After Director of National Intelligence James Clapper gave congressional testimony that echoed President Obama's recent statements about the threat that al Qaeda poses, Fox News host Bret Baier claimed that the testimony was a “direct contradiction” to the president's description of the threat posed by the terrorist organization.

On the February 11 edition of Fox News' Special Report, Baier reported on Clapper's testimony earlier in the day before the Senate Armed Service Committee, in which Clapper testified that al Qaeda is “morphing and franchising itself” throughout the world. Baier categorized Clapper's testimony as a “direct contradiction” to what President Obama has said about the terrorist group in the past:

BAIER: A direct contradiction today from the nation's top intelligence chief, to what president Obama has said about al Qaeda. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a Senate committee today previous assessments from the president are not accurate.

Baier appeared to suggest that Obama's past claims that al Qaeda was “on the run,” made several times during the 2012 campaign, are in contradiction to Clapper's testimony. But Baier failed to note Obama's most recent statements on the terrorist organization. In fact, Clapper's testimony before the Senate that al Qaeda is a “morphing” threat that is “franchising itself” in several countries is similar to recent statements from President Obama. In his State of the Union address last month, Obama acknowledged that al Qaeda still posed a threat to the United States, a threat that he said has “evolved”: (emphasis added)

While we've put al-Qaida's core leadership on a path to defeat, the threat has evolved as al-Qaida affiliates and other extremists take root in different parts of the world. In Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Mali, we have to keep working with partners to disrupt and disable these networks.

President Obama also said during a national security speech in May 2013 that “Today, the core of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan is on the path to defeat ... Instead, what we've seen is the emergence of various al Qaeda affiliates. From Yemen to Iraq, from Somalia to North Africa, the threat today is more diffuse, with al Qaeda's affiliates in the Arabian Peninsula -- AQAP -- the most active in plotting against our homeland.”

As CBS News noted, both Clapper and Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, were echoing Obama's more recent remarks on al Qaeda during their testimony.