US TV review: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden, Rock Center with Brian Williams ‘Inside the Situation Room’ (NBC)

The morning after the sit room meeting, President Obama went to Alabama to
commiserate with tornado victims. He then returned to Washington that night
to attend, with Mrs Obama, the White House Correspondents Dinner. (This
year’s dinner took place on Saturday night.)

The annual gala, known as Washington’s prom (as in high school prom night), is
a toast and roast of the Washington press corps and the President. Featured
comic Seth Meyers made a joke about Bin Laden – in hiding and perhaps
incognito for so many years – actually hosting a show on the CSPAN network,
which also broadcasts the dinner and the proceedings of the US Congress.
President Obama explains that there was a “little bit of acting going on”.

Viewers also learned that Secretary Clinton spent two sleepless nights before
the Bin Laden raid when she normally doesn’t have a problem sleeping. Vice
President Biden toyed with a rosary ring, displayed during the show,
throughout the sit room watch.

The biggest moment of crisis—which was viewed in real time by sit room
participants—came when one of the SEAL’s state-of-the-art helicopters
crashed and as Biden recalls, a “whoaaaa” went up in the situation room.
Clinton had already described the sit room viewing as going to see an action
movie with her husband but now it seemed like a sporting event.

President Obama labels the operation as “the longest forty minutes of my
life”. And in one photo, he indeed does look despondent. Admiral Mike
Mullen assures that Bin Laden “absolutely” would have been taken captive if
only the marines could have done.

The greatest sense of catharsis is illustrated by the crowds outside the White
House chanting “USA” as news leaked of Bin Laden’s death while Obama
remained in the sit room.

To President Obama, the day of Bin Laden’s death was the “most intense,
concentrated day that I’ve had as president.”

Vice-President Biden gave his own response to any attacker on America: “We
will follow you to the gates of hell.”

In this ten-years-later situation, of course, the gates of hell was a
residential area in Pakistan. And a Bin Laden neighbor had starting
tweeting immediately on the internet about helicopters uncharacteristically
appearing in the early morning hours.

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