Washington (CNN) – Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett referred to calls for the president to release his academic records as "nonsense" Thursday.

The suggested disclosure came Wednesday from real estate mogul Donald Trump after the so-called "birther" debate caused the president to release the long-form version of his birth certificate.
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(CNN) - Four-star Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli - the number two general in the U.S. army - says he is absolutely not offended that Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett mistook him for a waiter at a fancy Washington dinner this week and asked him for a glass of wine.

It could have happened to anybody, Chiarelli tells CNN.

(CNN) - President Barack Obama’s campaign strategy for the 2012 election will be very different from his 2008 approach that landed him in the White House, according to top adviser Valerie Jarrett.

As a senator in 2008, Obama was able to campaign continuously - something Jarrett said will not be the case in two years.
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Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett have been subpoenaed as witnesses in the federal corruption trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Chicago, Illinois (CNN) – Two senior members of President Barack Obama's administration have been subpoenaed as witnesses in the federal corruption trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, which begins Thursday in a federal courtroom in Chicago, Illinois.

Blagojevich is charged with racketeering and fraud, among other charges.

A senior administration official confirmed that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett have been subpoenaed.

Blagojevich, a two-term Democrat, was impeached and removed from office in January 2009 amid accusations that he had attempted to sell the U.S. Senate seat that had been occupied by Obama before he became president.

The ousted governor is accused of telling his former chief of staff, John Harris, that he wanted "a good gig" in exchange for an appointment to Obama's seat, either in Washington or with a lucrative private foundation.

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White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said Sunday that the president has brought about 'enormous change.'

Washington (CNN) - The White House rejected criticism Sunday that President Barack Obama has not delivered on his promise of "change" during his first year in office.

White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said the president has brought about "enormous change."

"I think what we've seen is a dramatic difference in terms of how the United States is perceived around the world," Jarrett told NBC's "Meet the Press," on the final Sunday before the president's State of the Union address.

Obama's travels have established relationships with world leaders that "lay a foundation for keeping America safe and making us a partner around the world," she added.

Jarrett also credited the president with having "pulled back the economy from the brink of disaster."

"That's an enormous amount of change when you consider where we were a year ago right on the brink," she said. "And he's adding discipline in government to try to get control over our fiscal house. So I think that we've seen enormous change."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, on the same program, countered that "if you look at the first year of this administration, we haven't made much progress." He complained about the deficit in the president's budget and the health care reform package that Republicans oppose.

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Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett downplayed a report Tuesday that recounted a testy telephone call between the president and fellow Democrat Rep. John Conyers.

Washington (CNN) - A senior White House official downplayed a report Tuesday that recounted a testy telephone call between President Obama and House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers.

In an interview with CNN, White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett said that Obama and Conyers have "the kind of relationship where they can call each other anytime" and "blow off a little steam."

Jarrett was responding to a question about a story published by The Hill that said Obama recently called Conyers to express frustration about the chairman's criticism of him.

"[Obama] called me and told me that he heard that I was demeaning him and I had to explain to him that it wasn't anything personal, it was an honest difference on the issues," the Michigan Democrat told The Hill. "And he said, 'Well, let's talk about it.'"

Conyers office would not comment on the exchange when contacted by CNN.
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(CNN) – The White House carefully continued its assault on Fox News Tuesday, as a senior White House adviser told CNN's Campbell Brown that the network was "of course" biased against the Obama administration, but immediately backtracked slightly.

Speaking at the Women's Conference in California, White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett said the Obama administration is "calling everybody out" when it comes to "patterns of distortion" - echoing the Democratic National Committee's "Call 'em Out" campaign that targets critics of the president's health care plan.

To the question of whether Fox News is biased, Jarrett replied: "Well, of course they're biased. Of course they are."

But when Brown followed up by asking Jarrett if she thinks MSNBC is biased, she quickly downplayed her original remark. "Actually, I don't want to generalize all of Fox is biased or that another station is biased. I think what we want to do is look at it on a case-by-case basis," she said. "When we see a pattern of distortion, we're going to be honest about that pattern of distortion....

"We're actually calling everybody out. So this isn't anything that's simply directed at Fox. We just want the American people to have a really clear understanding," said Jarrett.

Watch Campbell Brown's interview with Valerie Jarrett Tuesday beginning at 8 p.m. ET on CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Barack Obama's decision to release four Bush-era memos regarding the use of so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" was heavily criticized Sunday as a couple of prominent senators told CNN's John King that the decision was a potentially dangerous mistake.

"I think it was a mistake to release the techniques that we're talking about and inform our enemy as to what may come their way," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said on "State of the Union."

Graham, who opposed the use of techniques that many consider to be torture, added that he still believed "there's a way to get good information in an aggressive manner to protect this nation without having to go into the Inquisition era."

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett told CNN Sunday that President Obama still wants to work with Republicans in a bipartisan way on major policy initiatives like health care reform.

"He has reached out more aggressively I think to the Republican Party than I could ever imagine a president could possibly do," she told John King on State of the Union. "So I think the burden is on him to reach out his hand, and that's what he's done, and that's what he's going to continue to do throughout this administration."

After failing to secure Republican support for most of his economic plan, the president called on the Senate last week to use a parliamentary procedure that would allow legislation - including massive efforts like a health care overhaul - to pass without any GOP votes.