Previewing President Obama’s latest interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes with Steve Kroft, the 60 Minutes correspondent and the co-hosts of Friday’s CBS This Morning fawned over the President’s performance as “feisty” and proof that he finds his final years in office “liberating” as he does not have to go before voters again.
Following the final portion of the interview provided where Kroft admitted to the President that Russia and President Vladimir Putin are “challenging your leadership,” co-host Charlie Rose exclaimed to Kroft: “Wow! Mr. Kroft!”
Co-host Norah O’Donnell followed that compliment with one directed at the President in her question to Kroft by remarking that “[h]e seemed feisty this time” so “[w]hat does he say he is going to do about what Russia is doing in Syria?”
Kroft prefaced his comments by stating that “the White House has embargoed” the interview and what he can say about it until it airs Sunday, but he did emphasize that “he defends the positions that he is taken already” and touted his interview since he spoke with the President “about pretty much everything.”
Not satisfied with that answer, co-host and Obama family friend Gayle King circled back to restate O’Donnell’s question: “Can you say what he said about – I was going back to Norah's question about him appearing to be very feisty. Why do you think that is?”
While maintaining that he was speculating, Kroft observed how Obama feels the current state of his presidency to be “liberating”:
Well, I'm surmising that some of it has to do with the fact he’s a lame duck and that, in fact, when we were talking when we were shooting some B roll after the interview, he did say that he’s finding this whole experience of not being on the ballot very liberating.
Just as he had done moments earlier, Rose again exclaimed with glee to Kroft: “Oh, liberating?” That statement of joy from the CBS and PBS host led the Obama puppet in Kroft to elaborate on his feelings about the commander-in-chief:
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 foreshadowing of it in the comments he made after this last school shooting. I think he’s really – he is sort of holding his ground.
It’s worth noting that Kroft’s latest interview with the President comes days after it was revealed in the most recent batch of Hillary Clinton e-mails that the State Department “planted” questions with him when he sat down to interview Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in January 2011.
The relevant portions of the transcript from October 9's CBS This Morning can be found below.
CBS This Morning
October 9, 2015
7:10 a.m. Eastern
GAYLE KING: The Russian escalation is one of the topics that Steve Kroft asked President Obama about in a new interview for this Sunday's 60 Minutes. Here is a preview.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Pushing Back at Putin; President on Russia’s Escalation in War-Torn Syria]
STEVE KROFT: A year when we did this interview, there was some saber rattling between the United States and Russia on the Ukrainian border. Now, it’s also going on this week in Syria. You said a year ago, that the United States – America leads. We are an indispensable nation. Mr. Putin seems to be challenging that leadership.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: In what way? Let's think about this.
KROFT: Well, he’s has moved troops into Syria for one. He’s got people on the ground.
OBAMA: Right.
KROFT: Two, the Russians are conducting military operations in the Middle East for the first time since World War II, bombing the people that we are supposed to be – supporting?
OBAMA: That is leading, Steve? Let me ask you this question. When I came into office, Ukraine was governed by a corrupt leader who was a stooge of Mr. Putin. Syria was Russia's only ally in the region and, today, rather than being able to count on their support and maintain the base they had some Syria, which they’ve had a long time, Mr. Putin is promoting his own troops, his own military just to barely hold together by a thread his sole ally. And –
KROFT: He is challenging your leadership, Mr. President. He’s challenging your leadership.
OBAMA: No, no, Steve, I got to tell you, if you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we’ve got a different definition of leadership.
NORAH O’DONNELL: Steve Kroft is here. Good morning.
ROSE: Wow! Mr. Kroft!
O’DONNELL: I know. You've interviewed him many times. He seemed feisty this time. What does he say he is going to do about what Russia is doing in Syria?
KROFT: First of all, I can't really say very much about what we – what's in the interview because the White House has embargoed it until Sunday, but, you know, mostly, he defends the positions that he is taken already – I mean, he is taking but we talk about pretty much everything. We talk 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.
GAYLE KING: Can you say what he said about – I was going 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’s a lame duck and that, in fact, when we were talking when we were shooting some B roll after the interview, he did say that he’s finding this whole experience of not being on the ballot very liberating.
ROSE: Oh, liberating?
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 foreshadowing of it in the comments he made after this last school shooting. I think he’s really – he is sort of holding his ground.
