Nightly News   |  February 06, 2011

Obama: Egypt ‘not going to go back to what it was’

In a pre-Super Bowl interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, President Barack Obama says it’s clear that Egyptians want free and fair elections.

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This content comes from a Full-Text Transcript of the program.

LESTER HOLT, anchor (Amman, Jordan): President Obama is weighing in tonight on events in Egypt . NBC 's Mike Viqueira has the latest now from the White House for us. Mike :

MIKE VIQUEIRA reporting: Good evening, Lester . It's become something of a tradition for the network airing the Super Bowl to conduct a pregame interview with the president, and late today the president sat down with Fox's Bill O'Reilly where the subject quickly turned to Egypt . And though he has come close in recent days, Mr. Obama is still not publicly calling for Mr. Mubarak to immediately step down.

President BARACK OBAMA: Egypt is not going to go back to what it was. The Egyptian people want freedom. They want free and fair elections. They want a representative government . They want a responsive government. And so what we've said is, you have to start a transition now. Mubarak 's already decided he's not running for re-election again. His term is up this year. And what we've said is let's make sure that you get all the groups together in Egypt , let the Egyptian people make a determination, what's the process for an orderly transition, but one that is a meaningful transition and that leads to

a government that....

Mr. BILL O'REILLY: So you don't know when he's going to leave.

Pres. OBAMA: Well, you know, he -- ultimately, the United States can't absolutely dictate what happens...

Mr. O'REILLY: You can't force him to leave. But you, you know...

Pres. OBAMA: ...but what we can -- what we can do, Bill , is we can say that the time is now for you to start making a change in that country.

VIQUEIRA: And, Lester , the president also stressed that, as the Muslim Brotherhood is brought into those negotiations, they are just one faction there and the majority of those in Egypt do not support them. Lester :

HOLT: Mike Viqueira at the White