CBS News has pushed back against former President Trump's claims that “60 Minutes” deceptively edited an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, dismissing the allegations as “false” in a statement released Sunday. .
After weeks of silence despite growing backlash over the interview, CBS on Sunday night gave two different answers to the same question in a “60 Minutes” interview earlier this month with the Democratic candidate. released a statement addressing the outrage that arose after it aired.
“Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceptively editing his Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false,” the statement began.
“'60 Minutes' published an excerpt of our interview on 'Face the Nation,' where her answer was longer than 60 Minutes'. Same question. Same answer. But the different parts of the responses: Politicians, athletes, movie stars, etc. When we edit interviews, we try to make the parts of her answers on 60 Minutes more clear, accurate, and to the point. It was concise and allowed time for other subjects within the broad 21-minute segment.”
The statement then reminds readers that former President Trump “abandoned his interview with 60 Minutes and was joined by the vice president.” The Trump campaign denied formally accepting the interview invitation.
“Our longstanding invitation to former President Trump remains open,” the statement continued. “If he would like to discuss issues facing the country or the interview with Mr. Harris, he would be happy to appear on 60 Minutes.”
CBS News has not yet released the unedited video or the full transcript of the interview.
The Trump campaign responded to CBS News' statement by continuing to call for the network to release the transcripts.
“60 Minutes just admitted that they did the exact same thing that President Trump accused them of doing. They changed other parts of Kamala Harris' answers to make her sound more incoherent than she really is.'' Edited to separate response. Their statement is not a denial, but an admission that they did exactly what they were accused of.” “This is yet another reminder of how hopelessly biased 60 Minutes is, and how right President Trump was in declining the invitation to be the subject of a fake news hack. Publish your transcript!”
The statement came hours after President Trump demanded that the interview be taken off air during a scathing sit-down interview with Fox News' Howard Kurtz.
“I've never seen anything like that. She gave a horribly incompetent answer on a news show…so she ends up giving an answer that shows she's stupid or incompetent or something is wrong. ” President Trump said early Sunday. “It was so bad that the CBS guys said they were going to edit it a little bit… They deleted the whole ridiculous answer and it was a long answer and they had to edit it completely to a much shorter answer. “I replaced it'' on a different subject, which also made no sense, but was no less incompetent. ”
CBS News has come under fire in recent days for broadcasting two different answers to the same question during a “60 Minutes” interview with Harris earlier this month.
When footage of Harris serving a long “word salad” on CBS's “Face the Nation” was broadcast to promote the “60 Minutes” sit-in, Bill Whitaker asked why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Harris was ridiculed by conservatives when she asked if she looked like that. They didn't listen to America.
However, the vice president's lengthy answer did not make the version aired on “60 Minutes” Monday night, instead showing Harris' short answer to the same question.
The Center for American Rights, also known as CAR, filed a formal complaint with the FCC, arguing that the discrepancy “constitutes intentional distortion of the news and violates FCC rules governing broadcasters' public interest obligations.”
Former President Trump tweeted last week on Truth Social: “Big Fake News Scam by CBS and 60 Minutes.
“Her real answer was crazy or stupid, so they actually replaced it with another answer to save her, or at least make her look better. Completely illegal fake. It’s a news scam,” he charged.
“Take away the CBS license,” he continued. “Election interference. She's an idiot and the fake news media wants to cover up that fact. Unprecedented scandal!!! Will the Democrats have to concede the election because they let them do this? ?oh!”
Trump further criticized the liberal network in a speech at the Detroit Economic Club.
“The other big story is the fraud committed by 60 Minutes and CBS in collaboration with Democrats. This will go down as the biggest scandal in broadcast history,” Trump said.
Fox News' Brian Flood, Joseph A. Wulfsohn and Taylor Penley contributed to this report.
