Donald Trump’s lawyer has sent a letter to CBS News demanding it release an unedited transcript of its Kamala Harris 60 Minutes interview.
The letter was written by Trump’s attorney, Edward Andrew Paltzik, and claims that CBS has “intentionally misled the public by broadcasting a skillfully edited interview transcript … aimed at causing confusion among the electorate regarding Vice President Kamala Harris’s abilities, intelligence, and appeal.”
In the letter, Paltzik demanded to know why Harris’ full “word salad” answer about U.S.-Israeli relations was not broadcast in the 60 Minutes interview aired on October 7.
The letter also suggests there was a “puppet” master controlling the interview to make Harris look favorable and threatened legal action, without stating the grounds for a possible lawsuit.
Newsweek sought email comment from CBS News on Monday.
The Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. president Donald Trump, speaks during a campaign rally at Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum on October 21, 2024, in Greenville, North Carolina. Trump’s lawyer is demanding that CBS release an unedited version of its Kamala Harris interview.
Wim McNamee/Getty Images
“News organizations such as CBS have a responsibility to accurately represent the truth of events, not distort an interview to try and make their preferred candidate appear coherent and decisive, which Harris most certainly is not,” Paltzik wrote. “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.”
“CBS deceived viewers into thinking Harris’ answer was, at the very least—as CBS put it—more ‘succinct’ than the word salad it actually was,” Trump’s letter adds.
“We therefore demand that you immediately provide and publicly release the full, unedited transcript of the 60 Minutes Interview with Kamala Harris.
“Additionally, in contemplation of possible litigation, we demand that you preserve all communications and documents relating to this interview, together with any edits of the interview’s content, and that you refrain from destroying any relevant communications or documents.”
In its statement, CBS sought to explain why a Harris reply on 60 Minutes was shorter than her reply in an excerpt that was broadcast on the TV show Face The Nation.
“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,” CBS said in a statement on Sunday.
During the 60 Minutes interview, Harris was asked why Israel does not appear to be listening to U.S. advice about the latest war between Israel and Hamas.
The Trump letter said that her answer broadcast on Face The Nation was nothing but meaningless “word salad.”
In the Face The Nation clip, Harris replies: “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 the 60 Minutes interview, she replies more succinctly: “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.”
After the interview, Trump wrote on the social media site Truth Social that “CBS should lose its license. 60 Minutes should be immediately taken off the air.”
On Sunday, Trump continued his threats against CBS. “We’re going to subpoena their records,” he said. Asked if taking away the station’s license would be too harsh, he didn’t reply but repeated his claims that Harris is a Marxist.
