60 Minutes has addressed Donald Trump’s claim that the CBS news program edited its October 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris to portray her more favorably. In response, the Trump campaign also released its own statement.
On Sunday, the show issued the following statement in reaction to the Republican presidential candidate’s allegations:”
Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceitful editing of our Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false.
60 Minutes gave an excerpt of our interview to Face the Nation that used a longer section of her answer than that on 60 Minutes. Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response. When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point. The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment.
Remember, Mr. Trump pulled out of his interview with 60 Minutes and the vice president participated.
Our long-standing invitation to former President Trump remains open. If he would like to discuss the issues facing the nation and the Harris interview, we would be happy to have him on 60 Minutes.
Trump responded to the statement by issuing one himself via his campaign. Karoline Leavitt, the campaign’s national press secretary, stated in the press release that: “60 Minutes has effectively admitted to doing exactly what President Trump accused them of.”
The statement continued: “They edited in a different response — from another part of her answer — to make Kamala Harris sound less incoherent than she really was. Their statement is not a denial, it is an admission that they did exactly what they were accused of. This is another reminder of how hopelessly biased 60 Minutes is, and how correct President Trump was to decline their invitation to be subjected to their fake news hackery. Release the transcript!”
Trump labeled the broadcast of Harris’s interview on 60 Minutes as a “giant fake news scam,” accusing CBS of attempting to favor her. These claims emerged after online observers noted that Harris provided a different answer to a question in a teaser clip aired on CBS’s Face the Nation compared to what was shown on 60 Minutes. The question in focus pertained to the Biden administration’s influence on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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“It seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening,” 60 Minutes’ Bill Whitaker says to Harris in the interview.
In the clip, Harris stated: “The work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region.”
But during the 60 Minutes broadcast, Harris responded, “We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”
On his Truth Social account, Trump wrote, “Her REAL ANSWER WAS CRAZY, OR DUMB, so they actually REPLACED it with another answer to save her or, at least, make her look better.” Following this, Trump has called for CBS to lose its FCC license over the interview. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel rejected the notion, stating that Trump’s “threats against free speech are serious and should not be ignored.”
