“60 Minutes” denies Trump's claims that he edited the clip for Harris as the former president calls for an investigation

CNN
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CBS' “60 Minutes” on Sunday denied former President Donald Trump's claims that the show edited her interview with Vice President Kamala Harris at the direction of her campaign.

“Former President Donald Trump accuses 60 Minutes of fraudulent editing of our Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. This is false,” the show said in a statement, noting that Trump walked out of his own “60 Minutes” interview earlier this month.

“60 Minutes gave Face the Nation an excerpt from our interview that used a longer portion of her response than 60 Minutes,” the statement said. “Same question. Same answer. But another part of the answer. When we edit interviews, be it with politicians, athletes or movie stars, we make sure to be clear, precise and to the point. The portion of her response on “60 Minutes” was more succinct, which leaves time for other topics in a lengthy 21-minute segment.”

In an interview on Fox's “MediaBuzz” that aired earlier Sunday, Trump suggested that Harris should be investigated over her “60 Minutes” appearance. He repeated his accusations that CBS News edited the session with correspondent Bill Whitaker. “They took the answer completely out and put a completely different answer in the look – it makes it look normal,” he told host Howard Kurtz.

The former president's criticism of CBS comes as he repeatedly declined invitations to further debates from television networks, including CNN and Fox News, opting instead for sessions with right-wing media outlets. The Harris campaign has exploited its Republican rival's refusal to do interviews to spread its message that he is unfit to be president.

“Our longstanding invitation to former President Trump remains open. If he would like to talk about the nation's issues and the Harris interview, we would be happy to have him on 60 Minutes,” the show's statement said.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt continued to lash out on “60 Minutes” later Sunday, falsely claiming that CBS “has admitted to doing exactly what President Trump accused them of.”

“They edited a different answer — a different part of their answer — to make Kamala Harris sound less incoherent than she really was,” Leavitt said in a statement.

Earlier this month, Trump called on CBS to “lose its license” after accusing the network of replacing Harris' answer with another to “make her look better.” Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel condemned the comments as a “threat to free speech.”

And in October 2020, Trump sat down with “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl and abruptly ended the interview when he appeared to object to Stahl's questions.

Trump and his allies have repeatedly threatened the press. Last year, he called for Comcast, the parent company of NBC News and MSNBC, to be investigated “for treason” over its reporting and said the news media would “pay a heavy price if elected president again.”

CNN's Liam Reilly, Kate Sullivan and Jack Forrest contributed to this query.