We sat down with James Risen, the New York Times national security corespondent who broke the domestic wiretapping stories to talk about the dilemmas Obama faces with the unparalleled executive power he will inherit.
Dick Cheney recently said that Obama would appreciate all of the power they are handing over, but Obama has railed against some of the Bush administration's policies such as the warrantless wiretapping that Risen helped uncover.
A few days after this interview was filmed, one of Risen's key sources, Thomas Tamm, was featured on the cover of Newsweek as "The Fed Who Blew the Whistle." Risen spoke with us about the rise in executive power during Bush's tenure and how the media failed to be vigilant in the wake of 9/11.
From his perch at the New York Times, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist James Risen has been at the forefront of uncovering some of the Bush administration's worst abuses of power. As a result, he has been hauled before a grand jury and pressured by the government to name his anonymous sources.
He talked to us just after racing to meet another deadline and seemed hesitant to talk to much about his personal struggles covering secrecy under one of the most secretive administrations in American history, but he did talk about how the New York Times failed in its pre-war coverage in 2002 and 2003.