--- title: This Is When President Obama Made an Oval Office Speech description: He has only made three such addresses to the nation—once, about terrorism, on Sunday. The other two times were in 2010. canonical: https://time.com/4138138/barack-obama-oval-office-speech/ author: Mark Rivett-Carnac article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-07T09:46:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:56:55.477Z article:section: History og:title: President Obama’s Oval Office Speeches og:description: He's only made three such addresses to the nation—twice in 2010, once in 2015 og:url: https://time.com/4138138/barack-obama-oval-office-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb930cb61d285fb05/698873f60b72e319026e7212/h_52438348.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3600 og:image:height: 2025 og:image:alt: US President Barack Obama's address to the nation in Washington, DC og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama’s Oval Office Speeches twitter:description: He's only made three such addresses to the nation—twice in 2010, once in 2015 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb930cb61d285fb05/698873f60b72e319026e7212/h_52438348.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # These Are the Other Times President Obama Made a Speech From the Oval Office > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: TIME Raw: Obama Vows To Overcome ISIS Threat [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Raw: Obama Vows To Overcome ISIS Threat](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/yVQO4Nfu.m3u8) (1:38)  _Published 2015-12-07_ by [Mark Rivett-Carnac](https://time.com/author/mark-rivett-carnac/) ## Mark Rivett-Carnac Dec 7, 2015 9:46 AM UTC  President Obama speaks during an address to the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, Dec. 6 2015. President Obama speaks during an address to the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, Dec. 6 2015. Saul Loeb—EPA by [Mark Rivett-Carnac](https://time.com/author/mark-rivett-carnac/) ## Mark Rivett-Carnac Dec 7, 2015 9:46 AM UTC U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the nation on the [state of American security](http://time.com/4137956/president-obama-oval-office-isis/) from the Oval Office on Sunday, a setting he has only used for formal speeches two other times in his years as president. **August 31, 2010** Flanked by the U.S. and President’s flag, Obama [told](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/08/31/remarks-president-address-nation-end-combat-operations-iraq) the nation that “Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country.” With these words he brought an end to nearly a decade of war and fulfilled one of his major campaign promises. With the long and costly operation coming to a close, Obama said the U.S.’s most “urgent task” was to “restore our economy, and put the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs back to work.” At the time, the nation was still suffering from the 2008 financial crisis. **June 15, 2010** Obama’s first Oval Office address [concerned](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-nation-bp-oil-spill) what he called “the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced.” On April 20 an explosion ripped a hole in the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killing 11 workers and dumping millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, just 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana. In his speech, Obama praised the ongoing cleanup operation while acknowledging the permanent damage already done to the coastline and wildlife. He issued a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling and spoke of stricter industry regulations to ensure the mistake did not happen again. The tragedy on the coast, he said, was “the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now.” ## Transcript As groups like ISOL grew stronger amidst the chaos of war in Iraq and then Syria. And as the internet erases the distance between countries we see growing efforts by terrorists to poison the minds of people like the Boston Marathon bombers. And the San Bernardino killers. The terrorist threat has evolved into a new phase. As we've become better at preventing complex, multifaceted attacks like 9 / 11, terrorists turn to less complicated acts of violence like the mass shootings that are all too common in our society. ISIL does not speak for Islam. They are thugs and killers. Part of a cult of death. And they account for a tiny fraction of a more than a billion Muslims around the world. Including millions of patriotic Muslim Americans who reject their hateful ideology. I know that after so much war, many Americans are asking whether we are confronted by a cancer It has no immediate cure. Well, here's what I want you to know. The threat from terrorism is real. But we will overcome it. We will destroy ISIL, and any other organization that tries to harm us. Our success won't depend on tough talk, or abandoning our values, or giving in to fear. That's what groups like ISIL are hoping for. Instead, we will prevail by being strong and smart, resilient, and relentless, and by drawing upon every aspect of American power. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4138138/barack-obama-oval-office-speech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4138138/barack-obama-oval-office-speech/"},"headline":"These Are the Other Times President Obama Made a Speech From the Oval Office","datePublished":"2015-12-07T09:46:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:56:55.477Z","description":"It's been a rare occurrence during his presidency","url":"https://time.com/4138138/barack-obama-oval-office-speech/","keywords":["White House","Barack Obama","Iraq","Security","Speech","BP"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb930cb61d285fb05/698873f60b72e319026e7212/h_52438348.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Rivett-Carnac","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mark-rivett-carnac/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb930cb61d285fb05/698873f60b72e319026e7212/h_52438348.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US President Barack Obama's address to the nation in Washington, DC","caption":"US President Barack Obama's address to the nation in Washington, DC","creditText":"Saul Loeb—EPA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4138138/barack-obama-oval-office-speech/","name":"These Are the Other Times President Obama Made a Speech From the Oval Office"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME Raw: Obama Vows To Overcome ISIS Threat","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/yVQO4Nfu/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-12-07T03:50:24.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/yVQO4Nfu.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4138138/barack-obama-oval-office-speech/","duration":"PT1M38S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4138138/barack-obama-oval-office-speech/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```