Obama: salutes Republicans

US President Barack Obama promised to work with his Republican opponents Wednesday after their midterm election victory and asked them to back his battles against Ebola and Islamic State jihadists.

“Obviously, Republicans had a good night,” he admitted, after Republicans seized control of the Senate from Obama’s Democrats and increased their majority in the House of Representatives.

“I’m eager to work with the new Congress to make the next two years as productive as possible,” Obama said, while warning that there may still be some legislation that he would feel obliged to veto.

“That’s natural. That’s how our democracy works,” he said. “But we can surely find ways to work together on issues where there’s broad agreement among the American people.”

Obama said that his first requests to the new Congress would be for help in battling the spread of Ebola in West Africa and beyond, and for support for US-led military action against jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

“First, I’ve submitted a request to Congress for funding to ensure that our doctors, scientists, and troops have the resources that they need to combat the spread of Ebola in Africa and to increase our preparedness for any future cases here at home,” Obama said.

That request is for more than $6 billion in emergency funding to fight the deadly epidemic.

“Second, I’m going to begin engaging Congress over a new authorization to use military force against ISIL,” he said, using the US government’s preferred acronym for the so-called Islamic State group.