Apple CEO Tim Cook In First Interview Since FBI Showdown: Backdoors ‘Bad For America’

UPDATE: 6:55 p.m. EST -- Apple CEO Tim Cook has said he will be meeting with President Barack Obama to discuss the ongoing ordeal between the iPhone maker and the FBI, Reuters said Wednesday, citing an interview with ABC News. Cook also told ABC that what the U.S. government was asking Apple to do was the "software equivalent of cancer."

Original story:

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple CEO Tim Cook said creating backdoors into iPhones "would be bad for America" in his first press interview since his company's clash with the FBI began last week. The interview with ABC News is set to air Wednesday night, but two clips were released in the afternoon.

After being asked by anchor David Muir if Apple should make an exception for backdoors in the case involving the iPhone of Syed Rizwan Farook, the terrorist who killed 14 Americans in San Bernardino in December, Cook said that the safety of the country is important but so is the protection of individuals' data.

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"We know that doing this could expose people to incredible vulnerabilities," Cook said. "This is not something that we would create. This would be bad for America. It would also set a precedent that I believe many people in America would be offended by."

In the interview, which is set to air on “World News Tonight with David Muir” at 6:30 p.m. EST, Cook was also asked if he was considering that breaking into this iPhone could prevent future attacks. "David, some things are hard, and some things are right," Cook said. "And some things are both. This is one of those things."

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Cook also shared that the FBI did not contact Apple before filing for its court order. "We found out about this filing from the press, and I don’t think that's the way the railway should be run," Cook said. "I don’t think that something so important to this country should be handled in this way."

Cook and Apple are expected to file an appeal against the court order by the end of the week. Many experts are already predicting that this legal battle will ultimately make its way to the Supreme Court. The case is expected to set a precedent for whether the All Writs Act, a law that is more than 200 years old, can be used by law enforcement to compel tech companies to build backdoors into their products.