The CBS News program 60 Minutes heavily edited Norah O’Donnell’s interview on Sunday with Trump, broadcasting 28 minutes out of a 90 minute transcript.
A full transcript of the interview was later published, along with a 73 minute extended version online.
One year ago, Trump sued CBS over a Kamala Harris interview he claimed was edited with bias toward Harris. While widely panned as meritless, CBS settled the lawsuit with a $16 million payment to Trump — but the settlement did not include any apology or admittance of wrongdoing.
In a segment that wasn’t aired, Trump tried to get O’Donnell to say that crime was way down in Washington DC, where she lives.
“You live here. You know that too,” Trump said, asking O’Donnell: “Do you see a difference?”
“I think I’ve been working too hard,” O’Donnell responded. “I haven’t been out and about that much … I get in my car and go to work and I go home.”
Trump said “that’s not a fair answer” and insisted that O’Donnell noticed a difference.
The president then seemed to suggest that the back-and-forth didn’t need to be aired on the show.
“You don’t have to use that one,” he said. “Don’t worry, don’t worry, I don’t want to embarrass her.”
Trump, who claims President Biden’s pardons are not legitimate because he did not know what he was doing and were signed with an autopen, also told O’Donnell that he did not know who Binance cryptocurrency exchange founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao was. Trump granted clemency to “CZ” after he pleaded guilty to money laundering violations.
Key portions of the questions about “CZ” did not make it into either version of the video, but were edited out and later found within the transcript.