Egypt: How Amanpour Came to Interview President Hosni Mubarak
My exclusive interview with President Hosni Mubarak took place on day when the mood here is getting increasingly tense.
This afternoon, my ABC News team and I left our offices in three cars and started a drive to the Presidential Palace. We had been granted an exclusive interview with the new Vice President of Egypt, Omar Suleiman.
We had to take a route that ran through a neighborhood where pro-Mubarak supporters in the streets were setting up their own checkpoints.
When we got stuck in a crush of traffic, we were surrounded by an angry mob.
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For about an hour, we worked on negotiating our way out of the situation by talking and staying extremely calm. At one point a soldier came up to us. We explained what we were doing and showed him papers that were an official invitation to the interview.
Very, very slowly the crowd started to fall back and our car was able to move.
The other two cars in our convoy were taken to a nearby police station for safety. Nobody was hurt, nobody was attacked, but it was clearly an uncertain and unsettling hour.
When we got to the palace, as our cameraman was setting up for our exclusive interview with Vice President Suleiman, I asked if I could see President Mubarak.
Within what seemed like just minutes, I was whisked into a reception room where he was waiting. He greeted me warmly, and we started to talk. He looked tired, but well.
He told me he felt strong and that he was relieved he had made his decision and that speech on Monday to step down. I asked him afterward whether I could report our conversation. He said yes.
Today, 1:37 PM
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