Brian Williams of NBC News held a rare interview with President Barack Obama about the killing of Osama bin Laden in the White House Situation Room yesterday. 
 
 
 
 The interview, which will air on Rock Center with Brian Williams on May 2, comes at the one-year anniversary of bin Laden’s killing, an event the Obama campaign is touting in a new ad that goes after Mitt Romney. 
 
 "One year ago, they brought down Bin Laden. Now, for the first time, the main players are talking -- only to Brian Williams," a 15-second promo of the interview, which aired this morning on the Today show, said. "Exclusive access inside the situation room. Rock Center, Wednesday, 9/8 Central on NBC." 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Bin Laden operation, Part Two) 
 
 
 
 White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest resisted questions regarding rumors of the interview this morning, as well as the suggestion that Obama was politicizing Bin Laden’s killing by holding an interview in the Situation Room. 
 
 
 
 “What I can tell you is that the President has conducted a couple of interviews over the course of the last year about the successful mission against Osama bin Laden,” Earnest said during a press gaggle on the way to an event in Georgia. “What the President did yesterday and what he has done many times before over the course of the last year is talk about that mission and talk about the success of that mission.” 
 
 White House officials did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. 
 
 Of note: In a 2011 interview with Wolf Blizter, host of CNN's Situation Room, Obama said Blitzer could come to the White House situation room, but couldn't bring cameras. 
 
 "I hope you'll be coming and joining me in my Situation Room," Blitzer said. "And if you invite me to yours, I will be happy to come to yours as well." 
 
 "Thank you, Wolf. You can visit any time," the President said. "Just you can't bring cameras. That's the only difference." 
 
 "I will come by myself," Blitzer replied. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Judge keeps bin Laden photos under wraps) 
 
 UPDATE: NBC News sent out the full press release late Friday afternoon, noting that Williams has also interviewed Vice President Biden; Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Admiral Mike Mullen, USN, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (from 2007 to 2011); Tom Donilon, National Security Advisor; Denis McDonough, Deputy National Security Advisor; and John O. Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. 
 
 UPDATE 2: Late Friday afternoon, National Security Council spokesperson Tommy Vietor explained the White House's decision to open up the situation room. Read his comments here. 
 
 The NBC News release in full: 
 
 April 27, 2012 – New York, NY – In a first for network television, NBC News has been granted unprecedented access to the most secret and secure part of the White House, the Situation Room. In a “Rock Center with Brian Williams” exclusive airing on Wednesday, May 2 at 9p/8c, President Obama and his national security and military teams, relive the pivotal moments of the raid targeting Osama bin Laden. The iconic photograph taken inside the Situation Room offered the world the first glimpse of a national security team at work during the Special Operations mission. Now, we will hear from many of the people in that photograph about what was taking place on that historic night. “We want to present the definitive account of what took place leading-up to and during the tension-filled hours of the mission targeting Osama bin Laden. The NAVY Seals Special Operations teams executed an ambitious, dangerous mission months in planning. Our viewers will hear details never before revealed and see the nerve center of the White House Situation Room in this special broadcast,” said Steve Capus, President of NBC News. On “Rock Center with Brian Williams,” Williams interviews President Obama in the Situation Room about one of the country’s greatest military missions, which until now, has been shrouded in great secrecy. Williams also interviews Vice President Biden; Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Admiral Mike Mullen, USN, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (from 2007 to 2011); Tom Donilon, National Security Advisor; Denis McDonough, Deputy National Security Advisor; and John O. Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. 
 
 Donovan Slack contributed to this report. 
 
 Read more about: Barack Obama, Osama Bin Laden, Brian Williams, Wolf Blitzer ||||| Senator John McCain of Arizona , Mr. Obama’s Republican opponent four years ago, lashed out at the Web video, saying the president was turning “the one decision he got right into a pathetic, political act of self-congratulation.” He added, “Shame on Barack Obama for diminishing the memory of September 11th and the killing of Osama bin Laden by turning it into a cheap political attack ad.” 
 
 Heading into a weekend in which Mr. Obama will appear with the comedian Jimmy Kimmel before a star-studded crowd at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, Mr. Romney and his allies once again tried to turn Mr. Obama’s own celebrity against him. 
 
 A Web video released this week by American Crossroads , a Republican “ super PAC ,” made the case that the president’s focus on image had preoccupied him from more important issues, mocking his mingling with the stars, including his “slow-jamming the news” with Jimmy Fallon on “Late Night” this week. 
 
 “Four years ago, America elected the biggest celebrity in the world, and Americans got one cool president,” the video says amid grim images and statistics on out-of-work recent college graduates. “But after four years of a celebrity president, is your life any better?” 
 
 The Romney team amplified the message on Friday in a memorandum from the campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, arguing that Mr. Obama was counting on “his winning TV persona” for re-election. “This election will be decided by adults casting their ballots in their precincts, not teenagers texting votes from in front of their television sets,” Mr. Rhoades wrote. “That apparently frightens the president and his advisers.” 
 
 The contrast between the two campaign videos could not be starker. Set to ominous music and narrated by Mr. Clinton, the Bin Laden video describes the life-or-death stakes that confronted Mr. Obama and shows him standing silhouetted in front of an Oval Office window, shouldering the burdens of a nation. 
 
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 The ad then presents Mr. Romney as if he were the one not ready to lead, saying, “Which path would Mitt Romney have taken?” 
 
 Claiming public credit for national security victories has long been a balancing act for presidents. Mr. Bush was criticized when a Republican ad showed pictures of ground zero. 
 
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 Mr. Obama has been finding ways of talking about the Bin Laden raid for months. When a reporter asked in December about charges that he was appeasing the nation’s enemies, Mr. Obama offered a strikingly blunt retort. “Ask Osama bin Laden and the 22 out of 30 top Al Qaeda leaders who have been taken off the field whether I engage in appeasement,” he said. “Or whoever’s left out there about that.” 
 
 He then cited his leadership in the Bin Laden raid both in the opening passages of his State of the Union address in January and again in the closing sections, always making sure to credit the military and intelligence agencies. But the focus has intensified with the approach of the anniversary. On Thursday, he gave an interview to Brian Williams of NBC News in the Situation Room. 
 
 Tony Fratto, a deputy press secretary under Mr. Bush, said that it was “unseemly” to use the room for such a purpose. “I don’t believe it ever would have occurred to us to conduct an interview in the Situation Room,” he said, “and don’t believe we would have considered it appropriate.” 
 
 Joshua Earnest, Mr. Obama’s deputy press secretary, said the White House was responding to news media requests. “There certainly is interest around the one-year anniversary, so I’d be surprised if nobody asked about it in the context of the one-year anniversary,” he said. 
 
 Martha Joynt Kumar, a Towson University specialist in presidential communication, said it was not surprising that Mr. Obama would use the Situation Room to argue his case. “When they are running for re-election, presidents favor discussions of their successes,” she said. “The killing of Bin Laden is a natural item for President Obama to highlight.” 
 
 The anniversary has rekindled some of the longstanding debates about the methods that Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama have used to combat terrorism. Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., a former top Central Intelligence Agency official, defended the harsh interrogations of prisoners under Mr. Bush by contrasting them with Mr. Obama’s use of drones to kill suspected terrorists. 
 
 “How could it be more ethical to kill people rather than capture them?” he asked in a segment taped for Sunday’s episode of “60 Minutes” on CBS . 
 
 An official familiar with a still-incomplete investigation by the Democratic staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee said the evidence did not support Mr. Rodriguez’s assertion that the rough methods, widely condemned as torture, were necessary.
– With the May 1 anniversary of Osama bin Laden's killing upon us, the White House is going to great lengths to remind everyone all about it. For starters, there's Joe Biden's new stock phrase: "Bin Laden is dead, and General Motors is alive." Then there's the ad suggesting that Mitt Romney wouldn't have had the guts to approve the raid. And it culminates with an interview of President Obama by NBC's Brian Williams that airs next week from the White House Situation Room, notes Politico. That's where the now-iconic photo was taken of top officials watching the raid. "Few presidents have talked about the killing of an individual enemy in such an expansive way," says the New York Times in a story today about the strategy. It could be a risky one. BuzzFeed, for instance, has John McCain's withering attack on the president, which begins, "Shame on Barack Obama for diminishing the memory of September 11th and the killing of Osama bin Laden by turning it into a cheap political attack ad." (ABC already pointed out that Obama accused Hillary Clinton of doing much the same in 2008.) And Daniel Halper at the conservative Weekly Standard calls out Obama for "spiking the football," turning the president's own words against him. The anniversary should be a prime topic on tomorrow's talk shows.