Here’s what Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on October 10, 2024, about how 60 Minutes had edited its interview with Kamala Harris:
A giant Fake News Scam by CBS & 60 Minutes. Her REAL ANSWER WAS CRAZY, OR DUMB, so they actually REPLACED it with another answer in order to save her or, at least, make her look better. A FAKE NEWS SCAM, which is totally illegal. TAKE AWAY THE CBS LICENSE. Election Interference. 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 said it out loud at the Detroit Economic Club later that day: “The real answer of Kamala was very crazy or dumb. Nobody knows what, but it was bad, so they actually replaced it. Think of this. They’ve never done that for me. They actually replaced it with another answer, having nothing to do with what she said before. They took another thing that she said and they just lopped it in there.”
Fast forward to this week.
60 Minutes aired Ross Douthat’s interview with Trump on Sunday, and CBS posted a 51-minute extended version online. I put the two side by side. While I understand that they needed to cut a big chunk of it to make it fit the TV show, what ended up happening is that they cut a lot of the craziest stuff Trump said. Isn’t this what Trump sued 60 Minutes over when it came to Kamala Harris?
I put together a comparison of the two versions of the interview, spliced together here. I believe this is fair use (I was going to embed this as a YouTube video, but CBS filed a copyright claim on it there. I won’t be deterred).
“They were rough to them too”
More than 28 minutes of the extended version never made it to air, and not all of it was hellos and thank-yous.
When Douthat asked whether even the January 6 rioters “who attacked police officers were treated unfairly,” Trump answered, “Well, there-- there were some that-- there were some that got rough, but, you know, they were rough to them too.” Douthat followed up with “Don’t cops have a right to use force against people--” and none of that exchange aired. Neither did Trump saying he thinks he has the power to pardon himself (”I do”), or his line about pardoning “anybody that get-- got within a thousand miles of the Oval Office.” Or “I’ve settled eight wars. I settled eight wars,” along with his claim that Pakistan’s prime minister said “Trump saved 30-50 million lives.” Or the bit about how “if you go to Nevada, where they have a very, very common chain link fence, there’s more tourists at that chain link fence.” Or, in an answer about UFOs, his description of the Air Force pilots he’d met with: “Young, handsome. They have cr-- beautiful, nice flat tops. I’d like to have a haircut just like ‘em.” (They look “perfect, like Tom Cruise,” in case you were wondering.)
Ordinarily, I’d just sort of roll my eyes at this, and in some cases, I think the edits are probably a good idea. Asked about Ukraine, Trump said, “I believe that we’re very close to making a deal, and I think it-- two things, if I were president, because as you know, the-- well, you’re not gonna admit it, the-- I-- it was rigged. That’s why I did it a third time, because it was rigged. That was my ultimate pull.” Douthat’s next words were “Who-- who do you trust more, President Putin or President Zelenskyy--”
Both the “rigged” line and the haircuts came out of the middle of an answer, and the broadcast stitched the ends back together. On TV, “It was the hatred between Zelenskyy and Putin” runs right into “If I had been president that war would’ve never started,” and “But they’re great, great pilots” goes straight to “They’re the real deal.”
So what did CBS do to Harris, exactly?
For anyone lucky enough to have forgotten: Bill Whitaker asked Harris about Israel, and as the AP’s David Bauder explained at the time, “Her full answer to the question was the two sentences put together — the first sentence used on ‘Face the Nation’ and the second sentence on ‘60 Minutes.’”
Trump sued anyway, accusing CBS of “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference” and asking for $10 billion. CBS called the suit “completely without merit,” but Paramount settled for $16 million in July 2025, while its merger with David Ellison’s Skydance was still waiting on the FCC. Ellison put Bari Weiss in charge of CBS News, and Weiss hired Douthat. (I’ve written about pretty much all of this before.)
I didn’t think the Harris edit was a scandal, and I mostly don’t think this one is, either. It’s the same kind of edit. Trump just gave them a lot more crazy to cut. The New Republic’s Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling made a similar point this week, and Techdirt’s Mike Masnick made it in May about an earlier Trump interview.
In January, after Trump sat down with CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil, Karoline Leavitt passed along a message from Trump, according to the New York Times: “He said, ‘Make sure you guys don’t cut the tape, make sure the interview is out in full.’” Dokoupil answered, “Yeah, we’re doing it, yeah.” Leavitt added, “He said, ‘If it’s not out in full, we’ll sue your ass off.’” (CBS aired that one uncut and said it was the network’s own decision.) As far as I can tell, nobody at the White House has said a word about Sunday’s edits.
Yep. Not a scandal, just standard editing, and especially in Trump’s case with his babbling and digressions, a godsend. The real scandal was CBS capitulating to him in the first place in an effort to stay on track for the planned merger, something you and countless others have pointed out. That and Trump’s hypocrisy, but not only is he but one in a long line of hypocritical politicians, he's done and been found by a jury to have done much worse.
I couldn’t believe it when Douthat — a journalist I normally detest — made a snarky allusion to what he (as a religious conservative) clearly believes will be Trump’s fate in “Purgatory.” If I recall my Sunday School days correctly, ya don’t go to Purgatory unless you have, like, seriously screwed the proverbial pooch. If a reactionary like Douthat has the gumption to talk that way to El Presidente, it only adds to the satisfaction of last week’s rout of the Republifascist Party.