The Network Heavily Edits Trump's TV Program Sit-Down, Removing Boast Regarding Network Paying Him Substantial Funds

This CBS News show the long-running news magazine heavily edited an interview featuring Donald Trump that aired on Sunday evening, representing the initial sit-down on the show since 2019.

Trump spoke with correspondent Norah O’Donnell over an hour and a half, yet merely about 28 minutes aired on television. The full text version of the interview subsequently published, alongside an extended digital cut from the interview.

The edits stand out since, exactly one year prior to Trump's interview with O’Donnell at his Mar-a-Lago resort, he filed suit against the network over the editing of a 60 Minutes segment featuring the vice president, which he alleged had been deceptively edited to benefit her campaign in the presidential election.

While many attorneys largely rejected the legal action calling it baseless and improbable to hold up under the first amendment, the broadcaster reached an agreement with the president for $16m in July. Under the agreement, CBS committed to publish full records of future interviews with candidates.

During the opening of the broadcast, the correspondent reminded viewers that the parent company resolved Trump’s lawsuit, adding that “the settlement did not include an apology or expression of regret”.

In the conversation, in one segment that did not air, the president teased CBS about the agreement restating his claims toward the broadcaster.

“Actually the program gave me a lotta money. And you don’t have to include this, since I do not wish to cause you discomfort, and I’m sure you’re not,” the president stated. “But 60 Minutes was forced to compensate me a large amount because they took her answer from the segment that was so bad, it proved election-changing, two nights before the election. They inserted a new answer into the broadcast. And they paid me a lot of money for that. You can’t have fake news. We must have truthful journalism. And I think that it’s happening.”

In a separate un-aired portion of the interview, the president commended the sale of CBS to new owners and said the network’s new editor-in-chief, the journalist, is a “great new leader”.

Trump admitted he was not acquainted with the editor, but told the interviewer: “People say she’s a great person.

“I think you have a great new leader, frankly, that individual that’s leading your entire organization, is a great – based on what I've heard,” he remarked.

Trump was especially effusive in complimenting the executive and his father, Larry, the recent purchaser of the network's parent firm, Paramount, through their company Skydance Media.

“In my opinion a very positive development recently is this show and new ownership, the network under new management,” Trump commented. “I think it’s the greatest thing that has occurred in a long time to a free and open and reliable media.”

The correspondent did not directly respond to the president’s comments about Weiss and the Ellisons.

Among Trump’s many answers which were cut were several comments doubting the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, which he described “had been manipulated and unlawfully taken”.

During one exchange in the interview, in a segment that was not aired, Trump tried to get O’Donnell to acknowledge that crime was down in Washington DC, her place of residence.

“You reside in DC. You are aware of this,” the president said, inquiring of the correspondent: “Do you see any change?”

“I think I have been occupied excessively,” O’Donnell responded. “I haven’t been outside that much … I get in my car and go to work and I go home.”

The president said “that is an evasion” and insisted that the journalist noticed an improvement.

Trump then seemed to suggest that the back-and-forth need not to be aired in the program.

“You don’t have to use that one,” he said. “Don’t worry, it's fine, I do not wish to cause her embarrassment.”