FCC and CBS release unedited ’60 Minutes’ Kamala Harris interview amid Trump lawsuit
CBS releases raw 60 Minutes footage of Kamala interview during election
The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday took the unusual step of releasing raw transcripts and video footage of CBS News’ “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, which has sparked heated debate over the network’s credibility and press freedoms.
Paramount Global-owned CBS followed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s move by separately publishing its interview transcripts and footage from the October interview.
CBS turned over the same material to the government Monday night, following a demand by Carr, who was appointed to the post by President Trump.
Carr said that publishing the previously unreleased footage and opening up a case file would “serve the public interest.” The FCC now plans to accept public comment.
“The people will have a chance to weigh in,” Carr wrote on social media site X.
The FCC inquiry has raised the stakes in a separate dispute between Trump and CBS and has also tested the limits of journalists’ 1st Amendment rights.
Trump backed out of a scheduled sit-down with “60 Minutes,” but the network went forward with an interview of Harris in the closing weeks of the presidential campaign.
CBS broadcast a clip from the Harris interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” public affairs program. The following night, a longer version of the Harris interview ran as part of a special “60 Minutes” episode.
Trump and his supporters cried foul, pointing to discrepancies between Harris’ answers in the two interview segments.
Trump sued CBS for $10 billion, alleging that the network had engaged in deceptive editing practices in an effort to tip the scales in Harris’ favor by casting her in a more favorable light with viewers.
In a preview clip that aired on “Face the Nation,” Harris was shown saying that “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.”
Interview here
During the actual “60 Minutes” program, in response to the same question, she was shown saying “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.”
