“NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams traveled to Moscow this week for an exclusive interview with Edward Snowden. It’s the former NSA contractor’s first-ever American television interview and it will air as an hour-long NBC News primetime special next Wednesday.
Williams, who anchored Monday’s “Nightly News,” before leaving for Moscow, talked with Snowden for several hours, NBC News says. Snowden, a U.S. Citizen, with a revoked passport, has been living in exile for nearly a year, since leaking classified documents about U.S. surveillance programs to Glenn Greenwald, for the Guardian, and Barton Gellman, of the Washington Post. Those reports won a Pulitzer Prize last month.
Lester Holt, filling in for Brian Williams on Tuesday’s “Nightly News,” said Williams would be back for Wednesday’s show. When he wasn’t — Holt filled in again — that got us wondering where Williams was. Now we know.
And after that 11,000-mile 72-hour trip, Williams turned around and got on a flight to Nashville to honor a commitment to speak at tonight’s Hillwood High School graduation. Williams will anchor “Nightly News” from Nashville.