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US President Barack Obama admitted he should have expected to be criticized for hitting the links on the same day that he addressed the beheading of American journalist James Foley and spoke with his family. 'Part of this job is also the theater of it,' he told NBC News' Chuck Todd. 'Well, it's not something that always comes naturally to me. But it matters. And I'm mindful of that.' He added: 'I should have anticipated the optics' of playing golf. Obama, who was on vacation at the time of Foley's murder, was heavily criticized for heading to the golf course at Martha's Vineyard where he was vacationing on August 21. He said he was 'heartbroken' over Foley's death and that it was hard for him to hold back tears while speaking with his family. Obama blamed the contrasting images partially on how the press follows him everywhere, even while he is 'supposed to be on vacation'. He said there's always potential for bad news to occur, and sometimes it'll happen while the president is on holiday. The Ebola outbreak was another subject discussed during the interview, with Obama calling it a 'national security priority'. The US has a responsibility to give countries without sufficient public health infrastructure the resources they need to contain the virus, he said. Obama also warned the virus could mutate if not controlled and could become dramatically more threatening for the world and even for the US. | 
