Obama: I take terrorism seriously

President Obama in an interview Sunday rejected notions that he doesn’t take terrorist threats seriously, saying it’s been his top priority since day one.

{mosads}”There isn’t a president who’s taken more terrorists off the field than me in the last seven and a half years,” Obama told “Fox News Sunday” in an interview taped last week. “I’m the guy who calls the family or meets with them or tries to comfort a mom or a dad or a husband or a kid after a terrorist attack. Let’s be very clear about how much I prioritize that.”

Obama recently said in an interview with The Atlantic that fear of terrorism is overblown, with more Americans more likely to die from falls in tubs than from attacks by terrorists, a comment that received sharp rebukes from both sides.

He’s also been criticized for his responses after terrorist attacks, including going to a baseball game in Cuba after the attacks in Brussels in March.

But he maintains defeating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is his No. 1 priority.

“It has been my view consistently — the object of terrorism in their minds is to induce panic, to induce fear, to get society to change who they are, and what I’ve tried to communicate is you can’t change us,” Obama said.