Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is denying it played any role in the editing of a controversial “60 Minutes” interview of the Democratic candidate, insisting it had no influence over CBS News’ production decisions.
The interview has become a major source of contention on the campaign trail since its airing Monday night.
An aide for the Harris campaign told The Washington Times on Wednesday, “We do not control CBS’ production decisions and refer questions to CBS.”
The campaign of former President Donald Trump, Ms. Harris’ Republican rival, has stepped up demands that CBS News release the full, unedited transcript of Ms. Harris’ interview with CBS journalist Bill Whitaker, after two clips of the same question were released and showed Ms. Harris providing two different answers.
Both clips show Mr. Whitaker saying, “But it seems that [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu is not listening.”
In the clip from “60 Minutes,” Ms. Harris responds by saying, “We are 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.”
But in the clip from a “Face the Nation” edit, Ms. Harris says, “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 needs to happen in the region.”
CBS News has not responded to requests for comment, but Semafor reported that “multiple people” told the outlet that there “was no contact between the White House or Harris campaign and ’60 Minutes’ after the interview was taped at the [vice president’s] residence on Saturday.”
Mr. Trump has railed against the interview repeatedly on his Truth Social site, calling it “a fake news scam” and a sign the media are favoring Ms. Harris in the race.
“Her real answer was crazy or dumb, so they actually replaced it with another in order to save her or, at least, make her look better,” he wrote in an early post Thursday with some words in all caps. He called the changes “illegal [and] election interference” and said CBS should lose its broadcasting license.
“She is a Moron, and the Fake News Media wants to hide that fact. An UNPRECEDENTED SCANDAL!!! The Dems got them to do this and should be forced to concede the Election? WOW!” he wrote.
In another post he called the “fraud” committed by the network, the show and the Democratic Party “the single biggest scandal in broadcast history.”
The “60 Minutes” interview was supposed to be Ms. Harris’ hardball interview amid scores of friendly interviews, including with the women of ABC’s “The View,” radio personality Howard Stern and sharing a beer with CBS late-night comedian Stephen Colbert.
She stumbled during interviews with CBS and “The View.” She was widely criticized for saying on “The View” that she would not do anything different than President Biden during his term in office, despite the administration’s missteps, such as the border chaos and the ill-fated pullout from Afghanistan.
The media blitz, however, fulfills a promise her campaign made last month that Ms. Harris would do more interviews. Her campaign also acknowledged that in such a tight race, she needs to be more visible to the voters.
It’s tradition for both presidential candidates to sit for a “60 Minutes” interview ahead of the election. Mr. Trump initially said yes to an interview this year but then backed out before the taping.
He said the network owes him an apology after the contentious “60 Minutes” interview in 2020 with Lesley Stahl, which he called unfair and walked out of. During the interview, he asked why the network hadn’t covered the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop that allegedly contained evidence of corruption involving Hunter’s father, President Biden, who was the Democratic presidential nominee.
Ms. Stahl said, “It can’t be verified.”
The laptop was ultimately verified as authentic by the government and news organizations.
When asked by reporters why he backed out of the 2024 interview, Mr. Trump cited CBS News’ coverage of the laptop.
“They said the laptop from hell was from Russia, and I said, ‘It wasn’t from Russia. It was from Hunter,’” he said. “And I never got an apology.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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