Brian Williams Apologizes For His Account Of RPG Helicopter Attack — Transcript

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1. 0:00ktrs and
2. 0:03um Lots going on in the world and we'll
3. 0:05get to some of that all of that
4. 0:07including the markets a little bit uh
5. 0:10later on Tesla's back in the news and
6. 0:12it's subsidies from the feds and tax
7. 0:15breaks and all of that uh Mike Matheny
8. 0:19Cardinal manager is going to be along
9. 0:20Walter Knoll is going to be in a new
10. 0:22reality TV show uh we're going to give
11. 0:25South Side Johnny Van Dan straussen
12. 0:27company is going to rock out here today
13. 0:29at some point and then
14. 0:32um
15. 0:34uh smash is going to be here but
16. 0:37Brian Williams
17. 0:40anchor for NBC
18. 0:43is in a little bit of hot water
19. 0:46because
20. 0:48um I supposedly over the last 12 years
21. 0:52he has
22. 0:54misremembered a story from when he was
23. 0:57in Iraq last night on the NBC Evening
24. 1:00News
25. 1:01he apologized
26. 1:03on this broadcast last week in an effort
27. 1:06to honor and thank a veteran who
28. 1:08protected me and so many others after a
29. 1:11ground fire incident in the desert
30. 1:13during the Iraq War Invasion I made a
31. 1:16mistake in recalling the events of 12
32. 1:18years ago it did not take long to hear
33. 1:21from some brave men and women in the air
34. 1:23Crews who were also in that desert I
35. 1:26want to apologize I said I was traveling
36. 1:29in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire
37. 1:31I was instead in a following aircraft we
38. 1:36all landed after the ground fire
39. 1:37incident and spent two harrowing nights
40. 1:40in a sandstorm in the Iraq desert this
41. 1:44was a bungled attempt by me to thank one
42. 1:47special veteran and by extension our
43. 1:49brave military men and women veterans
44. 1:51everywhere those who have served while I
45. 1:53did not I hope they know they have my
46. 1:56greatest respect and also now my apology
47. 2:01that was NBC News Brian Williams from
48. 2:03last night before we go any further I
49. 2:05need to I need to uh expose my conflict
50. 2:08of interest I like Brian Williams I like
51. 2:11Brian Williams a lot I really like Brian
52. 2:13Williams
53. 2:15I don't know how you misremember a story
54. 2:18where you're covering a war zone and
55. 2:21you're in a helicopter and another
56. 2:23helicopter gets hit and then you
57. 2:25remember it
58. 2:27that your helicopter got hit
59. 2:29am I am I hearing this correctly and
60. 2:32it's one thing to be telling your boys
61. 2:33at the local pub you know yeah you know
62. 2:36I got hit my helicopter got hit by an
63. 2:38RPG but you're telling the country
64. 2:40you're telling the world this story I I
65. 2:42I I
66. 2:43really like Brian Williams I really like
67. 2:47him I'm sorry I have a hard time buying
68. 2:52the fact
69. 2:53it wasn't like was it a red sweater or a
70. 2:57green sweater you were wearing that day
71. 2:59but to his defense he did Apologize he
72. 3:03did apologize you are correct I also
73. 3:06seven years later and well yeah and
74. 3:08that's confusing he wrote A Blog about
75. 3:10it that actually talked about it after
76. 3:13it it when it in a 2008 NBC blog post
77. 3:17with Brian Williams uh byline quote the
78. 3:20Chinook helicopter flying in front of
79. 3:22ours took an RPG to the rear rotor
80. 3:25flying in front of ours his didn't take
81. 3:27fire he didn't land until a a good 40
82. 3:31plus minutes later so so he wrote so
83. 3:34back in 2008 he reported it the way it
84. 3:37happened and then all these years later
85. 3:40he he misremembered it and as he was in
86. 3:45the helicopter in which went down right
87. 3:48now I I I know memory plays tricks on
88. 3:52you I I know it does and I know that in
89. 3:55this day and age especially as an anchor
90. 3:57in his position you have to remember a
91. 4:00lot of things
92. 4:03um but but you remember stuff that
93. 4:05actually happened to you well right now
94. 4:07that's good you're right I I'm trying to
95. 4:10somehow just I don't think he
96. 4:14I I I I I I can't imagine for the life
97. 4:18of me that he he was trying to pump up
98. 4:22his own story to make himself look
99. 4:25better
100. 4:26but there's really no other there's
101. 4:28really no other excuse there's really no
102. 4:29other other option here because I
103. 4:35if if you're if you're I don't even know
104. 4:39of a similar experience most of us don't
105. 4:43most of us haven't been in a war zone
106. 4:46most of us haven't been shot down in a
107. 4:48Chinook helicopter and neither has Brian
108. 4:50Williams
109. 4:52fair enough
110. 4:54I know man that is that's egg on the
111. 4:57guy's face no I guess the only thing he
112. 4:59could do was take a minute
113. 5:02um and fall on his sword and apologize
114. 5:05he sucked it up and took it like a man
115. 5:06but he only apologized after there were
116. 5:10people raising red flags and people who
117. 5:12were there and who said hey he didn't
118. 5:15show up till an hour later he walked
119. 5:17over and we shoot him away because they
120. 5:19were getting in the way as we were
121. 5:21actually trying to fix our helicopter
122. 5:22the the flight right the engineers from
123. 5:24the from the first helicopter that was
124. 5:26shot down were were outraged by this
125. 5:29because sorry Brian you weren't even
126. 5:30there so flight engineer Lance Reynolds
127. 5:34uh wrote on a blog post on Facebook
128. 5:38sorry dude I don't remember you being on
129. 5:41my aircraft I do remember you walking up
130. 5:44about an hour after we landed to ask me
131. 5:47what had happened then I remember you
132. 5:49guys talking
133. 5:51and then I remember you guys taking back
134. 5:53off in a different flight of Chinooks
135. 5:56from another unit and heading to Kuwait
136. 5:58to report your quote-unquote War Story
137. 6:02to the Nightly News the whole time we
138. 6:04were stuck in Iraq trying to repair the
139. 6:07aircraft and pulling our own security
140. 6:10so clearly they were not happy with the
141. 6:14misremembering of uh NBC Nightly News
142. 6:17anchor Brian Williams another sign of
143. 6:19this of social media and the power of
144. 6:22social media because had that guy not
145. 6:24made that post
146. 6:25and raised a stick you're right you're
147. 6:28right you're right brought he brought an
148. 6:30anchor to his knees but um uh I I that
149. 6:33one's
150. 6:34that one's for the books right there uh
151. 6:37I'm sorry I wasn't in the helicopter
152. 6:40that crashed I forgot I re I was in the
153. 6:44other one that didn't crash I was safe
154. 6:48that's a good one all right 6 28 here
155. 6:51big 550. uh