Steve Kroft’s handling of his “60 Minutes” interview of President Obama has drawn high marks from his media peers — much higher than those awarded to the commander in chief.
Business Insider reported Kroft “flayed” Obama.
Root Sports’ Eddie Robinson said during the interview, which was taped earlier last week and aired on Sunday, “Watching Obama’s 60 minutes interview, Steve Kroft is killing him, this is laughable.”
“It was a painful interview to watch as the leader of the free world spoke about his disastrous foreign policy as if he lived in a fantasy world,” read an op-ed published Monday morning by Fox News.
The “60 Minutes” interview covered an array of topics, including the scandal surrounding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of an unauthorized, private email server when she worked at the State Department, and the White House’s ongoing efforts to combat climate change.
But it was Kroft’s insistence that Obama explain his administration’s plans for dealing with the brutal and deadly civil war in Syria, which has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people, and displaced thousands more, that seemingly drew the most media commentary. Many said Obama appeared to be “irritated” and curt during that exchange.
The president first tried to stick to his talking points on Syria. As Kroft pushed Obama to elaborate on the administration’s plan for dealing with slaughter in the Middle East, the president appeared increasingly agitated.
During the exchange on Syria, Kroft stopped Obama to say, “I feel like I’m being filibustered, Mr. President.”
A seemingly defensive Obama responded, “if you ask me big, open-ended questions, expect big, open-ended answers.”
“Obama VERY defensive and testy during ’60 Minutes’ interview over his Mideast strategy,” said CNN’s Manu Raju.
Reason responded to the president’s attempts to explain the White House’s approach to Syria by running the headline, “Obama Explains His Syria Failure on 60 Minutes.”
“[Barack Obama] admitted his total fail in Syria, then explained it way,” the group asserted.
The Washington Post marveled at the interview’s “contentious tone.”
“The two frequently talked over each other, with Kroft interrupting the president and calling the failed effort to train rebel fighters in Syria an embarrassment,'” reported the Post’s Jena McGregor.
The U.K.’s Daily Mail went with the headline, “Obama loses his cool as he is challenged again and again on ’embarrassment’ of Syria.”
The conservative website Breitbart News characterized Obama as “annoyed.”
The Huffington Post described the president’s back-and-forth with Kroft over foreign policy as a “clash,” and said Obama “exchanged testy words” with his interviewer.
Elsewhere in the interview, Kroft pushed Obama to explain his idea of leadership and the administration’s response to the expanding role that Russia has been playing in the Middle East.
“If you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we’ve got a different definition of leadership,” he said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Unimpressed, Investor’s Business Daily reported, “With a straight face, Obama asserts Putin is weak and no challenge.”
In response to questions about what it he thinks for the United States to be global leader, and how he intends to respond Putin’s moves in the Middle East, the president said, “My definition of leadership would be leading on climate change, an international accord that potentially we’ll get in Paris. My definition of leadership is mobilizing the entire world community to make sure that Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon. And with respect to the Middle East, we’ve got a 60-country coalition that isn’t suddenly lining up around Russia’s strategy.”
Not everyone in the press thought the president bombed, however, as at least a few newsrooms stuck up for his performance.
Raw Story, for example, ran with a headline declaring that, “Obama slaps down ’60 Minutes’ reporter’s claim that Vladimir Putin is ‘challenging’ his ‘leadership.'”
“President Barack Obama shot down reporter Steve Kroft,” read one portion of the site’s write-up on the interview, conceding later that the president did indeed display “a brief expression of irritation” during the interview.
Vox.com, a so-called “explainer” website, cheered the president’s “contentious” interview style.
“Obama had a pretty sick burn mocking Putin’s ‘leadership,'” the site reported, referring also to the interview as “oddly confrontational.”
In the end, though, the lion’s share of praise went to Kroft, not Obama.
The New York Times’ Michael Barbaro added, “This is an admirably aggressive [“60 Minutes”] interview with Obama. Kroft interrupting him a lot — rare for TV anchors. Necessary, too.”
