CBS News Heavily Edits Trump's 60 Minutes Interview, Omitting Claim Regarding Broadcaster Compensating The President Substantial Money
This broadcast network program 60 Minutes heavily trimmed a conversation with the former president that aired Sunday night, representing his first sit-down on the show in five years.
The former president sat down alongside journalist Norah O’Donnell over an hour and a half, yet merely about 28 minutes were broadcast. A complete transcript of the interview was later published, alongside a 73-minute digital cut from the interview.
These cuts are notable because, precisely 12 months before Trump's appearance on the program in Florida, he had sued CBS regarding the editing from another news program segment featuring Kamala Harris, which he alleged had been deceptively edited to help her campaign in the presidential election.
While numerous legal experts largely rejected the lawsuit as “meritless” and improbable to succeed under the first amendment, CBS reached an agreement with the president for millions in July. As part of the agreement, CBS had agreed to publish full records from upcoming discussions with candidates.
At the beginning of the broadcast, the correspondent reminded viewers that the parent company resolved Trump’s lawsuit, but noted that “the settlement lacked any admission or admission of wrongdoing”.
In the conversation, in one segment omitted from broadcast, Trump teased CBS over the settlement and repeated his claims toward the broadcaster.
“Actually the program gave me a lotta money. You need not put this on, since I do not wish to cause you discomfort, and I trust that you are not,” the president said. “But the show was forced to pay me a lot of money because they took her answer out that was so bad, it proved election-changing, two nights before the election. They inserted a different response in. They compensated me handsomely because of it. You can’t have fake news. We must have truthful journalism. And I think that it’s happening.”
In a separate segment not broadcast of the interview, the president praised the acquisition of CBS to the Ellison family noting the network’s new editor-in-chief, the journalist, is a “great new leader”.
The US president said he didn’t know Weiss, yet informed the interviewer: “People say she is impressive.
“In my view you've acquired a talented director, frankly, that individual that’s leading your whole enterprise, is superb – from what I know,” he remarked.
Trump was particularly enthusiastic in praising David Ellison and his father, Larry, the new owner of the network's parent firm, Paramount, via their firm Skydance Media.
“I think a very positive development to happen involves this program and new ownership, the network and new ownership,” Trump said. “I think it is a major improvement that’s happened for years toward a transparent and reliable media.”
O’Donnell did not directly respond to the president’s comments concerning the editor and the Ellisons.
Included in Trump’s many answers that were edited out were multiple statements questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, which he said “was rigged and stolen”.
During one exchange in the conversation, in a segment omitted from the broadcast, the president tried to get the journalist to acknowledge that crime was down in Washington DC, where she lives.
“You reside in DC. You know that too,” Trump remarked, inquiring of the correspondent: “Have you noticed any change?”
“I believe I have been occupied too hard,” she replied. “I have not gotten out and about that much … I get in my car and go to work and I go home.”
The president said “that is an evasion” and insisted that O’Donnell noticed an improvement.
Trump then seemed to suggest that the exchange didn’t need be included on the show.
“It is unnecessary to include that part,” he noted. “No concerns, don’t worry, I do not wish to embarrass her.”
