“60 Minutes” gave viewers a lengthy on-air explanation Monday of why former President Trump refused to participate in the show's traditional pre-election interviews with presidential candidates.
The news program addressed the cancellation as part of a prime-time special in advance of interviews with Vice President Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D). In the opening segment, Scott Pelley, who was scheduled to interview Trump for the same feature, provided a detailed timeline of how the Trump campaign initially agreed to appear on the show and then declined.
“It's been a tradition for more than half a century for major party candidates to spend 60 minutes in October,” Perry said.
Perry said the Trump campaign and “60 Minutes'' agreed to hold a sit-in at Trump's Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida last Thursday. The two sides also agreed that “60 Minutes'' would attend Trump's campaign rally last Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, the same place where he was grazed by a bullet during an assassination attempt in July.
“A week ago, President Trump withdrew,” Perry said. “The campaign has changed its narrative. First, it complained that we fact-check interviews. We fact-check all articles.”
“Then Trump said he needed to apologize for the 2020 interview,” Perry continued, referring to the controversy during the same campaign when Trump sparred with Leslie Stahl over Hunter Biden's laptop. He cited an interview that sparked an uproar.
Perry said the news questions asked of Trump focused on the economy, immigration, reproductive rights and wars overseas. He noted that without the additional debates on the schedule, Monday night's show could have been one of President Trump's biggest viewers before Election Day.
“Both sides understood that if either candidate withdrew, this special program would happen,” Perry said.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but communications director Steven Chuen previously insisted the interview was never “locked in.”
“60 Minutes begged Hunter Biden for an interview even after he was found to have lied about his laptop in 2020” when it was first announced that President Trump would not be joining the program. Mr. Chan said. “There were initial discussions, but nothing was scheduled or set in stone.”
“They also insisted on doing live fact-checking, which is unprecedented,” he added.
