Trump says raw footage of Kamala Harris' '60 Minutes' interview proves 'election interference'

Failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris' interview with "60 Minutes," which aired on Oct. 7, was a disaster replete with word salads.

At the time, keen observers deduced, on the basis of major differences between Harris' responses shown in a preview of the interview and the one presented in the final, that CBS News had engaged in deceptive edits with the apparent intention of portraying the Democrat as passably coherent ahead of the election, something the network vehemently denied.

The Federal Communications Commission, which received a formal complaint on Oct. 16 from the Center for American Rights requesting an investigation into possible news distortion, released the raw footage and full transcript of the interview on Wednesday. The footage reveals that CBS News indeed went to great lengths to make Harris appear intelligible and concise — possibly with the intention of misleading viewers.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr noted on X that the commission will now seek comment regarding the news distortion complaint through March, writing, "The people will have a chance to weigh in."

Night-and-day differences

Bill Whitaker of CBS News' "60 Minutes" asked Harris at one stage in the interview whether America lacked influence over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his strategic decisions in the Middle East. Whitaker then stated, "It seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening" to the Biden-Harris administration.

'CBS should lose its license.'

The version of the interview that went to air and was reflected in CBS News' official transcript was edited so that Harris appears to say in response, "We're not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end."

It's clear from the raw footage that Harris actually responded with one of her signature word salads:

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, or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region. And we're not going to stop doing that. We're not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.

Harris' answer to Whitaker's question about what the U.S. could do to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from "spinning out of control" was relatively succinct in the manipulated version that CBS News originally aired. In reality, it was another meandering mess.

Here is Harris' response as it originally appeared on CBS News:

Well, let's start with October 7. 1,200 people were massacred; 250 hostages were taken, including Americans; women were brutally raped, and as I said then, I maintain Israel has a right to defend itself. We would. And how it does so matters. Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. This war has to end.

Here is what Harris actually said:

Well, let's start with October 7. Because obviously, what we do now must be in the context of what has happened. And as I reflect on a year ago, and that 1,200 people were massacred — young people at a festival, at a music festival — 250 hostages were taken, including Americans, women were brutally raped. And as I said then, I maintain Israel has a right to defend itself. We would. And how it does so matters. And as we fast-forward into what we have seen in the ensuing weeks and months, far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. And we know that, and I think most agree, this war has to end. And that has to be our number-one imperative, and that has been our number-one imperative. How can we get this war to end? Well, critical elements of that are we have got to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done. We have to — we have to get aid in. We have to lay the path toward a two-state solution.

CBS News originally made it appear as though Harris said, in response to Whitaker's question about whether the U.S. has any sway over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, "The work that we do diplomatically with the leadership of Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles."

In reality, Harris largely dodged the question, talking about military aid to Israel, Israel's self-defense against missile attacks, and the perceived need to pressure Israel into bringing the war to an end.

President Donald Trump noted in a Truth Social post on Thursday, "CBS and 60 Minutes defrauded the public by doing something which has never, to this extent, been seen before. They 100% removed Kamala's horrible election changing answers to questions, and replaced them with completely different, and far better, answers, taken from another part of the interview. This was Election changing 'stuff,' Election Interference and, quite simply, Election Fraud at a level never seen before."

"CBS should lose its license, and the cheaters at 60 Minutes should all be thrown out, and this disreputable 'NEWS' show should be immediately terminated," added Trump.

More gaslighting

CBS News doubled down on its denial of wrongdoing Wednesday, noting in a statement, "The 60 Minutes broadcast was not doctored or deceitful."

The network suggested further that in the case of its reworking of Harris' answer to the question of whether Netanyahu was listening to the Biden administration, "We edited the interview to ensure that as much of the vice president's answers to 60 Minutes' many questions were included in our original broadcast while fairly representing those answers."

'News distortion calculated to confuse, deceive, and mislead the public.'

Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, who was nominated by former President Joe Biden, similarly did her part to suggest that there was nothing wrong with CBS News' significant manipulation of Harris' responses, stating, "The transcript and footage of this interview provide no evidence that CBS and its affiliated broadcast stations violated FCC rules."

"The FCC should now move to dismiss this fishing expedition to avoid further politicizing our enforcement actions," continued Gomez.

Implications

The release of the footage may bode well for President Donald Trump, who filed a lawsuit against CBS News and "60 Minutes" demanding at least $10 billion in damages for the "malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive, and mislead the public."

The lawsuit stated, "To paper over Kamala's 'word salad' weakness, CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news."

"President Trump brings this action to redress the immense harm caused to him, to his campaign, and to tens of millions of citizens in Texas and across America by CBS's deceptive broadcasting conduct," wrote Trump's attorneys.

Trump's lawsuit may complicate or even kill the planned multibillion-dollar merger between CBS' parent company, Paramount, and the Hollywood studio Skydance.

The New York Times indicated ahead of the release of the interview footage that executives at Paramount were pushing for a settlement to the lawsuit — a settlement that would apparently have to do without an acknowledgment of wrongdoing from Bill Owens, the executive producer of "60 Minutes," who vowed Monday not to apologize to the 47th president "for anything we have done."

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