Bombshell CBS Transcript: What Kamala Harris Just Said Has Trump Fuming – ‘They Did Everything Right

Under pressure from President Donald Trump and a loyalist at the FCC, CBS News publicly released transcripts and raw video footage as part of an investigation into allegations of “news distortion” over its 2024 election interview with Kamala Harris.

After careful review, I can confirm why CBS complied with the FCC’s demands: the footage and transcripts reveal that 60 Minutes followed the standard operating procedure that any news outlet would in editing a taped interview with a high-profile subject for air.

The raw footage is indeed different from what CBS aired. There are edits that reveal, well, editorial decisions intended to condense the raw footage down to the 13-minute segment that would ultimately air on 60 Minutes. That’s something that has happened in nearly every single broadcast interview ever. Those who complain about it are either parading their ignorance of how news production works or are making up false accusations as a cudgel to smear and intimidate the media.

One could argue that CBS did make a mistake by airing two different answers given by Harris to the same question. But it’s hard to see how either answer materially changes the substance of her response, which ultimately was a relatively bland bit of pablum that declined to address the question directly.

In both clips, CBS correspondent Bill Whitaker asks, “But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening. The Wall Street Journal said that he — that your administration has repeatedly been blindsided by Netanyahu, and in fact, he has rebuffed just about all of your administration’s entreaties.

The full reply from Harris is below. Portions of it were aired at different times by CBS. In a clip teased on Sunday show Face the Nation, CBS aired the first part of her answer, which I’ve highlighted in blue. The portion that aired on 60 Minutes is in red.

“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. And we’re not going to stop doing that. 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.“

Notably, Whitaker’s question is also clipped to be tighter in the preview that aired on Face the Nation.

Trump’s supporters quickly noted the difference in answers and called foul, insisting that the answer was edited to clean up Harris’s “word salad” response. Those complaints blossomed into a bizarre theory that this minor editorial decision amounted to election interference, and the Trump campaign ran with that by filing a lawsuit against CBS News.

In a statement issued at the time, the network explained:

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. When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point. The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment.

According to the transcripts? Fact-check: true. But the truth hasn’t kept the fury at bay. The increasingly dopey New York Post’s headline reads “Uncut ‘60 Minutes’ Kamala Harris interview reveals ‘word salad’ responses were heavily edited by CBS — snipped Israel answer to just 20 words.” The Daily Mail listed all the “damning” edits from the interview, though none of them are damning to 60 Minutes unless you can feign outrage at their decision to edit out her on-camera sneeze.

In response to a complaint, Trump’s FCC Chair, Brendan Carr, opened an investigation into CBS. The investigation probes whether the edits violated the commission’s “news distortion” policy.

In a rageful Thursday morning Truth Social post, Trump insisted that CBS should lose its license over the fake controversy. (Be careful what you wish for: Fox News — which also cleans up interviews in post-production — might not fare well under the same scrutiny).

As a former television producer who has conducted hundreds of interviews and scripted television programming by poring through transcripts, I can assure anyone that what 60 Minutes did was standard operating procedure. Here is a quick lesson on how this works:

Producers or bookers discuss the specifics of an interview with a subject, such as the time, location, and length of time needed. People don’t tend to admit this on the record, but there is usually also a discussion of topics to go over so that the interviewer and subject have a basic understanding of the tone and subject of the discussion.

60 Minutes is known for multi-camera interviews so editors can opt for close-ups of the host or subject or, if they want, a two-shot of both in the same frame. Why? It allows cutaway shots to cover edits made to tighten answers from the subject or even questions from the host.

After the interview, the footage, or source material, is transcribed with time codes, and a rough script is created based on “selects,” or what a producer thinks are the most notable and newsworthy moments. Because an hour’s worth of footage will need to be condensed to a much shorter segment for air, editorial decisions must be made unless this is a live interview or the rare “live to tape” — assuming that was agreed to.

This is precisely how 60 Minutes handled the Kamala Harris interview, as shown by the raw footage and transcripts. It also explains why 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens has been defiant in the face of partisan criticism. “The edit is perfectly fine; let’s put that to bed so we can get on with our lives,” Owens told staff, as reported by The New York Times.

Trump knows television and television production. So, we should assume that because of his experience and television knowledge, his attacks on CBS are less about the truth and more about browbeating media outlets into submission. Rumors persist that CBS is planning to settle with Trump, as ABC News did recently, revealing why Trump is on the attack here.

At this point, it’s not about the money. It’s about scaring news outlets into more generous coverage. There is no other way to describe this effort to cast a chilling effect on the media than authoritarian.