NBC’s Lester Holt: It’s ‘Surreal’ That My Exchange w/ Trump About Comey’s Firing Was a Big Deal

On Monday night, NBC anchor Lester Holt appeared on Late Night and spoke about his infamous sit-down with President Donald Trump.

Back in May 2017, shortly after the Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, Trump told Holt that it was Comey’s handling of the Russia investigation that led to his ousting, not per the recommendations of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as the White House previously claimed.

That specific exchange has since been referred to over and over again by the media and was even parodied on Saturday Night Live.

“Did you know when that was happening, when he was giving that answer that it was newsworthy?” Seth Meyers asked.

“I knew the interview was newsworthy. I know he was opening up about something that, you know, and it just happened a few days earlier,” Holt responded. “So we knew the thrust of the conversation would be about that. I wasn’t surprised by his forthrightness. That’s who he is. He tends to own things… He continued to talk and  I continued to try and make sure I was clarifying because sometimes in interviews, you know, things happen very quickly and someone will listen to one little thing. ‘What did he mean?’ I want to make sure that I understood exactly, you know, what his position was. But I will say every journalist wants their work to have some impact. It is a little surreal. I’ll sit in my office sometimes look up and see clips of that again.”

Meyers added that it wasn’t a “gotcha question” and that it was “politely-conducted interview.”

“I tell people- any journalist would have asked virtually the same questions given the timing of when that interview happened,” the Nightly News host continued. “It was pretty obvious that we needed to understand why this firing had occurred. And he was, you know, as I suspected he would, he owned, you know, his position on that.”

Watch the clip above, via NBC.