At the top of CBS’ “60 Minutes” interview special with Vice President Kamala Harris, host Scott Pelley addressed the Donald Trump-shaped elephant in the room by detailing for the first time why the Republican presidential nominee abruptly canceled their scheduled sit-down last week.
The journalist said Monday that in messaging with Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung from early September to last week’s cancellation, “60 Minutes” received “shifting explanations” for the nominee’s unexpected refusal to sit with them.
Pelley cited everything from the news magazine’s practice of fact-checking interview subjects to its decline to apologize for a 2020 interview with Lesley Stahl as Cheung and Trump’s reasoning.
“A week ago, Trump backed out. The campaign offered shifting explanations. First it complained that we would fact-check the interview. We fact-check every story,” Pelley explained. “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. Trump has said his opponent doesn’t do interviews because she can’t handle them.”
The host also stated that because Trump has also declined a second debate with Harris to this point, the Monday night special “may have been the largest audience for the candidates between now and election day. 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.”
Watch Pelley’s full comments below:
For more than half a century, the major party candidates for president have sat down with 60 Minutes. This year, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump accepted our invitation. Unfortunately, last week Trump canceled. https://t.co/7t5jr5nyFJ pic.twitter.com/VDJDDNYFab
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 8, 2024
As he explained up top, the “60 Minutes” interview with presidential candidates from the major parties has been “tradition for more than half a century,” airing the October before election day. “In 1968, it was Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey,” he said.
The journalist also detailed requests that “60 Minutes” was willing to accommodate from the Trump campaign before pulling out — namely a sit-down interview at the politician’s Mar-a-Lago estate, and a b-roll segment to be filmed in Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of the recent assassination attempt on his life.
“We agreed. On Sept. 9, Trump’s communications director Stephen Cheung sent a text that read, ‘I’m working with our advance team to see logistically if Butler would work in addition to the sit-down’ — sit-down meaning the interview in Florida. Days later, Cheung called to say, ‘The president said yes.’ Then, a week ago, Trump backed out.”
Harris, however, did interview with “60 Minutes” as part of a robust slate of media appearances this week that otherwise includes “The Late Show” and “The Howard Stern Show.”
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