>> thank you so much for joining us on this friday night. set your dvr to record outfront anytime. we hope you have a wonderful weekend. if you've got holiday shopping left to do, get it done. you don't have much time. thank you, ac 360 begins right now. good evening, john berman sitting in for anderson tonight. a cnn exclusive. sony finally speaks. our interview in the middle of the cyber hacking drama over the movie comedy that sparked a real life showdown between the united states and north korea. today, at the white house, president obama blamed north korea for hacking into sony picture's computer network and threatening another 9/11 if sony released the interview. seth rogan, james franco send-up of kim jong-un. the united states would respond which would make headlines. this, however, is what really got people talking.

the president criticized sony for cancelling the release of the film. >> sony's a corporation. it, you know, suffered significant damage. there were threats against its employees. i am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced. having said all of that, yes, i think they made a mistake. >> sony made a mistake, he said. now, it's not often that a president singles out a company or a person, for that matter or really speaks this bluntly. >> i wish they had spoken to me first. i would have told them, do not get into a pattern in which you're intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks. >> a lot of people do share this view. sony is getting a lot of heat from heavy hitters outside of the white house as well and now, only on cnn, the company is

hitting back. today, sony entertainment ceo michael lynton sat down exclusively with cnn's fareed zakaria. >> the president said sony made a mistake in pulling the film. did you make a mistake? >> no. i think, actually, the unfortunate part is in this instance, the president, the press, and the public are mistaken as to what actually happened. we do not own movie theaters. we cannot determine whether or not a movie will be played in movie theaters. so to sort of rehearse for a moment the sequence of events, we experienced the worst cyber attack in american history and persevered for 3.5 weeks under enormous stress and enormous difficulty, and all with the effort of trying to keep our business up and running and get this movie out into the public.

when it came to the crucial moment, when a threat came out from what was called the gop at the time, threatening audiences who would go to the movie theaters, the movie theaters came to us one by one over the course of a very short period of time. we were completely surprised by it and announced they would not carry the movie. at that point in time, we had no alternative but to not proceed with the theatrical release on the 25th of december. that's all we did. >> you have not caved. >> we have not caved. we have not given in. we have persevered and we have not backed down. we have always had every desire to have the american public see this movie. >> why not release it online in some form or the other, video on demand? >> there are a number of options

open to us and we have considered those and are considering them. as it stands right now, while there have been a number of suggestions that we go out there and deliver this movie digitally or through v.o.d., there has not been one major v.o.d., video on demand, distributor or one major ecommerce site that stepped up and said they are willing to distribute this movie for us. again, we don't have that direct interface with the american public, so we need to go through an intermediary to do that. >> mitt romney said why not put it on youtube and let the world see it? >> that's an option we will consider. again, all of this transpired so quickly that we're trying to weigh the options as to how we can get this, how to go forward with all of this. we were taken by surprise by the theaters, which is what we wanted to do first and now we're trying to proceed and figure out what the next step should be. >> the president says he wishes,

i wish they had talked to me. what is your response? >> my response is that a few days ago, i personally did reach out and speak to senior folks in the white house. and talked to them about the situation and actually informed them that we needed help. the fbi has been with us now for several weeks and has been great, but i did reach out and explain the situation to them at that time. >> so the president is wrong when he says that you did not reach out to him? >> well, i don't -- when he's asking about reaching out. >> i wish they would talk to me first. >> yes, we definitely spoke to senior advisor in the white house to talk about the situation. the fact is, did we talk to the president himself? and talk to him about what was transpiring as the theaters started pulling back and being unwilling to distribute the movie? no, but the white house was certainly aware of the situation.

>> not only did the theaters all pull out, but you couldn't get any of the major hollywood studios to support you. george clooney writes that he put out a petition and tried to get support. he couldn't get a single person to sign it. have you been surprised at the fact that nobody has been willing to rally around you? >> i am surprised, frankly. i mean, i understand on the one hand that my fellow studios and everybody else has their own commercial concerns and they themselves were worried about becoming the target. and it did make this entire enterprise to be a very, very lonely affair but on the other hand, this is a moment where you would expect the industry to rally around and support you. >> the theater owners panicked. the north koreans do not appear to have the capacity to launch some kind of simultaneous or really any significant terror attack in the united states. why do you think they panicked?

>> well, what i can only imagine, homeland security came out that day saying there was not a viable threat. my sense of it, having had the conversations with them, there was enormous pressure put on them by the malls, by the shops in the malls, by the surrounding neighborhoods who were also threatened in those e-mails to say they shouldn't show the picture. and they basically, on the basis of looking at that, they decided that they wouldn't take the picture. >> does that mean that dvd release also becomes difficult because you would face the same challenge, which is the walmarts and the costcos of the world would have to agree to stock the dvd? >> again, we don't have a direct interface with the public. we would require either through online or in a retail situation, we would need distribution and yes, it's fair to say if we can't find one of those large retailers or more of those large

retailers to sell our dvdst, we wouldn't be able to provide them with the interview. >> is it fair to say, michael, that your hope and expectation is that the movie will be seen? >> we have always wanted the american public to see this movie. we have worked tirelessly to do so. so absolutely, we would. that's been the primary objective throughout. >> michael, let me ask you to go through the sequence of what happened. when did you first realize that you had a problem? >> the first time we understood there was an issue with the north koreans was back in june of last summer when they came forward with various e-mails and statements and actually, i think, they were in touch with the white house itself and described their disfavor with the movie. at that point in time, we actually reached out to experts

at various think tanks, within the state department, to try to get a proper understanding of whether or not there was a problem here and whether or not we were providing a security risk. and we were told that there wasn't a problem here, and so we continued to proceed. >> including the u.s. government told you? >> the u.s. government told us there wasn't a problem. that's correct. >> when people asked, the north koreans threaten you, why didn't you take it seriously. >> we did take it seriously. we went to the people we thought were most expert in the area, the u.s. government and think tanks and inquired as to whether or not this would be a problem and they told us that it wasn't and that actually is for the world to see as my stolen e-mails have been presented in public. >> there was an e-mail between you and someone at the corporation. >> and somebody with me and the state department. >> fascinating. so next, the attack itself. michael lynton talks about what it's like to face the kind of

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zakaria's exclusive interview with sony ceo michael lynton, pushed back that his company made a mistake pulling the james franco that so angered north korea. in a moment, we'll hear from

candy crowley who spoke to the president after that interview and asked, does he stand by what he says? even more of the back and forth. first though, michael lynton on whether sony finds an alternative way to get the movie out to viewers and what it was like to face a cyber attack unlike any that most companies ever have to experience. here's part two of fareed's exclusive interview. >> you began to experience the cyber attack. what was your response? a number of people wonder, why did this happen? did you have weak mall mare, did you have the kind of cyber security you needed? >> we had absolutely sufficient cyber security. both the fbi and the experts we brought in basically said the malware was so sophisticated that 90% of american businesses would have fallen prey to what happened to us. so no, i don't think we were inadequate at all in our cyber security. >> what that means is that this is at a level, the attack is a

level of sophistication that few companies, perhaps no company would be able to withstand? >> that's what i've been given to understood and as a result, they stole all of our data, wiped our computers clean and then destroyed the computers and the servers, all of which is in the fbi report that came out today. >> what is your estimate of the damage of that cyber attack to sony? >> we haven't come to an estimate as of yet. >> but certainly -- >> it's very significant, yes. >> you know, there are a lot of people who feel that this movie should never have been made. that it's a movie about the assassination of a world leader, a country with nuclear weapons, poor taste. should not have made the movie and risk sony's credibility. >> well, a couple of things. first of all, we made the movie because we thought it was a funny comedy. second, there's a long history of political satire in film and

this clearly falls into the realm but i would also say that fundamentally isn't the issue here. the issue here is that having made the movie, we feel very strongly that it should have been in theaters for the american public to be seen and we did everything in our power to make that happen. we did not cave. we did not back down. and we continued in that pursuit right up until the end. >> how damaging has it been that your e-mails, your personnel records are out there in the open? >> you know, it's hurtful to everybody at sony pictures. everybody and by the way, many folks who work with us outside of sony pictures. that part has been damaging and hurtful. it's not nice to have your e-mails exposed to the general public. it has had a real effect on the morale of the company and many people are frightened because of it. we'll recover. we've worked very, very hard to do so and we're in the process

now. >> you are well known as somebody who's supported president obama. >> yes. >> were you disappointed in what you heard today? >> i would be fibbing to say i wasn't disappointed. the president and i haven't spoken. i don't know exactly whether he understands the sequence of events that led up to the movies not being shown in the movie theaters. and therefore, i would disagree with the notion that it was a mistake. it's a generally held view by the public and the press that that's what happened and maybe that's how that view was held by him, but knowing, as i do, the facts and how they've unfolded, you know, we stood extremely firm in terms of making certain that this movie would appear in movie theaters. >> do you feel that the u.s. government, the fbi in particular and i gather you've been in touch with other agencies, the cia, the nsa, have they been helpful, are you happy

with the kind of cooperation you've gotten? >> the vast majority of the interactions have been with the fbi and they have been absolutely spectacular throughout. they came and stayed with us for the entire period. they came to a resolution as to who was responsible for this in a record amount of time. i can't speak more highly of the agency than that. they were really the folks who we were in touch with in this process. >> would you make the movie again? >> yeah. i would make the movie again. i think, you know, for the same reasons we made it in the first place, it's a funny comedy. it served as political satire. i think we would have made the movie again. i, knowing what i know know now, might have done something differently. we had no control over the

facts. >> you're saying you still want the public to see this movie. >> we would still like the public to see this movie. absolutely. we have to explore options as to how that might happen because while everybody comes forward and says, release it digitally, do it on vod, do this, do that. all of these things in their own way complicated. many people don't want to come near the movie because they fear that in some way, shape or form, their systems, their servers might be infected with the malware that came to us. so it's not for -- what we need to do now is to evaluate the best way forward for all of us. that's what we're in the process of doing. >> you've been at sony pictures for a while. you've been at penguin press. is this a dangerous blow against freedom of expression? >> it is. i came to penguin a few years

after the publication of rasheed's book, that was published. for one, it was pre 9/11, obviously, but even there with the fakwa and some people killed in that instance, there were, the entire industry came together around penguin. the publishers, the book sellers always stocked the book and the authors all came out and supported the book. that did not happen in this instance. in this instance, we stood alone in trying to get a movie out. i think now, part of the reason for that i suspect is because of the conversation got caught up in all of the e-mails. many of them were deeply unfortunate. many involved celebrities and many didn't understand the real issue at stake. the issue at stake was we now

discover it's north korea but we had a group of individuals who were hell bent on making certain this movie not show up in movie theaters and we were hellbent on making sure it did show up in movie theaters. >> somebody asked the president in his news conference, would he watch the movie, are you going to send it to him? >> if the president wants to see the movie, i would be more than delighted to send it to him. it would be my pleasure. >> fareed zakaria will have much more with michael lynton on sunday and fareed zakaria gps. up next, fareed talks about the exclusive interview and senior media correspondent brian stelter on how this film may, may get released after all. introducing the citi® double cash card. it lets you earn cash back twice, once when you buy and again as you pay. it's cash back. then cash back again. and that's a cash back win-win .

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essentially mocked north korea for getting so bent out of shape of what is, after all, a pretty lightweight movie. it's a stoner comedy. he underscored how serious the hack attack really was. this cyber terror event and then a massive theft followed by a real life terror threat by a sovereign state and nuclear power to boot. there are so many dimensions to this one. geopolitical, military, and criminal, at the heart of it all, it's really about freedom of speech. here to talk about this, fareed zakaria, who had the fascinating exclusive interview today and brian stelter, host of reliable sources cnn. and documentary filmmaker james jones, producer director of

secret state of north korea, which airs on pbs' front line. fareed, this was a fascinating interview for many reasons. not often you see a ceo in a tit for tat discussion whether something is a mistake or not a mistake. it looked like the weight of the world on your shoulders. >> the worst cyber attack in american history, probably the worst attack in recorded history. they had a threat, an actual threat of terrorism, recalling 9/11. telling them if you show this movie, we're going to do something like that, and he then found himself abandoned by every other movie studio, by all the movie theaters. he couldn't get anybody in terms of the pipes, whether you're trying to do a video on demand. so he was standing alone, trying to figure out how to get this movie to the public. must be, this is going to be taught in crisis management classes in the future. >> fareed, abandoned by the

other film companies, massive companies and the movie theaters themselves. and also seemed to suggest that maybe a little letdown by the white house. the president said he should have called me. michael lynton said we were in communication with the white house. >> yeah, i was surprised by that and by the president, frankly, making light of this. this is very simple. a quasi state in north korea and they have won. i think the president should focus on that point and what the united states government is going to do in response. that's the crucial issue. not whether the movie is funny and whether the president likes seth rogan. >> there were claims in that interview. michael lynton saying we can't find anyone just now and getting it out digitally. it's not simple as everyone seems to say. is that the case? about playstation?

>> i think the answers are changing as we speak. i think as we are talking right now, discussions are happening with potential distributors. netflix is not commenting, youtube not back to me but those are the obvious choices. you raise an important point. they have possible ways to get this movie out. crackle is an online streaming site, not popular as netflix but could put it on there. there's no way to charge the movie there and they need to charge money for this. they do also have the playstation store. and i haven't gotten a good answer why they couldn't put it there but they probably want somebody in their corner. that's what i got from fareed and their conversation. not totally aalone. >> the president came out publicly, should have been out there. maybe the film companies in hollywood. >> i was very surprised if we don't see the movie at this point. i'd be very surprised if we don't. >> the sense i got was that michael lynton and sony intend to release this movie in some

form or the other, recentlyiti soon. i think the movie will be seen in some way. >> could we see it by christmas? >> it got very mediocre reviews. it may be generous. james jones, you say it was a mistake to have this film. the release cancelled, which it was no matter what michael lynton said. it was cancelled. was that company's hands tied though? >> i mean, i think it's obviously been a very stressful week. in the interview, he looked a little physically shaken. i think given what the white house and what north korea watchers know about the regime, they make these outlandish threats they don't follow through with. you can understand obama's despair about this. his policy is strategic patience.

not paying attention to the naughty school child and letting him throw their tantrum to make these outlandish threats. and effectively, wanting to just leave them alone and tire themselves out. to be undermined, you could see why he's slightly frustrated. >> the problem though, if it's a naughty tantrum that breaks into another major entertainment company and steals more secrets, it could be damaging. so you can see why some of these other companies and other people in hollywood are scared that it could spread. let me ask you, you've studied this carefully, james, what do you think north korea is thinking today? what do you think kim jong-un is thinking as he is watching this all unfolding in the united states? >> i think he probably sees this as great propaganda. in his wildest dreams didn't think he could pull this off. in the film, he has a tight grip on information coming in and out of the country. but that, you know, is within the country, whether you're making a joke about kim jong-un

could mean you and your family sent off to prison camp. but for him to actually influence a major american company, haven't seen that before. >> michael lynton has a lot deal with right now. why do you think he decided to speak today finally? >> i'm guessing what they realized, no ceo likes to go out and talk to the public. i think that michael lynton, as far as i can tell, he's not somebody who wants to attract attention to himself. he's a low key guy, very cerebral, but the narrative that was formed was that sony caved. that had become the dominant narrative and he was probably watching this and trying to figure out, how do we correct this narrative? at some point, it becomes so big that unless you go out there and i think that he probably, by then, he had already decided to do the interview but the

president coming out and saying sony made a mistake certainly probably helped clarify his mind about the fact that there had been a narrative that was form and correct in his view. if you remember he said the president, the press, and the public all have this wrong. >> he said we don't get it. we've all used the word cave. brian, among other things, there was another e-mail sent to sony overnight. aimed to you exclusively. >> i view this as a production of strength by michael lynton today, especially the face of the e-mail sent to him and other executives last night. the e-mail effectively said you did the right thing by cancelling the movie. >> this is from the hackers. >> the warriors threatening them again. >> basically said make sure the movie is off the internet, release it and then we won't share anymore of your private e-mails or data. as if the extortion attempt went further and got to imagine that sony wants to be viewed as doing anything but giving in to that new attempt. >> maybe a way to rally people

to the cause. james, last word here. in your work with north korea, studying north korea, you have actually been in contact or seen some of these hackers on their way to china to be trained. what can you tell us about that? >> so i can't go into too much detail, but we have a source who's filming secretly just across the china border. and he saw some north korean hackers that we think were a part of this kind of cyber warfare unit called bureau 121. and, you know, it's a kind of open secret that these guys go across to china to be trained by very sophisticated hackers and it seems from all the evidence this is what we see. >> it seems like they're good at what they do and trained at. look what they called. fareed zakaria, brian stelter, james jones. thank you. fascinating discussion. appreciate it. just ahead, now that sony's chief executive has had his say, does president obama stand by what he said earlier about

sony's decision to cancel the release of the interview? does he still think it was a mistake? cnn's candy crowley has a chance to ask. we needed 30 new hires for our call center.

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tonight's breaking news. a cnn exclusive, sony finally speaking publicly about its decision to cancel the release of the comedy "the interview."

sony entertainment michael lynton sat down with fareed zakaria after president obama flat out called the decision a mistake. here is what mr. lynton said in response. >> the president, the press, and the public are mistaken as to what actually happened. we do not own movie theaters. we cannot determine whether or not a movie will be played in movie theaters. so to sort of rehearse for a moment the sequence of events, we experienced the worst cyber attack in american history and persevered for 3.5 weeks under enormous stress and enormous difficulty. >> there's another chapter to this. this afternoon, our chief political correspondent candy crowley interviewed president obama and asked him if he stood by his original remarks about sony. candy joins me now. so candy, what a strange day. the president takes a swipe at

sony during his news conference and then the head of sony pictures right here on cnn kind of swipes back suggesting the president doesn't really understand the situation. now you've had a chance to speak to the president about that. what was his response? >> well, i will tell you first of all it's clear to me the president did not want to get into an argument with the chairman of sony but what he said was, listen. i wish -- i told him the chairman said he was disappointed in the president's response and the president didn't really understand what happened. that really, this was a decision that sony wanted to distribute this, but it was the movie theaters that didn't want it and the president said, well, maybe if he'd come to me, i could have called the movie theaters. but he stuck to his original point which was, this is just a bad thing to be doing. i mean, this is the wrong thing to be doing in the face of these threats. we need to stay strong as the boston marathon did, et cetera, et cetera. he said what if this happened to

cnn? what if cnn rans some story and there was a threat from north korea, you can't allow this sort of thing to make america different. it was everything after 9/11. the terrorists will win if we have to change, that kind of thing. he stuck to his major point but i thought he was softer on sony and really just didn't want to get into a fight with him. >> not the fight he wants to be in heading into his hawaii holiday. >> exactly, he was ready. >> any sense from him about what the next step is in dealing with north korea? any big announcement heading our way? >> you know, i would suggest we might not get a big announcement. here's why. i asked him if he thought this was an act of war. that this was an act of cyber terrorism and an act of war and he said, no. it's an act of cyber vandalism. i think that will send some republicans off the edge, but it

seemed to kind of tamp it down a little. and i said, why wouldn't we just do a cyber attack back or why don't we put them back on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism and he said, we're looking at that. but he didn't want to talk about what it might mean. as you know, the white house's signal that perhaps the u.s. would not say what it would do. >> cyber vandalism, clearly trying to lower the temperature on the issue. >> yes, absolutely. >> one thing a lot of people noticed during the news conference today, all the reporters the president called on were women. i actually didn't notice until someone pointed it out to me but what was the message you think the white house was trying to send? >> i didn't either but the white house said it was trying to say, look, there was all these women here who day in and day out cover this place and so, we wanted the president to call on them and that it was indeed, a message and sort of an homage to their hard work. >> they were all just great

reporters as far as i'm concerned. and the subject of great reporters, candy's interview with president obama on sunday will be on state of the union. it is sort of the grand finale for candy on state of the union. and candy, i've covered campaigns with you in competition with you and now the wonderful opportunity to work in the same company as you and you are one of the sharpest reporters out there and certainly the classiest. thank you for everything. >> ah, john. thank you very much. i'll miss you but i'll watch. >> thank you. more president obama talked about in his end of year conference. cuba and the republican takeover of the senate. we'll dig in to that when 360 continues. 6- and cialis for daily useor you. helps you be ready anytime the moment is right. cialis is also the only daily ed tablet approved to treat symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently.

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. the sony computer hacking drama was not the only topic president obama addressed at his news conference today. for the first time since he announced major changes in u.s. policy towards cuba, the president took questions from reporters. cuba's human rights record came up, this is what the president said about that. >> i share the concerns of di o dissodance there and human rights activist. this is a regime that represses

its people. as i said when i made the announcement, i don't anticipate overnight changes. but what i know deep in my bones is that if you've done the same thing for 50 years and nothing's changed, you should try something different if you want a different outcome. >> whether or not you think it's the right time to normalize diplomatic relations with cuba, the decision does stand as historic. how might it shape the president's legacy? cnn analyst greg and the showdown under way with north korea over the movie and sony's decision to pull it. so gloria, there was a lot of news in this news conference today. and it seemed like the president was trying to do a few things with this north korea sony story. number one, he wanted to condemn the north koreans for being behind this and point out directly he thought sony was making a mistake but seemed to really try to lower the

temperature on the whole crisis, if you will, going out of his way to point out this is about a seth rogan and james franco movie or as he put it, james flacco movie. >> what he was trying to do, i think, is belittle the north koreans and point out that, for heaven's sake, this was only a seth rogan movie as he kind of put it. this is a comedy. this is a satire. while belittling the north koreans, he didn't want to bet little the threat or what they'd done or the proportional response at the time of our choosing. so we didn't want to give anything away. made it clear we're taking it very seriously and sort of threw up his hands at the north koreans saying, can you believe this? >> david, there are people noticing the president had an upbeat performance today. had a spring in his step at the

podium. he had a spring in his step, could be he's going for hawaii for two weeks. we'd all have a spring in our step then, but what did you notice about what he did? >> i think he is very upbeat. he thinks of himself as a clutch basketball player. it's the fourth quarter, as he said in the press conference today and he really is trying to score some points. so he feels his friends on the left are very enthusiastic about the last few weeks since the dropping in midterm elections. all sorts of things then whether it's on immigration and climate. now on cuba. they think he's on a roll. the partisans on the right, lurking to the left and using executive actions to do it. >> yeah, either he's bold or imperial depending how you look at it and which side you're on. gloria, david brought up the issue of cuba here which, you know, the fact that the president changed 50 years of history this week and it was the second big story of the news

conference after north korea, it's interesting in and of itself, but he's clearly proud of what he did in cuba. >> sure. i think this is a president who feels kind of unshackled now that the midterm elections are over. i think he had to watch himself before the midterm elections because he was worried about all those democrats in red states and by the way, he didn't really help democrats in red states by holding back, i might add. now i think he's got a legacy list and he's checking it off. and cuba, he seems very pleased with what he's done. this isn't to say he isn't going to get trouble from congress for it, but what's also interesting, what he's done, john, is he's set the table for the 2016 election. you see republicans on all sides of this now. rand paul saying the president did the right thing. marco rubio calling him the worst negotiator we've ever seen. jeb bush saying, you know, you

shouldn't negotiate with a repressive regime but happy to see gross back in this country. he's set up a challenge to republicans. the other side, hillary clinton will either have to defend him on certain things or move away. >> she'll have a take a stand, that's for sure. david, gloria mentioned the checklist of things he wants to get done. how much further will he be able to get on the checklist come january when the republicans take control of the senate? >> that's a very good question. i don't think we know how long the list is. my sense is he doesn't, there's not many more items that he can go down. but i do think it's quite interesting, as unshackled, gloria is absolutely right, acting like he's unshackled. using executive power to the full extent of his presidency and critics think beyond what the constitution allows but almost every case, he's showing true colors and much more to the left in the last few weeks and

the bottom line here is that he's done a lot in the last few weeks that have appealed to elizabeth warren wing of the democratic party. that's going to put some pressure on hillary in defending to move to the left. she may be comfortable with that but i think probably inside, she would prefer not to be pulled from this direction. >> dave, gloria burjon, thank you so much. >> i look incredible. i wear your granddad's cold. i got $20 in my pocket and i'm going to the thrift shop down the road. >> i can't believe i stepped on the most important part of this. michele bachmann with a rap. shh... i know that's more than 100%. but that's what winners give. now bicycle kick your old 401(k) into an ira. i know, i know. listen, just get td ameritrade's rollover consultants on the horn. they'll guide you through the whole process. it's simple. even she could do it.

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bachmann is retiring after eight years in congress. for one brief moment during the 2012 presidential campaign, she was really a front-runner. she's also famous for her factual challenges and now, perhaps for something extra. here's dana bash. >> i jumped in with both feet and gave it everything i had and i didn't hold back. i wasn't politically correct. >> fighting this tyranny. >> reporter: talk about an understatement from tea party rallies to the president campaign trail to the house floor. >> obamacare as we know is the crown jewel of socialism.

>> reporter: michele bachmann a prominent and polarizing figure, challenging leadership in both parties. >> i don't know who is going to miss me more. nancy pelosi or john boehner. i've been a thorn in both their sides. >> reporter: hard to believe bachmann has been on the scene for only eight years. sometimes making headlines with missteps like erroneously telling anderson cooper the president spent $100 million a day on a trip to india. i know you have some regrets. >> i made mistakes. i've certainly made mistakes. >> reporter: i spent a lot of time tracking her down in hallways like after she attacked the president for spending taxpayer dollars on dog walkers, which he doesn't. >> i'll miss my workouts, try to keep up with you. >> everybody asks me, how do you walk so fast? >> i do walk fast, oh, i run.

you've probably seen me. i literally run the hallways in high heels. >> reporter: i've been a part of that. i try to keep up with you huffing and puffing. will you miss people like me running after you? >> no, oh, of course i will. >> reporter: bachmann often notes she was the only woman on the gop presidential stage in 2012. >> is there still sexism in politics? >> sure, there is, absolutely there is. >> i'll be frank with you. the way i see it is that i think when women speak, i don't think that we're listened to the same way that a man does. i know that i'm in a lot of venues where i'm the only woman, the only woman, and one thing that i notice is that when i walk into the room, the men are talking to each other. when i arrive, they talk to each other when i'm leaving and i'll go up to them to try to get into the group and talk with them but it's different.

it's just different. >> reporter: on her way out the door, bachmann is loosening up showing off hidden talents. >> i think i have discovered what you're really going to do after congress. you're going to be a hip-hop rap artist. >> oh, you found out, my secret is out. totally. >> reporter: i nailed it, right? give me a rap. >> i look incredible. i wear your granddad's clothes. i got $20 in my pocket. and i'm going to the thrift shop down the road. >> reporter: anybody got a beat box? >> nobody has to worry about competition for me. i tell you that. >> dana bash, she will miss you. she really will. the secret is out. who does she want to play in the movie? >> if there is a michele bachmann movie, she wants kristen wiig to play her, she, of course, played her on saturday night live. she likes the way she made fun of her in a loving way.

>> and meryl streep will play dana bash. it has been quite a week. michele bachmann, the isolation of cuba ending 52 years after the cuban missile crisis, a chilling moment. you'll see that in an encore edition of the sixties. the world on the brink. the supreme national effo the supreme national effort will be needed to move this country safely through the 1960s. >> across the world soviet missiles are aimed at the united states. whatever the president does, he risks nuclear war. >> khrushchev calls west berlin a cancerous sore. >> lines are now drawn. >> 25 russian ships en route to cuba on what may be a collision course. >> no way of knowing whether western civilization will live or die.