Friday, Jan. 8: David Goldman on his reunion with his son

In an exclusive interview, NBC News' Meredith Vieira sat down with David Goldman in his first interview since reuniting with his son, Sean.  The interview will air in a special two-hour "Dateline," on Friday, Jan. 8  at 8 p.m. ET.  A portion also aired on TODAY on Dec. 28, which you can watch below.

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 The Dateline special will include exclusive footage of Goldman and his son's trip back together from Brazil and their first days in the United States.  The special will also feature Vieira's previous interviews with Goldman and NBC News' extensive coverage of this story.

Excerpts from the interview are below. 

***
ON SEAN BEING LED THROUGH THE STREET BY HIS STEP-FAMILY:

MEREDITH VIEIRA:
Did it break your heart to see that?
  
DAVID GOLDMAN:
Yes.  My heart has been breaking, and has been broken over and over, and over, and over, through this whole terrible ordeal.  And I just couldn't-- I'll never understand them.  I will never-- I don't think any rational - anybody who has rational logic and true love can ever grasp that-- that spectacle that they created out there.  For what?  What?  Why?  What-- what would it do, at all, in any positive way at all.

Very sad.  He left on his own will.  And he's here now.  And he's with his cousins.  And they're having fun.  And he's loved.  Very, very loved.
  
***

MEREDITH VIEIRA:
And when he saw you, and you saw him, and you hadn't seen him since when?  June was it?  Just tell me about that moment, and what you said, what he said.
  
DAVID GOLDMAN:
Well, he was very hot.  And he was just saying, "I'm very hot.  I think I may have a--" like talking to me like we've spoken for a very long time.  You know, he wasn't-- he didn't ever, ever once say, "I don't want to go with you, I don't want to be with you."  And-- anything, whatsoever.  He had no resistance at all.  But at the same time, he was in a great deal of pain.  I mean, they-- what he had just experienced, it's-- it's unfathomable.  And-- and he-- and he was saying, "Can-- I need to get boots.  I need to get-- if there's a lot of snow, I-- we need to get boots.  I need a winter coat."
 
You know, he's been envisioning it.  He's been imagining it.  And-- you know, his mind was all over the place, I'm sure.  So, I was just responding and reacting as best I could to keep him calm, and to keep reassuring him that I love him.  And even though there was no resistance, I didn't-- I mean, I just wanted to of course pick him up like I do every single time I see him.

***
MEREDITH VIEIRA:
What was going through your head in terms of this little boy that you're about to take home?
  
DAVID GOLDMAN:
I hope he doesn't have lifelong nightmares of that day.  You know, it was just cameras, first of all.  There weren't mobs saying, "Stay here, don't leave."  You know, it was-- so, there-- there really wasn't resistance from anyone for him to do that, number one.  So, we had to understand that.  It was just cameras, and just pictures.
 
So, there wasn't anybody trying to hold him back, or a mob scene trying to, you know, shout things and create a riot.  It wasn't that all.  So, that was a good-- a good point.  And it was just basically a little boy who was being dragged-- if you want to just break it down-- break it down to the bare minimum-- through-- a bunch of cameras and media.
 
And there-- there was nothing-- no tug-of-war, no fighting or anything.  So, on that-- in that respect, that-- that was as good as it could have been.  And I have to go back to them, because, of course, they wanted it to be everything but that.  And, of course, he was still terrified.
 

***

MEREDITH VIEIRA:
You must have-- thought about this a million times, the fact that you get your son back on Christmas Eve.  Just the symbolism.
  
DAVID GOLDMAN:
It's a miracle.  I mean, even if-- if somebody was borderline, is there somebody up there, there was 364 other days that he could've been, if he ever were going to come home.  But it was Christmas Eve.  Somebody's up there for sure.  That's amazing.  Somebody-- one of my friends said, "You know, if-- if some Hollywood producer was gonna write this, and have this-- this whole journey, and have it come to the end how it did, they would say, 'What are you kidding.  No one would believe that.'"  And-- and it seems like that-- that's-- I wouldn't believe it.  And that would almost ruin the movie if they threw that in there.  But it's-- it's amazing.  It's-- it's truly incredible.  It was like the stamp on it.  Or the exclamation mark on it.