“60 Minutes” rejects Trump’s claims that he edited a clip of Harris while calling for the former president to be investigated

"60 Minutes" rejects Trump's claims that he edited a clip of Harris while calling for the former president to be investigated

CNN –

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

“Former President Donald Trump accuses 60 Minutes of deceptively editing our October 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. The program said in a statement that this is not true, and noted that Trump retracted his interview on 60 Minutes earlier this month.

“60 Minutes provided an excerpt of our interview with Face the Nation, which used a longer portion of her answer than the one on 60 Minutes,” the statement read. “Same question. Same answer. But different part of the response. When we edit any interview, whether it’s an interview with a politician, an athlete, or a movie star, we strive to be clear, precise, and to the point. The part of her answer on 60 Minutes was more concise.” , allowing time for other topics in the wide-ranging 21-minute segment.

In an interview with Fox’s “MediaBuzz” program that aired earlier Sunday, Trump suggested that Harris should be investigated over her appearance on “60 Minutes.” He repeated his accusation that CBS News edited the interview with reporter Bill Whitaker. “They took the whole answer and put a completely different answer into that look — and it makes it seem like it’s natural,” he told host Howard Kurtz.

The former president’s criticism of CBS comes as he has repeatedly rejected calls from television networks, including CNN and Fox News, for additional debates, choosing instead to sit down with right-wing media outlets. Harris’ campaign has exploited her GOP rival’s refusal to do interviews to get across its message that he is not qualified to become president.

“Our longstanding invitation to former President Trump remains open. “If he would like to discuss the issues facing the nation and interview Harris, we would be happy to have him on 60 Minutes,” the program said in its statement.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Carolyn Levitt continued to hound 60 Minutes later Sunday, incorrectly claiming that CBS “admitted to doing exactly what President Trump accused it of doing.”

“They edited out a different response — from another part of her answer — to make Kamala Harris seem less coherent than she actually was,” Leavitt said in a statement.

Trump earlier this month called on CBS to “lose its license” over his accusations that the network replaced Harris’ answer with another one “to make it look better.” Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel denounced these comments as “threats against freedom of expression.”

In October 2020, Trump sat down with “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl and abruptly ended the interview when he apparently objected to Stahl’s questions.

Trump and his allies 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 coverage, and said that if elected president again, the media would “pay a heavy price.”

CNN’s Liam Reilly, Kate Sullivan and Jack Forrest contributed to this request.

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