Secretary of State John Kerry referenced Wednesday the date when "the president drew the red line publicly" at the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime during testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Earlier Wednesday, President Obama said, "I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line," framing the "red line" as an international and Congressional designation.
"When I said, in a press conference, that my calculus about what’s happening in Syria would be altered by the use of chemical weapons," Obama went on to say, "which the overwhelming consensus of humanity says is wrong, that wasn’t something I just kind of made up. I didn’t pluck it out of thin air. There’s a reason for it."
Those remarks were made at a press conference with the Swedish prime minister.
In August 2012, Obama publicly said that "there would be enormous consequences if we start seeing movement on the chemical weapons front, or the use of chemical weapons" at a press conference with reporters, describing the use of chemical weapons as a "red line."