Ann Compton, who retired earlier this year after 41 years with ABC News, opened up to C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb about her time covering the White House.
In the interview, which occurred Oct. 30, but re-aired on C-SPAN this morning, Compton says she “was a strong voice for complaining that this particular administration has been more opaque than any I have covered about what the president does in the Oval Office every day.”
Compton says Obama “is the first president with his own journalistic tools. He has his own photographers and videographers. He has a newscast on Friday mornings anchored by his former deputy, now Press Secretary, Josh Earnest.”
Compton revealed she has also seen a side of Pres. Obama, most haven’t:
I have seen, in the last year, Barack Obama really angry twice. Both were off the record times. One profanity-laced, where he thought the press was making too much of scandals that he did not think were scandals. Another was where he took us to task for not understanding the limits that he has with foreign policy and the Middle East, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
“I find him willing to stand up to the press, look them in the eye, and just give us hell.”
Video after the jump…