CBS News breaks silence on editing allegations in ’60 Minutes’ interview with Harris

CBS News rejected former President Trump’s claim that “60 Minutes” misleadingly edited his interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, dismissing the allegation as “false” in a statement released Sunday.

After weeks of staying mum despite growing backlash over the interview, CBS released a statement Sunday evening addressing the outrage that followed after airing two different answers to the same question in the interview.” 60 Minutes” earlier this month with the Democratic nominee.

“Former President Donald Trump accuses 60 Minutes of misleading editing of our October 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false,” the statement began.

“60 Minutes ran an excerpt from our interview on ‘Face the Nation’ that used a longer section of his answer than 60 Minutes did. Same question. Same answer. But a different part of the answer. When we edit any interview, whether a politician, athlete or movie star, we strive to be clear, precise and to the point.The part of his answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which gives time for other topics in a broad 21-minute segment.”

Cbs ’60 Minutes’ airs two different answers from Vice President Harris to the same question

The statement then reminds readers that former President Trump “withdrew his interview with ’60 Minutes,’ and the vice president participated.” The Trump campaign denied ever formally accepting the interview invitation.

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“Our longstanding invitation to former President Trump remains open,” the statement continued. “If you’d like to discuss the issues facing the nation and interview Harris, we’d love to have you on 60 Minutes.”

CBS News has not yet released an unedited video or a full transcript of the interview.

The Trump campaign responded to CBS News’ statement, continuing its call for the network to release the transcript.

“60 Minutes just admitted to doing exactly what President Trump accused them of doing. They edited in a different response, from another part of their response, to make Kamala Harris sound less incoherent than she really was . Their statement is not a denial, but an admission that they did exactly what they were accused of doing,” the Trump campaign said. “This is yet another reminder of how hopelessly biased 60 Minutes is and how right President Trump was to decline his invitation to be subjected to his fake news hack. Release the transcript!”

The statement comes hours after Trump called for the interview to be taken off the air during a scathing interview with Fox News’ Howard Kurtz.

’60 Minutes’ Under Fire for Kamala Harris Editing Decision’ Has History of Liberal Controversy‘

“I’ve never seen anything like it. She gave a horrible, incompetent answer on a news show … and so she gave an answer that shows she’s dumb or incompetent or something’s wrong with her,” Trump said earlier Sunday. “It’s so bad that the people at CBS say we’re going to do a little edit… They take out the whole ridiculous answer, and it was a long answer, and we replace it with a much shorter one that you had to do with a totally different topic answer, which it didn’t make sense either, but it wasn’t that incompetent.”

CBS News has it got hot the last few days to issue two different answers to the same question in his “60 Minutes” interview earlier this month with Harris. Conservatives mocked Harris when footage of her offering a lengthy “word salad” aired on CBS’ “Face the Nation” to promote the “60 Minutes” session, when Bill Whitaker asked why she appeared to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I wasn’t listening to the US

Cbs accused of ‘significant and intentional distortion of news’ in FCC complaint over ’60 Minutes’ editing

However, the vice president’s lengthy response did not make the version that aired Monday night on “60 Minutes,” and a shorter response from Harris to the same question was shown. The Center for American Rights, also known as CAR, argued that the discrepancies “amount to a deliberate distortion of the news, a violation of FCC rules governing broadcasters’ public interest obligations,” and formally complain to the FCC.

Former President Trump called for CBS to lose its broadcast license last week, writing in Truth Social, “One giant fake news scam by CBS and 60 Minutes.

“Her ACTUAL ANSWER WAS CRAZY, OR STUPID, so they actually replaced it with another answer to save her or at least make her look better. A FAKE NEWS SCAM, which is totally illegal” , he accused.

“TAKE YOUR LICENSE CBS,” he continued. “Election interference. She is an idiot, and the fake news media wants to cover up that fact. An unprecedented scandal!!! The Democrats made them do this and should they be forced to concede the election?¡ WOW!”

Trump further criticized the liberal network during a speech at the Detroit Economic Club.

“The other big news is the fraud committed by ’60 Minutes’ and CBS along with the Democratic Party, working together with them, which will become the biggest scandal in the history of broadcasting, I predict,” Trump said .

Fox News’ Brian Flood, Joseph A. Wulfsohn and Taylor Penley contributed to this report.

The article was updated to include the Trump campaign’s response.

Source of original article: CBS News breaks silence on editing allegations in ’60 Minutes’ interview with Harris