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Kamala Harris' '60 Minutes' Interview Was Worse Than CBS News Wants to Let On

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  October 08, 2024 8:30 PM

As we've been covering, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) had a pretty rough time on CBS News' "60 Minutes" during their interview that aired on Monday night. Bill Whitaker has received praise for his toughness with the Democratic ticket, but that now looks to be going out the window, considering that it looks like the network tried to clean up Harris' word salad.

Harris' shameful non-answer about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was bad enough, but the discussion was also a lot more garbled than CBS News wanted to let on, given that they released an edited clip and transcript.

According to CBS News' official transcript and an edited clip that has been shared by the "60 Minutes" X account, Harris said, "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."

Harris' actual response was not so eloquent, however. Upon Whitaker pointing out that "Netanyahu is not listening," Harris offered, "well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel very much prompted by or a result of, um, many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region."

Upon watching the clip of that part of the interview, one not only hears a different response, but gains a full glimpse of the painful and awkward stumbles.

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People certainly are talking, and giving plenty of grief to the network, as the CBS News edits are currently a trending topic over X for Tuesday night. 

The Trump War Room X account was among those expressing outrage towards CBS News and called for the network to release the full transcript. A statement from the Trump-Vance campaign, from National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, also issued such a call.

Writing about the edits for our sister site of RedState, Sister Toldjah offered up a suggestion, as well as pointed out how CBS has a habit of editing remarks, including when it comes to making Republicans look bad:

I mean the edit wasn't just done to the "full" video they posted to YouTube (link here); it was also done to the transcript and the video they posted above the transcript on their website. So if someone hadn't seen the previous clip they previewed the day before, they wouldn't know she'd produced one of her infamous word salads unless they did a little digging.

Why is that? I think the answer is as obvious as it was when "60 Minutes" was caught heavily editing a clip of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2021 over the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine in Florida to make him look like a racist for how and where the rollouts were being conducted.

There's another claim being made on the Twitter/X machine that the answer they added into the "full" version was one she gave to another question in the original short clip (which as of this writing is still on YouTube and Twitter), but I went back and reviewed them and though the answers were similar, that's not what happened.

In sharing the contrasting clips, actress Patricia Heaton commented on how Whitaker had been praised for the interview, but noted "CBS just ruined it all by deceptively editing the interview to try to save [Harris'] butt." In addition to how this may have ruined the network and Harris' campaign, Heaton commented on how Whitaker must be feeling. "If I were Whitaker I'd ne really pissed off" she offered.

The "60 Minutes" interview is one of the many interviews and media appearances that Harris has had this week as she desperately tries to get her name out there in the final weeks of the campaign while the mainstream media worries she's playing it safe. Even when appearing before friendly networks and hosts, though, Harris still has had a terrible time, just as she did earlier on Tuesday when appearing on "The View" for instance. 

The Trump-Vance campaign is looking increasingly smarter for having not done such an interview on "60 Minutes." The Trump War Room X account also responded to that over X.