Trump attorneys issue demand letter to ’60 Minutes’ over ‘doctored’ interview with Harris
Attorneys for former President Donald Trump are demanding that CBS release the full, unedited transcript of Vice President Kamala Harris’ “60 Minutes” interview and accused the network and show producers of intentionally misleading the public by broadcasting an edited interview.
“60 Minutes” on Sunday night said in a statement that Trump’s accusation it used deceitful editing of the Oct. 7 interview is “false” — and noted Trump pulled out of his interview.
“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. 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,” the program said.
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The sternly worded statement said Trump is welcome to join the program to conduct an interview.
On Monday night, Edward Paltzik, counsel to Trump, penned a demand letter to Gayle Sproul, senior vice president of legal affairs at CBS News, in which he claimed the statement conceded that Trump was “accurate in his assertion” that “60 Minutes” aired two different versions on Oct. 5 and 6 and that it was “doctored in order to mislead” the public ahead of the election.
Paltzik pointed to Harris’ answers about the Israel-Hamas war, in which a full transcript was provided online.
“The open question is whether such posted transcript is original or whether is has also been doctored, edited, or manipulated in any way that is helpful to Kamala Harris’ failing campaign,” said Paltzik.
He accused the network and producers of the program of intentionally misleading the public by broadcasting the edited version, while opting to release other portions online.
“Such manipulative editing was aimed at causing confusion among the electorate regarding Vice President Kamala Harris’ abilities, intelligence, and appeal,” the letter said. “News organizations such as CBS have a responsibility to accurately represent the truth of events, not history an interview to try and make their preferred candidate appear coherent and decisive, which Harris most certainly is not. Due to CBS’ actions, the public cannot distinguish which Kamala Harris they are seeing; the candidate or the puppet of a behind the scenes editor.”