Ms. Couric Goes to Washington: The Interview

(CBS)

How'd it go?

Well, I've finally thrown together the final installment of Nicolla Hewitt's trip to Washington with Katie. Nicolla begins with the President arriving for the interview...

With the weight of the world on his shoulders – President Bush gave us a hearty Texan welcome. He was clearly focused, and clearly ready to tell Katie the advances he's made in the ongoing war on terror.

The interview lasted for about 35 minutes, and at the end I think everyone felt Katie and the President had engaged in a frank discussion about "the news of the day." We'd uncovered some news too – that one of the suspects had talked about a planned anthrax attack on the United States and a plan to fly & crash planes into the United States.

The President took the time to pose for a group photo and to ask Katie, "How's Matt Lauer?" We all got a chuckle from that. Soon he bid us farewell, and soon we were bidding farewell to the White House.

Back into the car to take us to Reagan National Airport, and a flight back to New York in time for Katie to work on the Evening News, and for Susan Zirinsky to finish up the 9/11 special which airs tonight.

Many people forget Katie's new job also includes that of Managing Editor, so in between all of this she made frequent calls to Evening News Executive Producer Rome Hartman about tonight's show, to talk about what stories correspondents would be filing for tonight. They also talked about the right lead-ins to various pieces and what her piece on the show would look like.

During our 35-minute flight back to New York, we read copies of the transcript of her interview with the President so we knew what to pick for the special, and what to pick for the Evening News.

Our team is all here, and we're back at work now on tonight's show…and then the special too.