CBS Finally Addresses Edited ’60 Minutes’ Clip, But Its Statement Only Made Critics Angrier

When the CBS News series “60 Minutes” released a clip from a recent interview with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, it included one answer. When the full segment aired, however, the response was different.

Naturally, this disparity led to suspicion that the interview had been edited to make Harris look better. The network’s reluctance to release the full transcript only added to the suspicion.

About two weeks after the interview first aired, CBS finally released a statement on the matter, but it left a lot to be desired.

According to Fox News:

CBS News infamously aired Harris offering a widely mocked, rambling answer to a critical question about Israel when promoting the interview, but a shorter answer to the same question was shown instead in primetime on “60 Minutes.” CBS News’ statement said former President Trump’s claim the “deceitful editing” was used is “false,” and explained that producers used a “more succinct” portion of Harris’ answer.

“Instead of releasing the full 60 Minutes interview and transcript, CBS released a statement somehow blaming Donald Trump,” Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell told Fox News Digital.

“Is CBS a news organization or a Democrat Super PAC?” Bozell added. “If CBS has nothing to hide, it should stop hiding.”

Fox News contributor Joe Concha noted that it took 14 days for CBS News to put out a statement.

“This statement ’60 Minutes’ issued is absolutely meaningless,” Concha said Monday on “FOX & Friends First.”

The statement drew widespread backlash from social media critics, including President Donald Trump himself:

When will CBS release their Transcript of the fraudulent Interview with Comrade Kamala Harris? They changed her answer in order to make Kamala look intelligent, rather than “dumb as a rock.” This may be the Biggest Scandal in Broadcast History! CBS MUST GET THE TRANSCRIPT OUT NOW…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2024

CBS claims everyone is lying about their obvious edit.

The easy way to prove it is to release the transcript. But they won’t. https://t.co/4cRk8Mf1bC

— John Cooper (@thejcoop) October 20, 2024

Whoever wrote this denial is delusional. Their bias was absolutely clear by the way they edited. This line in the statement, “Remember, Mr. Trump pulled out of his interview with 60 Minutes and the vice president participated.” does not help their case. Talk about sour grapes. https://t.co/uCXBYUfxs7

— Apryl Marie (@aprylmarie) October 21, 2024

60 Minutes continues to conceal the unedited transcript of its interview with Kamala Harris. Here, they also lie about the controversy surrounding that transcript. The extent of their deceptive edits must be SIGNIFICANT for them to refuse to release the actual transcript. https://t.co/VqJxWT3DNO

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) October 20, 2024

60 Minutes deceptively edited their interview with Kamala Harris and is refusing to release the full transcript.

How bad was the interview for them to hide it? https://t.co/Yu5dTrZakU

— Rep. Tom Tiffany (@RepTiffany) October 21, 2024

.@60Minutes be like:

“We didn’t deceptively edit @KamalaHarris’s word salad answer, we just made it more succinct to make it not look like a word salad.” https://t.co/ok435FaGTZ pic.twitter.com/6KZzetr3FH

— Thomas Stevenson (@RealTStevenson) October 20, 2024

Trump’s legal team is pressuring CBS to release the transcript, as Newsweek reported:

The letter was written by Trump’s attorney, Edward Andrew Paltzik, and claims that CBS has “intentionally misled the public by broadcasting a skillfully edited interview transcript … aimed at causing confusion among the electorate regarding Vice President Kamala Harris’s abilities, intelligence, and appeal.”

In the letter, Paltzik demanded to know why Harris’ full “word salad” answer about U.S.-Israeli relations was not broadcast in the 60 Minutes interview aired on October 7.

The letter also suggests there was a “puppet” master controlling the interview to make Harris look favorable and threatened legal action, without stating the grounds for a possible lawsuit.

Newsweek sought email comment from CBS News on Monday.

“News organizations such as CBS have a responsibility to accurately represent the truth of events, not distort an interview to try and make their preferred candidate appear coherent and decisive, which Harris most certainly is not,” Paltzik wrote. “Due to CBS’ actions, the public cannot distinguish which Kamala Harris they are seeing: the candidate or the puppet of a behind-the-scenes editor.”