The Borneo Post

Andrea Mitchell remembers what it was like being carried out of a news conference

- By Rachel Manteuffel

ANDREA Mitchell, 71, had to borrow “TV clothes” from another newswoman the fi rst time she reported on television. She lives with husband Alan Greenspan in Washington. QUESTION: What makes a great interview? No pressure. ANSWER: I think the best interviews are when you really listen to the answers. It’s something I learned from Tim Russert. He said, “Always listen in between the seams of someone’s answer.” Q: Forty years in television news! How did you make that happen? A: It doesn’t seem like a long career, like decades of reporting, because you always get excited about the next story on the horizon. Q: In 2005 you were dragged out of a press conference by security for asking the Sudanese president about genocide. Is that the awesomest and most badass thing you’ve ever done? A: There was a moment where I was literally carried out of a similar photo opportunit­y with Bashar Assad’s father ( Hafez Assad). Q: You were carried? A: Carried by his security officers. It was a photo opportunit­y with Bill Clinton, 1993, I think, in Damascus at the presidenti­al palace. I was asking a question about his support for terrorists. The frustratin­g thing was they started carrying me out - Q: How did they pick you up? A: Under the arms. Two big guys came up and picked me up and carried me out. My feet were dangling. I didn’t want to louse up the photo opportunit­y because it was the only chance to get the picture we all wanted, Clinton and Assad. So I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want my protests to interfere with the moment for the pool. Q: So you’re silent as they’re picking you up. A: And I’m watching Bill Clinton, who looked, I have to say, amused. Because he’d had enough, I’m sure, of all of our questions at photo opportunit­ies. Q: I hear you bring a box (to stand on) to scrums so people will see you fi rst. A: The really perilous thing is if you’re on the rope line and you’re covering the presidenti­al campaign - with the ( Hillary) Clinton campaign for months at a time it was the only way to really talk to her - sometimes you’d be ducking under barriers and standing on folding chairs. Folding chairs are very dangerous. They collapse. So you have to develop a strategy. We have these camera boxes, light boxes. Packing boxes that we travel with. I’m short. Q: I’ll write that down. A: I feel like I am a tall person. In my next incarnatio­n I will be a tall person. But I’m 5- 3. I can’t peer over the camera, but I can crawl under. Q: Is there anything you don’t want me to ask about? A: Eating, sleeping habits. I’m a bad influence on anyone who cares about a healthy life. It’s always awkward when someone asks about my personal time, because none of us have a life since the beginning of the 2016 campaign. Q: What is Alan Greenspan’s most annoying personal habit? A: Talking about differenti­al equations when I want to talk about food and fashion. — WPBloomber­g

 ??  ?? NBC’s Andrea Mitchell. — WP- Washington Post photo by Marvin Joseph.
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell. — WP- Washington Post photo by Marvin Joseph.

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