Interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News "This Week"

THE PRESIDENT: You know, I think we have been under serious threat my entire presidency, and we have been under serious threat predating 9/11 from those who embrace this ideology. Our --

STEPHANOPOULOS: But they're gaining strength, aren't they?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, they're gaining strength in some places. We've seen Europeans who are sympathetic to their cause traveling into Syria and now may travel into Iraq, getting battle-hardened. Then they come back. They've got European passports. They don't need a visa to get into the United States.

Now we're spending a lot of time -- and we have been for years -- making sure that we are improving intelligence so that we can respond to that.

So we got to improve our surveillance, reconnaissance, intelligence there. Special forces are going to have a role. And there are going to be times where we take strikes against organizations that could do us harm.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You've got Speaker Boehner talking about suing you for executive actions that he says has crossed the line. He says we elected a president; we didn't elect a monarch or king.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, you notice that he didn't specifically say what exactly he was objecting to.

I'm not going to apologize for trying to do something while they're doing nothing.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Even if you get sued?

THE PRESIDENT: You know, the -- the suit is a stunt. It -- but what I've told Speaker Boehner directly is if you're really concerned about me taking too many executive actions, why don't you try getting something done through Congress? The majority of American people want to see immigration reform done. We had a bipartisan bill through the Senate. It's sitting in the House. Why haven't we gotten it done? And you're going to squawk if I try to take some parts of it administratively that are within my authority while you are not doing anything?

STEPHANOPOULOS: [question about Hillary Clinton speaking fees]

THE PRESIDENT: I think that Hillary has been to this rodeo a bunch of times. She is in public service because she cares about the same folks that I talked to here today. As soon as you jump back into the spotlight in a more explicitly political way, you're going to be flyspecked like this, and she's accustomed to it. Over time, I don't think it's going to make a big difference.