During his “60 Minutes” interview, President Donald Trump called Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer a “kamikaze,” complained about investigators searching through his wife’s closet, spoke in detail about ending wars and turned the tables on interviewer Norah O’Donnell to ask about safety in Washington, D.C.
TL;DR
- CBS aired a portion of a Donald Trump "60 Minutes" interview, publishing the full transcript and video online.
- The edited segment differed significantly from the original 73-minute conversation, omitting controversial remarks.
- This practice of releasing outtakes is a departure from CBS's past handling of interviews, like Kamala Harris'.
- Journalists routinely select and edit information for clarity and relevance, a process now more transparent.
None of that was seen by people who watched the CBS telecast Sunday night.
Only a portion of O’Donnell’s interview, which took place on Friday, was broadcast. However, CBS published a complete transcript and video of the entire 73-minute conversation online, allowing viewers to independently assess the president's statements that the network selected for the 28-minute on-air segment.
The segment provided viewers an uncommon glimpse into the editorial workflow at a highly recognized journalistic organization, illustrating the numerous choices regarding clarity and relevance that shape the narratives presented on television.
Beyond “60 Minutes,” the procedure is fundamentally identical across the journalistic landscape, spanning local publications to The New York Times, from niche online platforms to The Associated Press. To put it concisely: Akin to the past idea that everyone's a critic, this shift empowers everyone to act as an editor.
A contrast to how ‘60 Minutes’ has worked throughout its history
The release of the Trump “outtakes” differed from how CBS handled the “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris in the autumn. Trump sued CBS asserted that the interview with His Democratic rival was misleadingly edited, citing two distinct segments broadcast on the newsmagazine and “Face the Nation.”
CBS held back a transcript of its interview with Harris for four months until the Federal Communications Commission, under Trump's control, exerted public pressure. Typically, “60 Minutes” and many reporters do not share unedited material like this.
If CBS News is going to change its practices routinely in the future, one former “60 Minutes” producer said it should be up front with its viewers about it. Tom Bettag, who worked at the broadcast in the 1980s and is now a journalism professor at the University of Maryland, said it’s a product of the times in which we live, but there’s a downside to the practice of letting people in on the editing.
“I think there’s a very good reason not to allow people to do that, in order to avoid the arguments of ‘you should have done this’ or ‘you should have done that,’” Bettag said. “The assumption has been that your audience trusts you to use good judgment and to be fair.”
Right from the beginning, the edited version of the Trump interview revealed a distinct contrast with the original footage. During the broadcast, O'Donnell's interview commenced with a discussion about the government shutdown. However, when they actually met, she initiated the conversation by inquiring about the president's recently concluded session with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Essentially, journalists make a similar decision daily when creating stories: they select information to highlight that appears most significant or relevant to the largest audience.
“The newsiest portions made the broadcast, which is why programs edit in the first place,” Brian Stelter wrote about the “60 Minutes” interview for CNN’s “Reliable Sources” newsletter.
Before O’Donnell could finish her question, Trump’s immediate response — “Democrats’ fault” — indicated his direction. The televised interview mirrored this, though it underwent several edits to shorten it, steer clear of digressions, and reduce the redundancy of political assaults.
Of Schumer, Trump said, “He would rather see the country fail than have Trump and the Republicans do well” — a comment left out of the broadcast.
On cutting room floor: Trump says O’Donnell ‘should be ashamed’
Trump also told O’Donnell that she “should be ashamed” to be asking him about political retribution. That was left off the broadcast. Trump’s complaints about New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey were abbreviated — although his comment that James was a “terrible, dishonest person” was left in.
“I was struck by how much of what didn’t air from the interview were the parts that seemed more rant-filled and often confusing,” wrote journalist Rick Ellis, who painstakingly compared transcripts of the full interview and what CBS broadcast for the website All Your Screens.
During the interview, Trump mentioned his predecessor, President Joe Biden, over 40 times, though only six of those mentions were included in the broadcast, according to Ellis. The headline for Ellis's article stated, “’60 Minutes’ Edits (Most of) the Crazy Out of Its Interview with Donald Trump.”
CBS incorporated a few fact-checks into the “60 Minutes” report, prominently including a military representative's denial of Trump's assertion that China and Russia were conducting nuclear weapons tests. Several chances were missed, for instance, Trump's statement that he was able to beat all of the legal “nonsense that was thrown at me.”
CBS edited out a segment from a conversation about urban crime where Trump inquired if O’Donnell felt more secure in Washington, D.C., following the president's deployment of the National Guard. Typically, reporters prefer to avoid drawing attention to themselves.
“You see a difference?” Trump asked her.
Responded O’Donnell: “I think I’ve been working too hard. I haven’t been out and about that much.”
“60 Minutes” pointed out that O’Donnell’s interview was conducted exactly a year after Trump filed his lawsuit regarding the Harris interview. But it left out of the broadcast Trump’s discussion about management changes at CBS’ parent company Paramount since the company agreed to pay him $16 million to settle the case.
“They paid me a lot of money for that,” Trump said. “You can’t have fake news. You’ve gotta have legit news. And I think that’s happening.” He praised Paramount’s new leaders along with the news division’s new editor-in-chief, The Free Press founder Bari Weiss.
Tim Miller at the Bulwark website made that editing decision angered a Trump critic, he wrote on X. “’60 Minutes’ did not air the part where Trump discusses his success extorting the network and calls them Fake News,” “This edit is harmful to me and I’m considering suing.”
Trump's supporters appeared to voice fewer objections to CBS's editing. The White House's “rapid response” X account shared both the complete interview and the edited version broadcast by CBS.
Jorge Bonilla, writing for the conservative media watchdog Newsbusters, wrote that O’Donnell’s first interview with the newsmagazine contrasted with its “debacle” with Lesley Stahl five years ago, when Trump walked out.
“It appears,” he wrote, “that the Bari Weiss era is now full upon us at CBS News.”