President Obama Lobbies Sen. Carl Levin To Keep DADT In DOD Authorization Bill

Chris Geidner reports at Metro Weekly that President Obama has called Sen. Carl Levin to encourage him to fight efforts to strip the repeal of DADT from the defense authorization bill.

This afternoon, White House spokesman Shin Inouye told Metro Weekly that President Obama had spoken with one of the Senate leaders of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal -- Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) -- about the provision's inclusion in the National Defense Authorization Act. Inouye wrote, "Today, President Obama called Chairman Levin to reiterate his commitment on keeping the repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' in the National Defense Authorization Act, and the need for the Senate to pass this legislation during the lame duck." He added, "The President's call follows the outreach over the past week by the White House to dozens of Senators from both sides of the aisle on this issue."

UPDATE: The below press release just came in from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, noting a joint press conference to be held tomorrow morning with nine Democratic Senators and pro-repeal LGBT groups. The purpose of the press conference is to urge other Senators to support the repeal vote.