CBS slams Trump's editing allegations as 'false' in drama over Kamala Harris' '60 Minutes' interview
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: CBS News slammed GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump for his claim that '60 Minutes' deceitfully edited the interview with rival Kamala Harris and dismissed the allegation as 'false' in a statement released on Sunday, October 20.
The outlet published a statement and addressed the outrage that took off after it aired two different answers to the same question in the '60 Minutes' interview earlier in October with Harris, per Fox News.
CBS slams Donald Trump's editing allegations as 'false'
The statement by CBS 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."
It continued, "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."
The statement further added, "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 statement by CBS reminded readers that Trump "pulled out of his interview with '60 Minutes' and the vice president participated." However, the Trump campaign denied that it had accepted the invitation for the interview.
The statement further read, "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."
Donald Trump's camp responds to CBS News' statement
The Trump campaign responded to CBS News' statement and continued its call on the network to release the transcript. CBS has yet to release an unedited video or full transcript of the interview.
The Trump camp said, "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."
It added, "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!"
Trump had earlier on Sunday, October 20, criticized the CBS interview and called for it to be taken off-air during a sit-down interview with Fox News' Howard Kurtz.
He said, "I've never seen anything like it. 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's wrong with her."
The former president added, "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 you had to do with a totally different subject, which also didn't make sense, but it wasn't as incompetent."
