‘We Fact-check Every Story’: ‘60 Minutes’ Skewers Trump for Cancelling Interview
Republican breaks TV tradition going back nearly 60 years
It’s been a tradition since Republican Richard Nixon ran against Democrat Hubert Humphrey in 1968.
The venerable CBS News program 60 Minutes has featured interviews with each of the major-party candidates ahead of each US presidential election.
No more.
Donald Trump, at virtually the last minute, backed out of his planned interview, and that left Vice President Kamala Harris’s conversation to stand alone for the 60 Minutes special that aired Monday evening.
And 60 Minutes co-host Scott Pelley calmly but brutally skewered the former president for all of the false excuses his campaign staff offered to try to justify his decision.
First, the interview has been agreed to happen at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf club in Florida, before the venue being changed to the site of Trump’s rally this last weekend in Pennsylvania — before being cancelled altogether by the Trump campaign.
“The campaign offered shifting explanations. First, it complained that we would fact-check the interview. We fact-check every story. Later, Trump said he needed an apology for his interview in 2020. Trump claims correspondent Lesley Stahl said in that interview that Hunter Biden’s controversial laptop came from Russia. She never said that,” Pelley explained.
Pelley noted that Trump has been the one attacking Harris for somehow not being willing to do news interviews.
“Trump has said his opponent doesn’t do interviews because she can’t handle them. He had previously declined another debate with Harris. So, tonight may have been the largest audience for the candidates between now and Election Day,” Pelley said. “Our questions addressed the economy, immigration, reproductive rights, and the wars in the Middle East and Europe. Both campaigns understood this special would go ahead if either candidate backed out.”
Please support our work…
Please subscribe…