After Barack Obama and his family sat down for an exclusive, candid interview with Access Hollywood’sMaria Menounos, the impact of our interview was immediate and far reaching.
The presidential hopeful graciously allowed his charming daughters – 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha – to do their first on-camera interview with Access Hollywood.
But what Barack didn’t like was how it ended up plastered all over the cable stations.
“The Obamas’ two little girls tell all,” proclaimed MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.”
“The entire Obama family, including their two children, sits down together…” emanated from the voice of TV political pundit Dan Abrams.
Following the airing of his interview with Access, Barack sat down with Diane Sawyer on “Good Morning America.”
“Are you sorry you did it?” Diane asked of the Access interview.
“A little bit of pause… particularly the way it went around the cable stations,” the presumptive Democratic nominee replied.
Indeed, the interviews (which aired in two parts on Tuesday’s Access Hollywood) garnered a massive response. In fact, “Good Morning America” even went as far as to pull one of the interview clips straight from AccessHollywood.com.
On Wednesday, Matt Lauer took the senator to task over the interview on the “Today” show.
“I was a little surprised by the attention this got this week,” Matt told Barack. “Did you make the right call on that?”
“I think we got carried away in the moment. We were having a birthday party and everybody was laughing and suddenly this thing cropped up. I didn’t catch it quickly enough and I was surprised be the attention as well,” Barack admitted.
“If you had the chance to do it over again?” Matt asked.
“We wouldn’t do it again and we won’t be doing it again,” Barack answered.
And that’s the way it happened. So what’s the big deal?
That’s what the ladies of “The View” wanted to know on Wednesday morning, as all of them (except Whoopi) admitted to conducting interviews with their children.
“Why did he regret it? What did they do?” Joy Behar questioned of the senator.
“I think he regretted it because it exposed the kids in a way they hadn’t really been exposed to before,” Whoopi suggested.
“Well, John McCain brought his old lady mother out,” Joy joked.
Since Access aired the first Obama family interview on Tuesday night, the show and the Web site have been inundated with responses from our viewers.
“How was it OK for Chelsea and Bill to help Hillary, but people want to crucify Obama for including his family? Come on!,” wrote Meredith.
Meanwhile, a fellow viewer named Susie wrote, “Lovely family! I would vote for the whole package, just on the basis of the interview!”
“I don’t care for Barack Obama and won’t vote for him because I still don’t know what he stands for,” added another viewer named Bill. “But this was a fantastic interview! It shows a high degree of confidence to let your kids go live with an interviewer because as we all know, kids say the darndest things.”
During the Access interview with the Obama family, some of the kids’ candor was revealed when Maria Menounos asked Barack and Michelle’s daughters what they thought about the idea of making their home on Capitol Hill.
“What have you guys thought about the possibility of living in the White House some day?” Maria asked Malia and Sasha.
“It’d be very cool,” Sasha smiled.
“I think my most excitement about it is that I get to redecorate my room. I enjoy decorating, so I get to get this whole new room and do whatever I want,” Malia said. “That’s my most exciting.”
But for Sasha and Malia, there’s something even bigger in store than a move to the White House.
“What’s the big deal that’s going to happen when all of this is done?” Michelle Obama reminded her daughters.
“A dog!” Malia exclaimed.
“Win or lose,” Barack noted.
So what did you think of Access’ interview with the Obama family? CLICK HERE to watch parts one and two of our exclusive interview and share your thoughts on the Obama family interview.
