Transcripts For WMAR Nightline 20121227 : vimarsana.com

Abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden, and bill weir in new york city, this is nightline, december 26th, 2012. Good evening, im terry moran. For a holiday, this has been a busy time in washington. As the negotiations surrounding that looming fiscal cliff come to a fever pitch just before the new year. But this is also a time of tradition and celebration in the nations capital, and nobody decks the halls like the team at the white house for christmas. Christmas is there, has come to mean a special visit every year, not just from santa claus, but from abcs own Barbara Walters. Barbara . Terry, in what has become one of my favorite holiday traditions for the fourth year, i had the privilege of interviewing the president and mrs. Obama at the white house. This interview was taped days before the tragic shooting in connecticut and was postponed until now. It was the first time the couple sat down together since winning reelection. Mrs. Obama also took me on a personal tour of what is called the peoples house. And its never more true than during the christmas season. After thanksgiving, more than 80 volunteers from nearly 40 states descend on the white house, trimming 54 trees, plus every nook and cranny. First dog bo is the star of the show. There he is inspecting the decorations, including this larger than life model of himself, made of 20,000 pompoms. My friend. Yes, bo. Hes really big in relation to this house. This 300pound ginger bread white house was the first stop on my exclusive behindthescenes tour with first Lady Michelle obama. These are various rooms in the actual white house. Absolutely. And the details in these rooms are just beyond this year. Why peer into these windows when i can see the real thing . Come on, bo. Does he follow you around all day . Next stop, the red room. Filled with cranberries and fruit trees. For christmas alone, well have more than 90,000 people come through these doors. How many hands do you shake at christmas . Oh, thousands. Show me how you do it. You know me. But you cant do that with everyone. In the center of the white house, the blue room with the official white house tree. This is the joining forces tree. Its the main tree here. The biggest tree. How beautiful. And the special thing about this tree, barbara, is that the ornaments are handmade messages from military kids who live in bases all around the world. This one says love you, dad, safe travels. So when visitors come, they can read these messages and, you know, just remember what these children are sacrificing during this time. This is one of my favorite trees look how big the tree is earlier, the first lady invited some military families to see the unveiling of ornaments and to make some holiday sweets. Did you guys taste these . This is good. They had kids, they were decorating cookies, and they were so focused until i brought in bo. They were more excited to see bo than they are to see me or the president. In fact, bo is the only one on the White House Christmas card this year. And his paw print is alongside the first familys signatures. What is bo getting for christmas . Oh, bo. Well, since hes right there, lets talk quietly so he doesnt know. I think hes going to get a couple of more plush toys. But dont tell anybody. I wont say a word. But there would be no such restrictions when i sat down with the president and mrs. Obama for their first joint interview since the election. After a decisive victory, they were riding a new wave of popularity. The campaign seemed to have brought them even closer together. Mr. President , mrs. Obama, there is a photograph of you that went viral, became the most shared photograph in the history of twitter. Here it is. Thats a great picture. When you look at this picture, what do you think . At what point was it taken . I think we were campaigning in iowa. Why were you hugging so hard in iowa . Because i love my wife. Well, and also, i hadnt seen him in a while. When youre campaigning, they have two ships passing in the night. And the first time i saw him was when i walked onstage to greet him. And thats my honey giving me a hug. I like giving you hugs. How do you keep the fire going . Thats a good question. You know, weve been married now 20 years. Uhhuh. And like every marriage, you have your ups and your downs. But if you work through the tough times, the respect and love that you feel deepens. And then theres a lot of laughter. And youre funnier. For the most part. Everybody thinks shes pretty funny. Im funnier than people think. That may be. You may be funnier than people think. When the election was so close, everybody was saying its so close, did you have a moment in which you said we may lose the election . And then where do we live . Do we stay on in washington . What do we do about the girls schools . Did you have to ponder any of that . The girls definitely asked the question. What happens if dad loses . And the thing that we just tried to instill in them is that, you know what . We were fine before we were here and were going to be fine no matter what happens. I want to talk about the girls. We have been watching them grow up from little girls to young ladies. Now, malia recently got her first cell phone. Do you want to see who she calls and who she texts . I give my daughter at this age i give her a long rope. And there is monitoring because we have rules. But monitoring may be you never know when im going to walk in your room and im going to definitely ask you, who are you talking to and are you talking about school work . And theyre not very good at lying. We joke sometimes about how malias getting to the age now, boys start calling and i always talk about how one of the main incentives for running again was continuing secret Service Protection to have more guns around. Boys can call the white house and say may i speak to malia . Well, thats part of the challenge with cell phones these days. Because it used to be pick up your phone and call, mr. Obama, its x, may i speak to your daughter. Those days are gone. Will you let malia date yet . Shes a teenager and shes going to start at some point. Being interested. Our goal has been to try to make sure that their lives here are as normal as they can be. Whatever they could do in chicago, they should be able to do here. And when we come back what keeps you up at night . Excuse me, sir im gonna have to ask you to power down your little word game. I think your friends will understand. Oh no, its actually my geico app. See . I just uh paid my bill. Did you really . From the plane . Yeah, i can manage my policy, get roadside assistance, pretty much access geico 24 7. Sounds a little too good to be true sir. Ill believe that when pigs fly. Ok, did she seriously just say that . Geico. 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Well return now to the White House Christmas, where abcs Barbara Walters continues her very personal interview at home with the first couple. So much goes on in both of your lives. What keeps you up at night if there are times . Stuff keeps me up at night all the time. But the one good thing is i generally work hard enough during the day. By the time my head hits the pillow, most of the time i fall right to sleep. There are certain moments the night before the bin laden raid. There are going to be certain moments where youre amped up. But for the most part, i dont have trouble sleeping. I have trouble waking up sometimes. You know, mrs. Obama, you told me at one point that you would never run for political office. Youve said that you dont have the patience for political life. Patience for what . I have learned from my husband watching him that it does require a great deal of patience to really feel the full impact of the work that you do on the ground. It doesnt happen right away. And she has a bigger difficulty biting her tongue. I think ive done pretty well at that. Not bad. Was there a time when you went shh . Are you kidding . Weve been married for 20 years, you think im going to go shh to my wife . Yeah, ive never heard shh come out of his mouth. Yeah. But the point is privately, there may be i have opinions. Shes got a few. You know a Little Something about views. Yes. Something about views. Yes, i do. You have an ipad. I do. Whats your favorite app . Scrabble. Oh, yes. Gosh. Sometimes i want to yank that out of your hands. Do you ever play scrabble together . No, no. Well, we do on the board, not on the ipad. Who wins . Hes good at scrabble. Shes very irrita hes very i researcher she doesnt like losing. I dont like losing to you because youre irritating when you win. What is your favorite president ial perk . Well the plane . Yeah. I mean, look, it has been a while since i flew commercial. But i remember it because i used to have to commute every week from d. C. To chicago. And not having to take off your shoes before you get on a plane is probably a pretty good luxury. And obviously youre never late for flights because generally the plane doesnt take off without you. Generally. Me, on the other hand, i could get left. Theyre not leaving him. Finally, i asked the president and first lady a question that ive asked during each of our special holiday interviews about their high points and low points. Again, all of this before the president ordered the flags flown at half staff after the connecticut shooting. You know, youve talked about sitting with the girls at night and talk about the rose and the thorn. Can you think of what the rose was and what the thorn was . For me personally, the thorn is always knowing that as commander in chief, ive put men and women of Armed Services in harms way, and some of them we had killed and some of them get injured. And that always weighs on me. That is as raw and as fresh now as it was the first month i took office. The rose for me, other than family, was being back on the campaign trail and having this Incredible Opportunity to reconnect with the american people. In some ways, the election was sort of the icing on the cake. A lot of icing. Yeah. Big cake. Big cake. Just ahead, meet the special class of first graders chosen to ask their christmas questions to the first lady. Whys everybody in such a hurry . Because its the final 100 hours of the ford year end celebration. Last chance to get the best deals of the year on americas freshest lineup. Hurry in for the great mileage. Hurry in the latest technology. The clock is ticking. So hurry to the final 100 hours of fords year end celebration. Before everythings gone. And one more thing. Hurry. Get a focus with 2000 cash plus 500 year end bonus cash with no charge sync and sound during the final hundred hours of the ford year end celebration. Only at your local ford dealer. As far as Christmas Trees go, its pretty hard to beat the 19footer that took front and center at the white house this year, and a group of first graders with a special connection to that tree got an inside scoop on the first familys christmas. Once again, heres abcs Barbara Walters. When first Lady Michelle obama, her daughters, and bo welcomed the official White House Christmas tree, they didnt notice tag that said blue ridge Elementary School, but we did. And as a dozen Parks Department workers wrestled the 19foot frazier fir into the white house, raising its to its place of honor in the blue room, we tracked it to its roots at this tree farm in jefferson, North Carolina. Its bunches and bunches and bunches of trees. Meet the First Grade Class that visited the farm and put the tag on the tree destined for the white house. I would be so excited to go to washington, d. C. And see the white house. We couldnt take them to the white house, but we could take their questions. We asked some Elementary School children in North Carolina if they had some questions. Yes. And they did. Do they give each other presents . Absolutely, we exchange presents. But presents are not the highlight of christmas for us. The kids get they get to ask santa for a couple of things, but we often we spend our christmas every year in hawaii, which is a big trip. Thats santa claus in a bathing suit. Santa claus with a lei, a hawaiian lei and some shorts. How do you live in the white house . Theres so many great things. There is a Movie Theater here. Theres a bowling alley. I think one of the best things is we share the house thats like a museum. Thats the really cool part. I want to ask mrs. Obama what do you do for work. Thats an often asked question. I explain to them that first of all im married to the president , so one of my key responsibilities is to support him in any way that i can. Then ill tell them about my initiatives that im working on, trying to end Childhood Obesity and generation, and talk to them about the work i do with military families. I wonder if santa claus comes to the white house. Well, you know, there are over 50 fireplaces in the white house. So he has a choice. Hes got plenty of options. Weve got 12 chimneys. Santa is a very resourceful individual. I think he can find a way in here one way or another. I think he has a pretty Good Relationship with the secret service, so they give him a pass. Happy holidays. Happy holidays, barbara. Thank you, as always. Thank you. It was time to go, but as a matter of protocol, we wanted to give the last word to the president. Thank you, barbara. Merry christmas. Merry christmas, everybody. In this season of giving, mrs. Obama is asking visitors of the white house and everyone watching to sign up for what she calls operation honor card. This is a volunteer project where you pledge a specific number of hours and then fill them with anything from mentoring your child to making a meal for a neighbor. Its all part of joining forces, which is the first ladys initiative to support military families. Terry . Thanks, barbara, once again this year. Thank you for watching abc news. Hope you check in with good morning america, theyll have the latest on the snow and the severe weather. Well always online at abcnews. Com. Jimmy kimmel is next and well see you here tomorrow