Nick Sandmann: "As Far As Standing There, I Had Every Right To Do So"

NBC News previews the upcoming interview with Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann.

In the short preview, Savannah Guthrie asks Sandmann if he feels he owes anyone an apology or see any fault in how he handled the incident.

"As far as standing there, I had every right to do so," says the teen. "My position is that I was not disrespectful to Mr. Phillips. I respect him. I'd like to talk to him."

"In hindsight, I wish we could have walked away and avoided the whole thing," he adds.

Interesting that his first response is having "every right" to stand where he was.

My gut from the beginning was that this was about him 'standing his ground' and not ceding or giving in to the Native American.

I don't know if it was intentional disrespect or if it just came off that way. But it has always appeared to me that he was trying to play 'big man' in front of his fellow students.

Sandmann does come off very coached here, but then, it's public knowledge his family hired a high-powered GOP-aligned public relations firm to do crisis management here.

I'm married to a publicist who's handled crisis management situations. I've seen the kind of coaching that goes on before public appearances.

Watch the segment below.

Guthrie apparently asks Sandmann about the look on his face during the encounter and more in a larger segment set to air tomorrow on TODAY.

By the way, check out the tweet from Savannah Guthrie announcing the interview. Notice the ratio between 'Likes' (6.7K) and Comments (28K).