Nearly a year after Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces, President Barack Obama described the tense moments spent watching the raid from the White House Situation Room.
In an exclusive interview with Rock Center Anchor and Managing Editor Brian Williams, the president recalled the moment when one of the helicopters used by Seal Team Six and special forces encountered problems.
“There’s silence at this point inside the room,” the president told Williams in an interview airing on NBC's Rock Center, “Inside the Situation Room,” on Wednesday, May 2 at 9pm/8 c.
The raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan led to the al-Qaeda mastermind’s death.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while glimpsing at the famous photo of her and the president’s top advisors in the Situation Room during the raid, joked that she covered her mouth like “when my husband drags me to an action movie.”
Putting the jokes aside, Clinton said that she stills feels adrenaline rushing through her body when she thinks of the night U.S. forces killed bin Laden.
“What it conjures up is all of the emotions that were running through my and every other person in that small group,” Clinton told Williams. “It was just an extraordinary experience and a great privilege to be part of.”