President Trump Addresses 60 Minutes’ ‘Fake News’ Claim About Interview Snub

For decades, the CBS series “60 Minutes” has conducted interviews with major party presidential nominees, but this year it appears that one such candidate will skip the election year tradition.

President Donald Trump has signaled that he will not be sitting down for a segment, which sparked a terse response from the television newsmagazine.

A Programming Note: 60 Minutes is scheduled to air a primetime election special on a Monday edition of the broadcast on October 7 at 8 PM. For over half a century, 60 Minutes has invited the Democratic and Republican tickets to appear on our broadcast as Americans head to the…

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 1, 2024

As The Hill reported:

Former President Trump pulled out of the “60 Minutes” interview that was scheduled to run next week, CBS News said Tuesday.

According to CBS News, the GOP presidential nominee and his political rival, Vice President Harris, each agreed to sit down for interviews as part of the show’s election special set to air on Monday at 8 p.m. EST.

The ex-president was set to be interviewed by anchor Scott Pelley, while Harris was set to speak with correspondent Bill Whitaker, the network said, adding that the Trump campaign “decided not to participate” and that Pelley would address the development Monday.

“Our election special will broadcast the Harris interview on Monday as planned,” the network said in a Tuesday statement. “Our original invitation to former President Donald Trump to be interviewed on 60 Minutes stands.”

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The show’s social media statement drew an array of critical responses, including from a Trump campaign spokesperson:

Fake News. 60 Minutes begged for an interview, even after they were caught lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop back in 2020. There were initial discussions, but nothing was ever scheduled or locked in.

They also insisted on doing live fact checking, which is unprecedented. https://t.co/l7xIacc1JK

— Steven Cheung (@TheStevenCheung) October 1, 2024

Other responses included:

60 minutes lied about the Hunter Biden laptop story and rigged the election for Biden

Trump shouldn’t give y’all clowns 1 second of air time

🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕

— Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) October 1, 2024

CBS "News" is nothing more than Democrat propaganda and everybody knows it.

— Shem Horne (@Shem_Infinite) October 1, 2024

After @LesleyRStahl’s lies in her previous interview with President Trump, I don’t blame him.

President Trump has made the right choice.

You are becoming irrelevant @CBSNews.

— Amy Kremer (@AmyKremer) October 1, 2024

Trump himself addressed the topic during a recent event, as Breitbart reported:

When Trump himself was asked about this directly while taking questions from the press Tuesday, the former president said:

They came to me and would like me to do an interview, but first I want to get an apology because the last time I did an interview with them, if you remember, they challenged me on the computer. They said the laptop from hell was from Russia. And I said it wasn’t from Russia, it was from Hunter [Biden]. And I never got an apology, so I’m sort of waiting. I’d love to do 60 Minutes. I do everything. … The laptop from hell was from Hunter. It wasn’t from [Russia]. … If you remember, Lesley Stahl, we got into a little bit of an argument … and they really owe me an apology. … Let’s see if they do it. I wouldn’t mind doing 60 Minutes.

Here’s a clip of his remarks:

BREAKING: Trump just conducted a vicious TAKEDOWN of 60 Minutes, saying he'll only do their interview if they APOLOGIZE for lying about Hunter Biden's laptop

"They said the laptop from hell was from Russia. And I said it wasn't from Russia, it was from Hunter. And I never got an… pic.twitter.com/f1pD9bcXr5

— George (@BehizyTweets) October 1, 2024