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As the former president made his case for legal action, CBS News offered their own take on the “60 Minutes” scandal which some said read like “an admission.”

(Video Credit: Fox News)

The same talking heads who harp about the dangers of “mis-,” “dis-” and “malinformation” have remained notably quiet in the two weeks since Vice President Kamala Harris was portrayed as giving two different answers to the same question during her “60 Minutes” interview.

While corporate media remained focused on conflating statements to fearmonger about former President Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House, the GOP leader hadn’t dropped concerns over the different clips from CBS News as he told Fox News host Howard Kurtz a subpoena was on the way.

“She gave a horrible, incompetent answer on a news program…and so she gives an answer that shows that she’s dumb, or incompetent, or something wrong with her. It’s so bad that the people at CBS say we’re going to do a little editing…They take the whole ridiculous answer out — and it was a long answer — and replace it with a much shorter answer that she did having to do with a totally different subject, which also didn’t make sense, but it wasn’t as incompetent,” the president said to recap the situation. “I’ve never seen anything — I think it’s the biggest scandal I’ve ever seen for a broadcaster and I think ’60 Minutes’ — I think it should be taken off the air, frankly.”

A preview for the interview with CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker included Harris serving up a word salad response on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s receptiveness where she said, “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 as a result of, many things including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region.”

Meanwhile, when the program aired on Oct. 7, Harris’s response to the same prompt was, “We are 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.”

“How many times have they done it? They’ve done it to me too, in a different way,” Trump told Kurtz. “The difference is they will take things out of my answer, so shorten them up and they’re really changing them, but I don’t consider that the same kind of violation.”

“What we’re doing, we’re gonna subpoena their records because we wanna see how much else did she do,” the president made clear as he had called for CBS News to lose their broadcasting license over concerns of election interference.

In response to the GOP leader, “60 Minutes” released a statement Sunday evening that read, “Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceitful editing of our Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false.”

“60 Minutes gave an excerpt of our interview to Face the Nation that used a longer section of her answer than that on 60 Minutes,” the statement continued. “Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response. When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate, and on point.”

“The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide-ranging 21-minute-long segment. Remember, Mr. Trump pulled out of his interview with 60 Minutes and the vice president participated. Our long-standing invitation to former president Trump remains open. If he would like to discuss the issues facing the nation and the Harris interview, we would be happy to have him on 60 Minutes,” it concluded.

The Trump campaign shared that statement side-by-side with the different versions of Harris’s answer and wrote, “Two weeks after being caught, 60 Minutes has now released a very defensive statement claiming they did not ‘deceitfully edit’ Kamala’s word salad. Well, we have good news for you, @60Minutes: There’s a simple way you can clear it up. RELEASE THE FULL, UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT!”

Likewise, Trump campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a statement that read, “60 Minutes just admitted to doing exactly what President Trump accused them of doing. They edited in a different response — from another part of her answer — to make Kamala Harris sound less incoherent than she really was. Their statement is not a denial, it is an admission that they did exactly what they were accused of. This is another reminder of how hopelessly biased 60 Minutes is, and how correct President Trump was to decline their invitation to be subjected to their fake news hackery. Release the transcript!”

In support of transparency, investigative journalist Catherine Herridge, who was fired from CBS News in February in a move she referred to as “journalistic rape” during congressional testimony, wrote, “This statement is an indicator @CBSNews hasn’t contained the fallout from its Kamala Harris @60Minutes edit.”

“Releasing the full unedited transcript is consistent with journalistic transparency and it stands behind the integrity of the entire Kamala Harris edit, not just the clips under scrutiny. CBS has the ability to immediately settle these questions and address merits of FCC complaint alleging ‘news distortion,’” she went on citing examples of previous releases.

Kevin Haggerty
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