Trump hails new CBS News head Bari Weiss as ‘great person’ during '60 Minutes' sit-down

PALM BEACH, FLORIDA: President Donald Trump praised Bari Weiss for taking the reins of CBS News during his '60 Minutes' interview, which was filmed on Friday, October 31, and aired on Sunday night.

This comes as some of the network's staffers have criticized Weiss, who became its new head earlier in October, over her decisions and a few major changes she has already made.

Trump on CBS News' new head and his '60 Minutes' lawsuit

Speaking about Bari Weiss’ recent appointment as editor-in-chief of CBS News, Donald Trump said, "'60 Minutes' paid me a lot of money. And you don’t have to put this on, because I don’t wanna embarrass you, and I’m sure you’re not—you have a great—I think you have a great, new leader, frankly, who’s the young woman that’s leading your whole enterprise is a great—from what I know."

He added, "I don’t know her, but I hear she’s a great person. But '60 Minutes' was forced to pay me—a lot of money because they took her answer out that was so bad, it was election-changing, two nights before the election," referencing Kamala Harris' October 2024 '60 Minutes' interview but misstating the timeline. 

"And they put a new answer in. And they paid me a lot of money for that. You can’t have fake news. You’ve gotta have legit news," the commander-in-chief noted.

Trump also praised the CBS ownership change and Weiss’ leadership, saying, "And I think that it’s happening. I see…I see good things happening in the news. I really do. And I think one of the best things to happen is this show and new ownership, CBS and new ownership. I think it’s the greatest thing that’s happened in a long time to a free and open and good press."

How are CBS staffers reacting to the new head Bari Weiss?

Meanwhile, some CBS staffers were already criticizing the new head, Bari Weiss. Her memo asking reporters to detail how they spend their work hours upset several longtime employees.

Weiss has also made big changes at the network. 'CBS Evening News' co-anchor John Dickerson announced his departure last week after 16 years at the network, and new reports claim Gayle King is apparently set to leave 'CBS Mornings' after her contract ends next year.

Some critics call Weiss conservative or right-leaning, though she has described herself as a “left-leaning centrist” to Joe Rogan in 2019 and as a “centrist” in her 2020 resignation letter to The New York Times.

Trump says he wants to make ‘crypto great for America’

Further in the '60 Minutes' interview, Norah O’Donnell asked Donald Trump about potential conflicts between his role as commander-in-chief and his family’s investments, including the marketing of Trump-branded cryptocurrencies.

Trump said, “I wanna make crypto great for America. That’s the only thing. I don’t wanna have somebody else have crypto and have China be number one in the world in crypto. Because in crypto it’s a kind of an industry where basically you’re going to have number one and you’re not gonna have a number two.”

He added, "And right now we’re number one by a long shot. I wanna keep it that way. The same way we’re number one with AI, we’re number one with crypto. And I wanna keep it that way."

When asked directly about his family’s crypto activities, Trump avoided giving a clear answer. “I can’t say, because– I can’t say– I’m not concerned. I don’t– I’d rather not have you ask the question. But I let you ask it.” he said.

Much of the interview focused on O’Donnell’s questions about global issues and the challenges the US faces with Russia, China, Israel, Venezuela, and other unpredictable situations.