CBS News says Trump campaign had 'shifting explanations' for why he snubbed '60 Minutes'
By DAVID BAUDER
Posted 10/9/24
NEW YORK (AP) — CBS News said the Trump campaign offered “shifting explanations” for why it backed out of a “60 Minutes” interview special with presidential candidates that aired without …
You must be a member to read this story.
Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.
Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here
Otherwise, follow the link below to join.
To Our Valued Readers –
Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.
For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.
Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.
Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.
Need to set up your free e-Newspaper all-access account? click here.
Non-subscribers
Click here to see your options for becoming a subscriber.
Register to comment
Click here create a free account for posting comments.
Note that free accounts do not include access to premium content on this site.
I am anchor
CBS News says Trump campaign had 'shifting explanations' for why he snubbed '60 Minutes'
File - Scott Pelley attends the CBS Upfront in New York, May 15, 2013. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
Posted
By DAVID BAUDER
NEW YORK (AP) — CBS News said the Trump campaign offered “shifting explanations” for why it backed out of a “60 Minutes” interview special with presidential candidates that aired without him.
The network's Scott Pelley appeared on the air Monday night to explain why Republican Donald Trump did not appear on what has become a “60 Minutes” tradition: back-to-back interviews with presidential candidates in the last month of the campaign.
Harris was on the show, interviewed by Bill Whitaker. Where Trump was supposed to appear, “60 Minutes” instead aired a story about an Arizona official pushing false claims about election fraud.
Pelley said that the Trump campaign “complained that we would fact-check the interview. We fact-check every story.”
The Trump team also demanded an apology for his interview during the 2020 campaign, where he claimed that correspondent Lesley Stahl said a laptop computer belonging to President Joe Biden's son Hunter came from Russia. “She never said that,” Pelley said.
Pelley said that Trump's team had agreed to an interview at the former president's Mar-a-Lago home, with an additional talk in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he returned to the scene of a July assassination attempt.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said “60 Minutes” “begged for an interview.” The campaign did have concerns about the show's reporting on Hunter Biden and how it insisted upon editing Trump's comments, he said.
“There was nothing scheduled or agreed upon," Cheung said. ”We had already long promised an exclusive in filming at Butler to another national outlet, which turned out the be Fox News."
Trump's interview with Fox's Laura Ingraham aired an hour before "60 Minutes" on Monday night. His absence from CBS was not mentioned in their exchange. Trump apparently, watched, however, posting on Truth Social that the Harris interview “is considered by many of those who reviewed it, the WORST interview they have ever seen.”
Pelley poked at Trump, noting he had already turned down another opportunity to debate Harris, along with the “60 Minutes” interview, “which may have been the largest audience for the candidates between now and election day.”
Moving “60 Minutes” out of its traditional Sunday time slot may have depressed the audience size, however. An estimated 5.4 million people watched on Monday, according to preliminary Nielsen company figures, compared with the 9.6 million who saw the newsmagazine on Sunday, Sept. 29.
No estimate for Trump's audience on Ingraham's show was immediately available. Her show averaged 2.7 million viewers a night last week, Nielsen said.