WH congratulates Barbara Walters

The White House offered congratulations to veteran journalist Barbara Walters on Wednesday as the longtime ABC News correspondent prepared to retire after more than a half-century on the air.

“I was emailing with a colleague of hers who told me that she has interviewed every president and first lady since Richard Nixon, been on television for more than five decades, and claims she’s retiring on Friday,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters at the top of his daily press briefing.

{mosads}”I don’t believe it. I expect we’ll be getting an interview request within weeks,” he joked.

Carney, though, said that since Walters “officially” intended to retire, he would “offer her the congratulations of everyone here at the White House, including President Obama and the first lady.”

In a series of interviews throughout his presidency, Obama has spoken with Walters about topics ranging from how the first family chose their dogs and his favorite iPad app, Scrabble, to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.