A strange use instance of Present Simple in a sentence

Question

I'm reading an article in the NYT. And it has the next paragraph:

I watched Abraham interview half a dozen deportees. What he said was true: They were like him. To a middle-­aged farmer who had three daughters in the United States and was on his way to his mother’s town, Abraham said, ‘‘Is there someone where you’re going who might hurt you?’’

I cannot figure out the use of "interview" here. I do understand the situation: Abraham, the interviewer (a deportee himself), is interviewing a dozen of the deportees, but why Present Simple? Is this grammatically correct and if it is, what is the rule for this?

As for me, it would have been more correct to say it in any of these ways:

• I watched Abraham was interviewing half a dozen deportees.
• I watched Abraham had interviewed half a dozen deportees.
• I watched Abraham interviewed half a dozen deportees.
• I watched Abraham's interview of/with half a dozen deportees.

I reread a unit in Murphy's English Grammar for Present Simple and found no condition for this use of "interview". It states that Present Simple is used in two situations: an action is permanent (like "I live in London" and the action happens repeatedly, all the time, like "I drive a bus, this is my job").

Could anyone explain this use of Present Simple to me, please?

Thank you.

Answer 1

This is a special verb construction of the type verb + noun + to-infinitive or bare infinitive. See ELU 292 926 Link

Answer 2

None of your alternative examples is correct. You can say:

• I watched Abraham interview half a dozen deportees. (as per the NYT)
• I watched Abraham, who interviewed half a dozen deportees.
• I watched when (or while) Abraham interviewed half a dozen deportees.
• I watched Abraham interviewing half a dozen deportees.

But of all these, the NYT version is the most succinct, and is certainly a correct use of the Present Simple. It is extremely common, when the action was continuous and being reported on, even though the principal verb is in the past tense: "I saw Jane swim twenty laps / climb the tallest tree.".

However "I saw Jane climbing the tallest tree.", while still grammatically correct, has a slightly different tense sense, and is locating the report more specifically in the past, but it is very context dependent.