President Obama’s New ‘60 Minutes’ Interview Defends Geithner, Tackles Big Issues

President Obama continues his media blitz tonight tonight on ‘60 Minutes‘.

In an interview taped two days ago, the president told correspondent Steve Kroft that New York’s Wall Street executives need to get out of town to appreciate the public’s anger towards them and that embattled Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s job is safe. The president even joked that were Geithner to tender his resignation, he would say, “Sorry Buddy, you’ve still got the job.”

The 90-minute interview began on the White House lawn and ended in the Oval Office where the president also addressed the economy, the bonus tax, health care, automakers’ bailouts, Afghanistan and Pakistan and answered recent criticism from former Vice President Dick Cheney.

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The president said neither he nor Geithner has mentioned resignation from his Treasury post and that criticism is natural. “It’s going to take a little bit more time than we would like to make sure that we get this plan just right. Of course, then we’d still be subject to criticism,” he tells Kroft. “What’s taken so long? You’ve been in office a whole 40 days and you haven’t solved the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression,” Obama said with a laugh.

Responding to Kroft’s observation that Wall Street types in the New York area thought the appointments of Geithner and Lawrence Summers to his cabinet indicated he would be more supportive of them, Obama said those people need to get out of town. “They need to spend a little time outside of New York. Because.if you go to North Dakota, or you go to Iowa, or you go to Arkansas, where folks would be thrilled to be making $75,000 a year– without a bonus — then I think they’d get a sense of why people are frustrated.”

Last Week’s Interview With Ben Bernanke

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