The campaign of Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris is denying it played any role in the editing of a controversial “60 Minutes” interview of Ms. Harris, insisting it had no influence over the production decisions of CBS News.
The interview has become a major source of contention on the campaign trail since its airing Monday night.
An aide for the Harris campaign told The Washington Times Wednesday, “We do not control CBS’ production decisions and refer questions to CBS.”
The campaign of former President Donald Trump, Ms. Harris’ Republican rival, has stepped up demands that CBS News release the full, unedited transcript of Ms. Harris’ interview with CBS journalist Bill Whitaker, after two clips of the same question were released and showed Ms. Harris providing two different answers.
Both clips show Mr. Whitaker saying, “But it seems that [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu is not listening.”
In the clip from “60 Minutes,” Ms. Harris responds by saying, “We are not gonna stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”
But, in the clip from a “Face the Nation” edit, Ms. Harris says, “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.”
Mr. Trump himself has railed against the interview repeatedly on his Truth Social site, calling it “a fake news scam” and a sign the media were favoring Ms. Harris in the race.
“Her real answer was crazy or dumb, so they actually replaced it with another in order to save her or, at least, make her look better,” he wrote in an early post Thursday with some words in all caps. He called the changes “illegal [and] election interference” and said CBS should lose its broadcasting license.
“She is a Moron, and the Fake News Media wants to hide that fact. An UNPRECEDENTED SCANDAL!!! The Dems got them to do this and should be forced to concede the Election? WOW!” he wrote.
In another post he called the “fraud” committed by the network and the show and the Democratic Party “the single biggest scandal in broadcast history.”
It’s tradition for both presidential candidates to sit for a “60 Minutes” interview ahead of the election. Mr. Trump initially said yes to the interview but wound up backing out before the taping.
CBS News has not responded to requests for comment, but Semafor reported that “multiple people” told the outlet that there “was no contact between the White House or Harris campaign and ’60 Minutes’ after the interview was taped at the [vice president’s] residence on Saturday.”