’60 Minutes’ Claims Trump Campaign Offered “Shifting Explanations” for Dropping Out of Election Special
60 Minutes delivered an interview with Kamala Harris on Monday, the latest in its decades-long tradition of inviting presidential candidates to appear on the CBS program. But she was the only White House hopeful who participated, following President Donald Trump’s backing out after initially accepting the interview.
“If he is not going to give your viewers the ability to have a meaningful, thoughtful conversation, question and answer with you, then watch his rallies. You’re going to hear conversations that are about himself and all of his personal grievances. And what you will not hear is anything about you, the listener,” Harris told 60 Minutes‘ Bill Whitaker just days after news broke that Trump backed out of the election special. “You will not hear about how he is going to try to bring the country together, find common ground, and Bill, that is why I believe in my soul and heart, the American people are ready to turn the page.”
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Neither Trump nor his running mate, J.D. Vance, sat for 60 Minutes, leading the CBS newsmagazine to turn the page without them as Whitaker presented interviews with Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. But not before explaining how it all went down.
Scott Pelley, who was due to conduct the Trump chat, appeared during a segment to say that 60 Minutes has been conducting October interviews with presidential hopefuls for more than half a century. Despite Trump’s claims that it was never confirmed and his campaign spokesman Steven Cheung slamming 60 Minutes‘ confirmation as “fake news,” Pelley revealed behind-the-scenes booking details.
“The Trump campaign had told us that the interview would be this past Thursday at Mar-a-Lago. They also asked us if we would meet 78-year-old Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he was grazed in an assassination attempt. We agreed,” Pelley claimed on-air. “On Sept. 9, Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, sent a text that read, ‘I’m working with our advanced team to see logistically if Butler would work in addition to the sit-down.'”
Days later, Cheung called to say that President Trump confirmed the interview, Pelley continued. “Then, a week ago, Trump backed out. The campaign offered shifting explanations. First, a complaint that we would fact check the interview. We fact check every story. Later, Trump said he needed an apology for his interview in 2020. Trump claims correspondent Leslie Stahl said in that interview that Hunter Biden’s controversial laptop came from Russia. She never said that.”
Pelley said that without another debate on the schedule, tonight’s broadcast could have been the largest audience for the candidates before election day in November. Without Trump and J.D. Vance participating, the 60 Minutes broadcast found Harris and Walz quizzed on conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, immigration, abortion and rising grocery prices. Whitaker followed Harris on the campaign trail last week in the swing state of Wisconsin while also sitting down with her inside her Washington, D.C., residence.
The program opened with Harris’ take on the Israel-Hamas war and a question from Witaker on how the United States can “stop this from spinning out of control.” Monday marked the one-year anniversary of a surprise attack led by Hamas that claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7, the deadliest in the country’s history. It resulted in a brutal and ongoing Israeli military campaign to root out Hamas in Gaza, which has reportedly now killed more than 40,000 Palestinians.
“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,” Harris answered.
Whitaker also pressed on whether the U.S. has any sway over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who “seems to be charting his own course” despite the U.S. supplying the country with billions in military aid, he said.
“The work that we do diplomatically with the leadership of Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles,” she answered. “We are not gonna stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”
The interview found Harris touting specific policies she endorses, including passing a federal ban on price gouging for food and groceries, expanding the child tax credit, and tax breaks for first-time home buyers and entrepreneurs. Whitaker pushed back and said that her economic plan would “add $3 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade,” though Harris disputed that claim. “The other economists that have reviewed my plan versus my opponent and determined that my economic plan would strengthen America’s economy. His would weaken it.”
Whitaker then “took a hard left” from one subject to another buzzy headline by asking Harris about comments she made during the presidential debate about being a gun owner. “That’s not the first time I’ve talked about it,” she explained before Whitaker asked her what kind of gun she owns and whether she’s fired it.
“I have a Glock, and I’ve had it for quite some time,” she stated. “Bill, my background is in law enforcement, and so, there you go.” For the second part of that question, the answer is yes. “At a shooting range. Yes, of course I have.”
In a statement on Tuesday, Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary suggested that Harris’ interview had been suspiciously edited. “On Sunday, 60 Minutes teased Kamala’s highly-anticipated sit-down interview with one of her worst word salads to date, which received significant criticism on social media,” the Trump capaign’s statement read. “During the full interview on Monday evening, the word salad was deceptively edited to lessen Kamala’s idiotic response. Why did 60 Minutes choose not to air Kamala’s full word salad, and what else did they choose not to air? The American people deserve the full, unedited transcript from Kamala’s sit-down interview. We call upon 60 Minutes and CBS to release it. What do they, and Kamala, have to hide?”
Monday night’s 60 Minutes interview hit the airwaves with less than a month before the election and comes as part of a media blitz by the Harris campaign. Harris will make the rounds in New York on Tuesday with a live morning appearance in studio on ABC’s The View, followed by a live interview with SiriusXM star Howard Stern. Later in the day, she will pop by CBS’ Late Show With Stephen Colbert, in a showing that will mark her first late night appearance since securing the Democratic nomination. On Thursday, Harris heads to Las Vegas for a TelevisaUnivision town hall moderated by Enrique Acevedo.
It comes on the heels of a Sunday sit-down that dominated headlines and generated controversy to kick off the week. Harris sat with popular and influential podcaster Alex Cooper for an episode of Call Her Daddy that found the vice president asked about women’s issues from sexual abuse to abortion access, student loan forgiveness and overcoming doubt. Cooper also asked Harris to respond to digs at her personal life for not having children.
Cooper read a quote from Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who said, “My kids keep me humble. Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble.” Harris said she “feels sorry” for Sanders. “I don’t think she understands that there are a whole lot of women out here who one, are not aspiring to be humble, two, a whole lot of women out here, who have a lot of love in their life, family in their life, and children in their life and I think it’s very important for women to lift each other up.”
She continued: “I feel very strongly [that] we each have our family by blood and then we have our family by love. I have both, and I consider it to be a real blessing. I have two beautiful children: Cole and Ella, who call me ‘Mamala.’ We have a very modern family; my husband’s ex-wife is a friend of mine. … Family comes in many forms and I think that increasingly, all of us understand that this is not the 1950s anymore. Families come in all shapes or forms and they are family nonetheless.”
Cooper said she was given 40 minutes for the interview, one that finds her taking her massive following into new territory, from frank discussions on sex, relationships, celebrity and pop culture into politics. “At the end of the day, I couldn’t see a world in which one of the main conversations in this election is women and I’m not a part of it,” Cooper said in a brief disclaimer to start the episode. “I am so aware I have a very mixed audience when it comes to politics, so please hear me when I say [that] my goal today is not to change your political affiliation. What I’m hoping is that you’re able to listen to a conversation that isn’t too different from the ones that we’re having here every week.”
Oct. 8, 2024, 4:31 p.m. Updated with Trump campaign statement.
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