In a recent development, CBS News has refuted allegations made by former President Donald Trump, who accused the network's "60 Minutes" of manipulative editing in an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.
The network has labeled these accusations as baseless in a statement issued on Sunday.
According to Fox News, CBS had remained silent for weeks, despite growing criticism over the interview. However, on Sunday evening, the network finally addressed the controversy that erupted following the broadcast of two different responses to the same question during the "60 Minutes" interview with the Democratic nominee earlier this month.
The statement from CBS News began, "Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceitful editing of our Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false." The network went on to explain that an excerpt of the interview was given to 'Face the Nation,' which used a longer section of Harris's answer than that aired on "60 Minutes." The network emphasized that the editing process aims to ensure clarity, accuracy, and relevance, regardless of the interviewee's profile.
CBS News also highlighted that while Vice President Harris participated in the interview, former President Trump had declined his own interview with "60 Minutes." The Trump campaign, however, denied ever formally accepting the invitation for the interview. CBS News reiterated its open invitation to the former President, stating, "If he would like to discuss the issues facing the nation and the Harris interview, we would be happy to have him on 60 Minutes."
Despite the network's statement, CBS News has not yet released an unedited video or full transcript of the interview, leading to continued calls from the Trump campaign for the network to release the transcript.
In response to CBS News' statement, the Trump campaign accused "60 Minutes" of admitting to the very act they were accused of. The campaign stated, "60 Minutes just admitted to doing exactly what President Trump accused them of doing. They edited in a different response - from another part of her answer - to make Kamala Harris sound less incoherent than she really was." The campaign further criticized "60 Minutes" for its perceived bias and called for the release of the transcript.
The controversy escalated when Trump, during an interview with Fox News' Howard Kurtz, demanded that the interview be removed from the air. He criticized Harris's response in the interview, calling it "horrible" and "incompetent," and accused CBS of editing her response to make it appear less incoherent.
The network has faced criticism for airing two different responses to the same question during its "60 Minutes" interview with Harris. The Vice President was ridiculed by conservatives when footage of her giving a lengthy, confusing answer was aired by CBS' "Face the Nation" to promote the "60 Minutes" interview. However, a shorter response from Harris was aired on "60 Minutes," leading to allegations of news distortion by the Center for American Rights (CAR), which lodged a formal complaint with the FCC.
Trump has called for CBS to lose its broadcasting license, labeling the incident as a "giant Fake News Scam by CBS & 60 Minutes." He accused the network of replacing Harris's original answer with a different one to make her appear more competent, terming it as "election interference." He further criticized the network during a speech at the Detroit Economic Club, predicting that the incident would go down as the "single biggest scandal in broadcast history."
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