The Network Heavily Edits Trump's TV Program Sit-Down, Removing Claim About Network Paying Him Large Funds
This broadcast network show 60 Minutes significantly trimmed a conversation with Donald Trump broadcast on Sunday evening, representing his first one-on-one with the program in five years.
Trump sat down with correspondent the CBS anchor for 90 minutes, yet merely about 28 minutes aired on television. The full transcript of the interview subsequently published, together with a 73-minute digital cut from the interview.
The edits are notable because, exactly one year prior to the president's appearance with O’Donnell in Florida, he filed suit against the network regarding the editing of a news program interview featuring Kamala Harris, claiming it was deceptively edited to help her campaign in the presidential election.
While numerous legal experts widely dismissed the lawsuit calling it baseless and unlikely to succeed under the first amendment, CBS settled with Trump for $16m in July. As part of the settlement, the network committed to release full records of future interviews with candidates.
At the beginning of Sunday’s show, O’Donnell informed the audience that Paramount settled Trump’s lawsuit, but noted that “the settlement did not include any admission or admission of wrongdoing”.
In the conversation, in a clip that did not air, Trump needled CBS over the settlement and repeated his claims toward the broadcaster.
“Actually 60 Minutes paid me a lotta money. You need not put this on, because I don’t wanna embarrass you, and I’m sure you’re not,” the president said. “But the show was forced to pay me a lot of money since they removed Harris’s response out which was damaging, it was decisive, two nights before the election. They inserted a new answer into the broadcast. And they paid me handsomely for that. We cannot tolerate fake news. We must have legit news. And I think that it’s happening.”
In a separate segment not broadcast of the interview, Trump commended the sale of the network to new owners and said the broadcaster's recently appointed head, Bari Weiss, was a “excellent addition”.
Trump said he didn’t know Weiss, but told the interviewer: “People say she’s a great person.
“In my view you have a great new leader, honestly, that individual now heading your entire organization, is a great – from what I know,” he said.
Trump was especially effusive in praising the executive and his father, Larry Ellison, the recent purchaser of CBS News’ parent company, Paramount Global, through their company Skydance Media.
“In my opinion one of the best things to happen is this show and the change in ownership, the network under new management,” Trump commented. “I believe it’s the greatest thing that’s happened for years toward a transparent and reliable media.”
The correspondent did not directly respond to the president’s comments about Weiss and the owners.
Among the president's responses which were cut were several comments questioning the integrity of the last election, which he described “had been manipulated and unlawfully taken”.
During one exchange in the interview, in a part omitted from the broadcast, the president attempted to persuade the journalist to admit that crime was down in Washington DC, where she lives.
“You live here. You are aware of this,” the president remarked, inquiring of the correspondent: “Have you noticed a difference?”
“I believe I’ve been working too hard,” O’Donnell responded. “I haven’t been out and about that much … I get in my car to the studio and I go home.”
The president said “that’s not a fair answer” and insisted that the journalist had observed an improvement.
Trump then implied that the exchange need not to be aired on the show.
“You don’t have to use that one,” he said. “No concerns, it's fine, I don’t want to cause her embarrassment.”