Barbara Walters' Presidential Interviews Through the Years Photos - ABC News
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Barbara Walters' Presidential Interviews Through the Years
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Barbara Walters' Presidential Interviews
Barbara Walters interviews President Ford and first lady Betty Ford in 1976 for an ABC News special, which aired in 1977.
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Barbara Walters' Presidential Interviews
Barbara Walters interviews President Ford and first lady Betty Ford in 1976 for an ABC News special, which aired in 1977.
ABC Photo Archives
Barbara Walters' Presidential Interviews
Barbara Walters prepares for her interview with President Ford and first lady Betty Ford for an ABC special in 1976, which aired in 1977. Ford discussed pardoning President Richard Nixon: "I just decided, regardless of the political consequences, that I would do what I thought was right."
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Barbara Walters' Presidential Interviews
Barbara Walters interviews first lady Rosalynn Carter and President Carter just after the peanut farmer from Georgia was elected president in 1976.
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Barbara Walters' Presidential Interviews
Of all her presidential interviews, perhaps Barbara Walters' most unforgettable was with President Reagan for "20/20" at his Santa Barbara, Calif., ranch in 1981. "Well, it almost casts a spell," Reagan said of his private ranch. "It is truly a Shangri-La."
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Barbara Walters' Presidential Interviews
"You probably deduced that it wasn't new," President Reagan said of his Jeep during an interview on his private ranch with Barbara Walters. "I don't want to hurt your feelings, but this is the scroungiest Jeep I have ever ... the upholstery is coming out," Walters said during the 1981 Thanksgiving interview.
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Barbara Walters' Presidential Interviews
President Gerald Ford and first lady Betty Ford speak with ABC News' "20/20" in 1987, 10 years after their White House years. Betty Ford talked about her secret struggle with drugs and alcohol, telling Barbara Walters that she had been taking 25 or 30 pills a day while her husband was president. "I used the pills and the alcohol to help me cope," she said. "It was like an anesthetic."
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Barbara Walters' Presidential Interviews
Barbara Walters interviewed former President Richard Nixon several times during his presidency. "You were there so often ... we thought you were on the staff," Nixon joked in an interview with Walters after he'd left the White House. In the 1985 interview seen here, 11 years after he'd been out of office, Nixon apologized for his mistakes.
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Barbara Walters' Presidential Interviews
Barbara Walters interviews President George H.W. Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush for ABC News' "20/20" in 1989. While Walters pointed out that Barbara Bush openly contradicted her husband, she said it gave her an amusing insight to their relationship.
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Barbara Walters' Presidential Interviews
During this interview with President George H. W. Bush on "20/20" in 1992, Barbara Walters asked him if he regretted saying, "Read my lips: No new taxes." Bush responded, "I'm not sorry in the sense of trying to hold the line on taxes, but I think it caused a credibility problem at the time. ... So I would have to rank that as not a howling success."
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Barbara Walters' Presidential Interviews
Barbara Walters interviewed President Clinton at the White House on "20/20," Sept. 20, 1996. Clinton said, "The American people have now had an adequate opportunity to judge me as president, to see my work, to make a judgment about whether I have the character to do this job ... and they will do that."
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Barbara Walters' Presidential Interviews
Barbara Walters interviews President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama in November 2008, right after he was elected president.
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Barbara Walters' Presidential Interviews
Barbara Walters interviews President George W. Bush before the 2000 election at his home in Crawford, Texas.
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Barbara Walters' Presidential Interviews
President George W. Bush and former first Lady Laura Bush talk with Barbara Walters in the first interview they gave after Sept. 11, 2001. "When I learned that the crash was not an accident, but looked like a planned attack ... I knew we were entering into a whole new era in American history, that we were at war," Bush said of his initial reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
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Barbara Walters' Presidential Interviews
In 2012, President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama sat down with Barbara Walters at the White House for their first joint interview since the president's re-election.
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