CBS’ Steve Kroft: W.H. Embargoes ‘60 Minutes’ Interview with Obama Until Sunday
O'DONNELL: "I know. You've interviewed him many times and he is seems especially feisty this time. What does he say he is going to do about what Russia is doing in Syria?"
KROFT: "First of all, Norah, I can't really say very much about what we -- what's in the interview because the White House has embargoed it until Sunday. Mostly, he defends the positions that he is taken already, but we talk about--pretty much everything: about ISIS; we talk a lot about Vladimir Putin, the inability of the United States to identify and recruit and train any kind of a moderate force in Syria. We talk about his leadership, whether it's strong or whether the U.S. is projecting strength or weakness in the Middle East."
KING: "Can you say what he said about -- back to Norah's question about him appearing to be very feisty. Why do you think that is?"
KROFT: "Well, I'm surmising that some of it has to do with the fact he is a lame duck and that in fact when we were doing some walling/talking after the interview, he did say that he is finding this whole experience of not being on the ballot very liberating.”
ROSE: "Liberating?" (Laughter)
KROFT: "Liberating. Yeah. He said that -- it's sort of taken fear out of the equation. He doesn't have to be quite so careful about what he says. And I think you're seeing some of that. I think you saw -- maybe saw a little bit of it foreshadowing of it in the comments he made after this last school shooting. I think he is really -- he is sort of holding his ground.
ROSE: "And he knows these things will extend beyond his watch and his ability to impact.
KROFT: "Right. We also talked about Boehner, and we talked about the situation with the Republicans in Congress.
O'DONNELL: "Can't wait. '60 minutes' on Sunday. Steve, looks really good, thank you very much.”
KROFT: "I'm sorry. We also talked about Hillary Clinton's e-mails."
O'DONNELL: "Oh, good. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden and Donald trump-- all of that if you watch Steve's full report Sunday on '60 minutes' here on CBS. Thank you, Steve."
KING: ‘That's what you call a plug, Steve Kroft!”
