President Donald Trump called for CBS News to lose its broadcast license and for its vaunted news show "60 Minutes" to be canceled after revelations that it heavily edited an interview with former presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
"CBS and 60 Minutes defrauded the public by doing something which has never, to this extent, been seen before. They 100% removed Kamala's horrible election changing answers to questions, and replaced them with completely different, and far better, answers, taken from another part of the interview," Trump posted Thursday on his Truth Social platform.
Recently confirmed Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr had fast-tracked the investigation into CBS News and their broadcast of its heavily edited interview with Harris. The full transcript shows the network spliced in completely different answers to questions from interviewer Bill Whitaker than was aired.
In the original broadcast, Whitaker said, "But it seems that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu is not listening," to which Harris responded, "We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end."
In the unedited interview, Harris, a Democrat, gave a vague, rambling answer, "Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region."
In another segment, Whitaker asked Harris, "In fact, you have called him [Trump] a racist, and divisive. Yet Donald Trump has the support of millions and millions of Americans. How do you explain that?"
In the unedited version Harris said Trump "has a bouquet of microphones in front of him, who has said the most vile lies about a group of legal immigrants in Springfield, Ohio," and then drifted into a lengthy story about school picture day.
In the aired version, Harris' response jumped to the end of her statement saying, "I say that I am glad you are pointing these, these, these comments out that he has made that have, have resulted in a response by most reasonable people to say it's just wrong. It's just wrong."
"CBS should lose its license, and the cheaters at 60 Minutes should all be thrown out, and this disreputable "NEWS" show should be immediately terminated," Trump wrote.
CBS News defended its edits, saying in a statement: "In reporting the news, journalists regularly edit interviews — for time, space or clarity. In making these edits, 60 Minutes is always guided by the truth and what we believe will be most informative to the viewing public — all while working within the constraints of broadcast television."
Trump framed the "60 Minutes" story as being part of larger problem stemming from the Democrats' deep ties with large media outlets.
"With the new Democrat scandal that just arose with respect to USAID illegally paying large sums of money to Politico and other media outlets, the question must me asked, was CBS paid for committing this FRAUD??? Many other questions to come! This will go down as the biggest Broadcasting SCANDAL in History!!!," Trump wrote.