. that's what is leading to this turmoil and unrest at guantanamo right now. and i think that's currently the issue that is attracting the greatest blowback globally including from the-- recently from the united nations high commissioner for human rights. >> ifill: and part of blowback, part of the upheaval there right now has to do with this hunger strike which is under way. is this what has forced the president to get tough on this issue again? or was this, is this what the administration has been saying quietly all along? >> well, the administration's stated policy has been since obama took office in 2009 that it wants to close guantanamo. but in the face of congressional opposition to its plan to bring the detainees into the united states, and later some restrictions imposed by congress on transferring them elsewhere to countries with troubled security conditions, that stated policy has been basically stated only. there has been very little effort by the administration for the past several years to actually do anything about it. it's been sitting on its hands, essentially, waiting for the political winds to shift again. even after congress granted it in 2012 the power to issue case by case waivers to those transfer restrictions to send people back to places like yemen. the administration has not exercised that authority once. and earlier this year it transferred away the high level state department diplomat whose job it was to negotiate detainee transfers. and it did not replace him. and so it is against that backdrop of ossification that the turmoil in guantanamo which for the first years of his presidency have been quite quiet has recently blown up. the detainees have grown desperate that they are never going to go home, even the ones long since designated for potential release. they think the world has forgotten about them. and both the military and lawyers for detainees agree that that sense of growing hopelessness is the underlying condition that is driving this hunger strike and larger protest. >> ifill: so why is the president's statement today any different from the assertions the administration has made before? is there anything he can now do administratively in the face of congressional opposition? >> well, that's what is sort of interesting about this. of course he made this because someone asked him. it is not like he went out and chose to say something about guantanamo when he has been quiet about the topic for quite a long time. so he's saying, yes, in addition to trying to get congress to bugd-- budget, he has ordered a review of what could be done administratively and both republicans in congress and civil libertarian groups on the other side are saying there are things he could have already been doing for some time. he could have been issuing or directing the secretary of defense to issue these waivers on's case-by-case basis to get some of the low level detainees who have been jammed up, out. he could appoint a high level person in the white house with the authority to resolve interagency disputes that have slowed down certain policies like the creation of parole boards. they missed a deadline over a year he had set up to have parole hearings for detainees who are deemed too dangerous to release. if they are still too dangerous, nothing has happened because of interagency dispute no one has resolved that dispute. and the ban on transfers to yemen is to the something congress imposed, it's something that president obama himself created a year earlier after the attempted underwear bombing of that detroit bound airliner on christmas in 2009. that's where 56 of the 86 detainees long since approved for congressional approval are from yemen. and it is mr. obama's own self-imposed ban on any transfers to that country which is primarily kept them locked up. >> ifill: still in a tough position. charlie savage of "the new york times", thank you so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and you can watch all of mr. obama's press conference on our web site. and still to come on the newshour, the political challenges ahead for the president and congress; an update on the investigation into the boston bombings; the problem of prescription drug abuse; and a debate about recent moves to restrict abortions in the states. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. will food and drug administration approved over its counter sales of the morning after birth pill for girls 15 and old. before now it was only able to those 17 and over. earler-- earlier the judge ordered the age restrictions be lifted but the fda said it was in the works before the judge's order. three nato service members were killed in a roadside bombing in southern afghanistan today. it came on the third day of the taliban's spring offensive. the militants have vowed to target foreign military bases and diplomatic areas and to use "insider attacks" by afghan soldiers and police to kill nato troops. nato did not identify the nationalities of those killed today. in libya, a confrontation escalated as militiamen surrounded the justice ministry in the capital city, tripoli. it's the third day of trouble, as armed groups test the government's political transition. gunmen stood guard today beside trucks mounted with anti- aircraft guns. roads around the justice ministry were sealed off, the building was closed, and visitors were turned away. the militias are trying to force out members of moammar gadhafi's regime who are still in government posts. the parliament of cyprus narrowly passed a multibillion- dollar bailout plan today, avoiding national bankruptcy. the government struck the deal with its euro partners and the international monetary fund last week. officials had warned that without the agreement, the country faced economic collapse and possible withdrawal from the euro system. the deal has angered many cypriots by forcing large bank depositors to take major losses on their savings. the u.s. economy is giving off more signals of growth. consumer confidence rose in april, after falling in march. the conference board, a private research group, says hiring and pay raises helped. and the standard & poors/case- schiller index showed home prices jumped more than 9% in february. that's the biggest increase in nearly seven years. on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average gained 21 points to close well over 14,839. the nasdaq rose more than 21 points to close above 3328. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: w coverage of the president's news conference today with a look at his relationship with congress. joining me now are dan balz, chief correspondent with the "washington post." and glenn thrush. he covers the white house for politico. welcome. to you both. so the president said, we heard him say at the news conference the rumors of his demise are greatly exaggerated when jonathan karl of abc asked him does he still have the juice to get the rest of his agenda through congress. dan, does he have the juice? >> well, he has some juice. but we've seen throughout his presidency, particularly after the 2010 elections, how difficult it is for him to get the congress to go along with the things he wants to do. and we thought perhaps after the re-election he would have a little bit more strength to do that. but very quickly we fell back into the same divisions. and it's hard for him to overcome that. >> woodruff: why? why doesn't he have what people thought after the elections that people might have. >>it just really striking to me the difference five months make. you know, right after the election people around the president were saying this is a pan date. this is a ratification of everything that he was trying to do. but i think it's been a confluence of a bunch of different circumstances. i think a lot of this has to do with the predicate that the president himself established in the first four years. he does not have great relationships on the hill with democrats or republicans. and at this point in time he needs to have leverage up on the hill and he just can't rely on relationships. >> woodruff: so is it a matter, dan, of just not cult nature-- cultivating relationships on the hill? >> well, that is part of it, as glenn says he's fever been a schmoozer on capitol hill. but it's much more difficult to operate on capitol hill today than it used to be for any president there are sometimes analogies made to lyndon johnson and he should be more like lincoln-- lyndon johnson, you know, breaking arms and legs and twisting everybody. the fact is that doesn't work the way it used to. this is a different time. the congress is different. the country is so divided, red and blue that it's just hard for any chief executive to operate that way. and as we've seen for congressional leaders to get their way sometimes. >> woodruff: glenn, we heard the president say today, he said it's not my job to get members of congress to behave. he said it's their job because they're elected to do what is right for the american people. he said and they ought to be thinking about five, ten, 15 years from now and not right now. is he right about that? does he have a point? >> well, maybe the juice we're talking about needs to be in the form of a cattle product. i think he is-- he's partially right about that. i think, you know, to a certain extent as dan said, the president is facing this incredible division. he has come up, however, with a fairly reasonable strategy which is to approach the senate and attempt to make these deals through the senate. i think on the immigration bill in particular. he can establish a conduit and put more pressure on the house republicans. in terms of legacy, that particular argument hasn't worked so far. >> woodruff: what about that, dan? >> well, i think that's right. i think in some way was we have seen since the election is a two-prong strategy which is slightly different than what he did in 2011. i think there is still an effort working the inside. and as glenn says mostly through the senate, hoping to break through with some republican senators who are certainly frustrated by the inability of congress to do some things. but there is a more aggressive outside strategy that he has employed since the election. and in a sense you could say there is a legisla