Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said on Thursday he would not have taken the city’s top cop job if he couldn’t bring former CBS investigative journalist John Miller with him.
“I would not have, quite frankly,” Bratton told CBS This Morning’s Charlie Rose in an appearance with Miller.
“I would have urged him to do it,” Miller quickly added.
But when Rose pressed again, Bratton insisted this was the case, repeating, “I would not have, no.”
Bratton spent most of the interview gushing over his new spokesman’s “phenomenal job in counter-terrorism” in a love-in appearance on the television show where Miller once contributed as a senior correspondent.
“Cause he’s the best,” Bratton said. “There are two issues facing New York City all the time, dealing with crime and dealing with disorder, traditional and because we are the most likely terrorist target in the world, concerns about terrorism.”
“While he’s best known for his journalism and journalistic credentials, John is the best in terms of dealing with this issue of counter-terrorism intelligence and most importantly for me collaboration,” he said. “Look at all the hats he wore FBI, DNI.”
Miller worked as an investigative journalist at WNBC New York, as Bratton’s chief spokesman at the NYPD, as a correspondent for ABC News, and again served under Bratton as chief of counter-terrorism and criminal intelligence at the Los Angeles Police Department.
Most recently he has been known for his intelligence reporting with CBS News, including a recent puff piece about the National Security Agency for 60 Minutes.
Rose pressed Miller on whether he was short on qualifications held by his predecessor, David Cohen, who served four decades doing counter-terrorism work for the NYPD.
But even Rose couldn’t criticize his former colleague too much.
“One of the things we loved having you here was the fact you had contacts across the spectrum in law enforcement,” Rose said.