UPDATE: 11:30am EST
Walters addressed the Post story on Thursday’s “The View.” as she explained that Zimmerman’s lawyer, whom she referred to as “effective,” confirmed Tuesday night that Zimmerman would do an interview.
Walters said that Zimmerman was going to tape an interview with Hannity before sitting down with her. Walters said Hannity “had been very supportive to [Zimmerman] in the past and George Zimmerman told me that he was very grateful, and I appreciated his loyalty to Hannity.”
Walters agreed that her interview would tape and air after Zimmerman sat down with Hannity.
When Walters and her team arrived in Florida for the interview, she said that Zimmerman came in dressed in a t-shirt. “That should have been my first clue,” she said. Zimmerman said that he would not do the interview, but would on one condition. Walters would not disclose the condition, but said that as a member of ABC News, it was something she was not able to grant.
Walters described Zimmerman as “desperate for money” and “very worried about his family.” She also said he was “polite, soft-spoken, stubborn.” She said that his lawyers “wanted him to do the interview.”
SOURCE: HuffPost
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The nation watched last night as George Zimmerman gave his first interview ever to Fox News’ Sean Hannity. It was quite coincidental that Zimmerman sat down with the Fox News journalist, but The NY Post reports this morning that the first interview could have actually gone to famed journalist Barbara Walters, but it never came to fruition because of Zimmerman’s alleged demands.
They report:
Barbara Walters walked away from an interview with Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman after the former neighborhood watchman demanded at the last minute that, in return for the chat, ABC put him and his wife up in a hotel for a month, a source told Page Six.
Walters flew down to Florida early yesterday and met with Zimmerman and his lawyer to discuss the possibility of a lengthy TV sitdown. Her interview would have taken place after he was done talking with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, a situation that already made the newswoman leery, we’re told, as she prefers to land exclusives. But we’re told that Walters was “appalled” by Zimmerman’s hotel demand, and told him the deal was off.
An ABC News spokesman confirmed that Walters met with Zimmerman, but refused to confirm what he asked for.
“She went down there with every intention of doing an interview, but Mr. Zimmerman made a demand at the last minute that we could not and would never agree to,” the rep said.
SOURCE: NY Post
Things that make you go hmmm…
