- How are you?
I'm great. I'm great.
How are you doing? - I'm doing well.
On Saturday night, were at that White
House Correspondents' Dinner.
I was.
Were you outraged?
Were your delicate sensibilities offended?
My sensibilities are not particularly delicate,
but I will say this--
that it's really interesting how many people in the Trump White
House, and the Trump supporting media who are very
offended about what they consider to be a very indecent
performance by the comedian.
I've been trying to have a conversation on my show
about decency, and about insults, and smearing,
and people saying things about other people
that are not true, and are just beyond the boundaries
of good behavior.
And if the Trump White House and their allies in the media
want to have this conversation about decency,
I welcome them to the table to talk about it.
But there's a bunch of stuff that they
need to get caught up on before we get to a comedian
at the White House dinner. There's--
- They're there to be funny. - Yeah.
There's-- you know, we want to talk about whether or not
it's appropriate to say that John McCain isn't a war
hero because he was captured.
And whether or not it's OK to make fun of people
with disabilities, or to make light of people who have drug
and alcohol dependency issues.
Minorities, talking about womens' appearances
in inappropriate ways.
There's a backup of material, if the Trump
people want to talk about it.
Then we can get to the comedians.
Well, that's not how it works anymore.
Is it less fun when the president
isn't there at that event?
Oh, I don't know.
It depends on the president.
- I see. - I guess.
I guess.
You were the recipient of an award.
We all focus on on the comedian, but there is an award ceremony,
and you won the Merriman Smith Award?
That's right. For breaking news coverage.
Me and a team of reporters--
Jim Sciutto, Evan Perez, and the legendary Carl Bernstein
won an award.
We broke the story in January, 2017
that the intelligence chiefs had heard about this dossier--
we all know about the dossier now--
and that they had briefed President Obama, and then
president-elect Trump on the existence of this material
that the Russians were claiming was compromising.
Yes.
And was this the biggest story that you've ever broken,
would you say? - It was pretty big.
I don't know. It's tough to compare them all.
I've won this award a few times.
And there were other--
I did one about--
during the Obama years, when he was about to fire his director
of national intelligence.
Yeah?
And I knew before the Director of National Intelligence
that he was about to be fired, so that was one.
That might have been--
You should get an award for not screaming
when you interview Kellyanne Conway, because that alone
is a remarkable achievement.
I don't scream every time.
I appreciate-- I appreciate your noticing.
I want to show something, because this--
I don't know if you've even seen this,
but this is what happened when you got your award.
Now, let's run the video here.
You and the other guys, and you say saying hello
to people up there on the dais.
And there's Sarah Sanders, and she just kind of like, doesn't
even-- she doesn't stand, she doesn't even seem to see you.
Is it a good sign when you're being
ignored completely by the White House press secretary?
Well, you know, theoretically no president,
and no press secretary should be comfortable in that room,
I guess.
I hadn't seen that since then, and I
didn't notice it at the time.
But I don't know if you've picked up on this--
the president is not really a fan of reporters
sharing facts about him to the American people.
They don't like that.
Why do you think that is?
Well, the facts aren't always all that great for him.
When you get information from a source--
Yeah?
How does that information typically come?
Is it in writing, is it a text, is it an email, a phone call?
Do you meet at a secret location?
How does that go?
I'm not going to tell you.
I'm not asking--
so it's a secret location? - Sometimes.
Oh, really?
Sometimes it's on the phone, sometimes it's email.
Sometimes it's texts.
There's lots of, you know, encrypted devices these days.
Encrypted apps that you can use.
Do you have an encrypted app?
I'm revealing way too much about this procedure.
Yeah.
Well, I guess-- but I'm just curious about it.
Like, when you see, then, that person--
that man or woman at an event or whatever,
maybe you're interviewing that person--
do you guys have, like, a thing where you try not to-- you
know, it's like, a little bit weird?
Maybe, you know-- because you probably want to hug them.
You know you're going to win this Merriman
Smith Award again--
for the fifth time, or whatever the hell you've won it.
Is this something that like, you like, go, hey, thanks, man?
Or has it got to be completely under the radar?
Completely under the radar.
I mean, I'm thinking back about all the--
you know, tips I've gotten.
No, you don't acknowledge the person.
You don't thank them.
Seems ungrateful.
Nothing at Christmastime, or--
They don't want to be thanked.
They don't want to be acknowledged.
They don't want to be rewarded in any public way.
Everybody wants a little reward.
Some kind of acknowledgment in public.
You should do that on your last show, whenever that is.
Just out every source I ever had?
Say, I just want to thank my sources.
When I retire.
I want to thank my sources.
They are-- Right.
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