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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.

'If we don't make that effort now, and this spreads not just through Africa but other parts of the world, there's the prospect then that the virus mutates,' he said. 'It becomes more easily transmittable. And then it could be a serious danger to the United States.'

Obama said it was essential the US keep spending money on public health aid in developing countries and chastising those who have opposed it.

'I have no higher priority than keeping the American people safe. I think I've done a very good job during the course of these last -- close to six years doing so,' he said in defending his policies overall.