Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer offered his take on Donald Trump‘s sit down with 60 Minutes, riffing that he should perhaps file a complaint with the FCC over the way that the interview was edited.
Schumer wrote on X, “Maybe I should file a complaint with the FCC against the Trump White House for editing his unhinged 60 Minutes interview. It will use the exact same language Trump lodged against Vice President Harris.”
Schumer appeared to be joking, but he was highlighting the irony of the president’s 60 Minutes appearance.
Last year, Trump filed a lawsuit against CBS over the way that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris, claiming that it was done in a way to make her look better to boost her electoral prospects. Many legal experts saw the lawsuit as baseless, not just because Trump went on to win the election, but because the litigation was filed under a Texas consumer law typically cited in false advertising cases.
Nevertheless, CBS-parent Paramount Global settled the lawsuit for $16 million, as it sought Trump administration regulatory approval for its merger with Skydance. The FCC gave the greenlight to the transaction just several weeks after the settlement.
Even though Trump’s lawsuit was settled, the FCC has yet to act on a “news distortion” complaint filed against CBS over the 60 Minutes Harris interview. The complaint was filed by a conservative group, the Center for American Rights.
CBS said that its edits were standard practice in the news business, as such cuts are needed given the time constraints of a primetime show.
That was apparent with Trump’s own sit-down with the show. His interview with Norah O’Donnell was 73 minutes, but just 28 minutes were broadcast. CBS provided a full video and text transcript on its website, showing extended moments where Trump raged at Joe Biden, political opponents and his indictments. Also left out were points where the president claimed that the 2020 election was rigged.
The broadcast portion of the sit-down, though, did make some news, as when Trump agreed that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s days are numbered, while he was evasive on whether the U.S. would conduct land strikes on the country. O’Donnell also pressed him on his pardon of crypto tycoon Changpeng Zhao, and whether it appeared to be “pay for play.”
O’Donnell pressed him on pardoning someone who the government determined had caused “‘significant harm to U.S. national security,’ essentially by allowing terrorist groups like Hamas to move millions of dollars around. Why did you pardon him?”
“I don’t know who he is. I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that,” Trump said. “And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.”
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