CBS caves, agrees to supply unedited ’60 Minutes’ Harris interview transcript

During the 2024 election cycle, Kamala Harris did an interview with “60 Minutes” that became controversial after teasers were aired that had different responses from the “full” interview that was aired.

Trump immediately called out CBS for “deceptively” editing the interview to make Harris look better, and he is not finally getting some justice.

The Interview

The show was touting the interview on social media, showing a short clip of an answer Harris had given regarding Israel and its war against Hamas.

Correspondent Bill Whitaker stated to Harris, “It seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening” to the objections of the Biden administration regarding the war.

Harris responded, “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 happens in the region.”

When the interview aired, Harris’ response to the same question was, “We’re not gonna stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”

Trump Responds

Trump immediately called for the network to lose its broadcasting license for having deceptively edited the comments made by Harris to allegedly make her look better.

Trump went on to claim that the show had changed her answers, adding that the show and network were going to be in “big trouble.”

“60 Minutes” and the network responded to Trump’s allegations, explaining that the show always edits down answers due to time constraints and they had done nothing wrong here. In part, the show stated, “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. 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.”

Turning Over the Transcript

Trump had filed a lawsuit against the network before taking office, but now that he is calling the shots, the network is being a bit more cooperative, agreeing to hand over the unedited transcript from the interview to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Brendan Carr, Trump’s appointee to the FCC, compelled the network to turn over the transcript. The network has been hesitant to turn them over to this point for fear its editing practices would be questioned.

If there was nothing to this, one would think the network would fight Trump’s $10 million lawsuit, but instead, there are reports the network is trying to reach a settlement with Trump.

Honestly, when Trump first filed his lawsuit, I did not expect much to come of this, but the fact the network is trying to settle has my ears up now. There is zero issue with a network editing out waste in an interview, but if they were clearly trying to make Harris look better and jazzing up her answers, well, this could be a very good case of election interference. To that point, I am very  much looking forward to what Carr comes up with during this investigation.