CBS denied allegations it ‘deceitfully edited’ a longwinded answer Kamala Harris gave during a 60 Minutes interview – but admitted airing a ‘more succinct’ portion of her response.
The controversy began when the vice president sat for an interview that aired last Monday on the flagship program and was asked about the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
Her verbose answer, riddled with long pauses and hesitant wording, was played during a 60 Minutes preview that aired on CBS Face the Nation last Sunday.
However, when the whole interview was broadcast on 60 Minutes the next evening, Harris appeared to give a more succinct answer.
When Donald Trump’s campaign noticed the difference, the former president angrily accused the TV station of ‘fraud’ by editing her ‘horrible, incompetent answer’.
CBS spent the week refusing to comment, but broke its silence after Trump called for the station to be taken off air in a long rant on Thursday.
‘Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceitful editing of our Oct 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false,’ CBS said on Sunday.
CBS explained that the interview had to be condensed to fit into a 21-minute program, and it was standard procedure to trim long answers to cover more topics.
’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,’ it said.
‘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.’
CBS made a dig at Trump in its statement, noting he ‘pulled out of his interview with 60 Minutes and the vice president participated’.
‘Our long-standing invitation to former president Trump remains open,’ it said
‘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’s campaign earlier denied it ever formally accepted the interview invitation.
The interview aired on the one-year anniversary of Hamas terrorists raiding Israel and carrying out the largest single-day massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Host Bill Whitaker asked Harris about whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was listening to the US, and whether the administration had any sway over his decision making during its attack on Gaza.
‘Well Bill, 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,’ Harris replied.
The 60 Minutes version was noticeably shorter and missing many of her pauses.
‘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,’ she said.
Trump national press secretary Karoline Leavitt demanded CBS release the entire, unedited interview – which it has yet to do.
‘Why did 60 Minutes choose not to air Kamala’s full word salad, and what else did they choose not to air?’ she said.
‘The American people deserve the full, unedited transcript from Kamala’s sit-down interview. We call upon 60 Minutes and CBS to release it. What do they, and Kamala, have to hide?’
Harris’ media strategy has remained largely clear of sit-down interviews with television networks and has leaned more towards nontraditional avenues – such as speaking with raunchy, sex-focused Call Her Daddy podcast host Alex Cooper.
The 60 Minutes interview was one of her few long form sit-downs with a legacy television network.
