Former President Donald Trump’s campaign is demanding that CBS News release the full unedited video of Vice President Kamala Harris on “60 Minutes” after a significant discrepancy was discovered that appears to show that interview was deceptively edited to benefit Harris.
The moment in question came when host Bill Whitaker was discussing with Harris the United States’ financial support for Israel in its war against genocidal Islamic terrorists in the region.
“But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening,” Whitaker said to Harris.
In a promotional clip that was posted by CBS News on Sunday, Harris responded to that statement from Whitaker by saying: “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.”
WATCH (relevant portion starts at 1:36):
Monday, on a 60 Minutes election special, Bill Whitaker asks Vice President Kamala Harris if the U.S. lacks influence over American ally Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. https://t.co/TG3WOCA23A pic.twitter.com/IH6MXMjuCP
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 6, 2024
However, when the full interview was published by the network on Monday night, that statement from Harris was nowhere to be found. Those words were not included anywhere in the television broadcast nor did they appear in the interview when it was posted on YouTube, the interview’s transcript, or the show’s “Overtime” segment.
Instead, on television and in the interview posted online, Whitaker’s identical statement that “it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening,” is followed by Harris 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.”
WATCH (relevant portion begins at 1:19):
With just 29 days until Election Day, Bill Whitaker sits down with Vice President Kamala Harris. One year after Hamas’ terror attack on Israel, Whitaker starts by asking Harris what the U.S. can do to prevent an all-out regional war in the Middle East. https://t.co/NsOjzQIL5O pic.twitter.com/dRruqbEaqg
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 8, 2024
The second set of remarks from Harris is what is included in the transcript published by the network.
The Trump campaign responded to the discrepancy by calling out the network for “deceptively” editing Harris’ answer “to lessen Kamala’s idiotic response.”
“Why did 60 Minutes choose not to air Kamala’s full word salad, and what else did they choose not to air?” asked Karoline Leavitt, Trump National Press Secretary, in a Tuesday night statement. “The American people deserve the full, unedited transcript from Kamala’s sit-down interview. We call upon 60 Minutes and CBS to release it. What do they, and Kamala, have to hide?”
CBS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A closer look at Harris’ remarks and the state of the 2024 presidential race indicates that the edit was intended to do more than just “lessen Kamala’s idiotic response.”
In Harris’ initial response, she said that the Biden-Harris administration’s work and advocacy led to a lot of what Israel has done in the region.
Harris’ response came within the context of Whitaker talking about Netanyahu taking the fight to Hezbollah, despite objections from the administration, and his insistence on eradicating Hamas from Gaza so they cannot carry out another October 7 attack in the future.
Harris’ answer is politically problematic for her as she tries to pick up key swing states that she needs to win if she is to beat former President Donald Trump in next month’s election.
One of the state’s that Harris needs to win is Michigan, which has a large Islamic population that has been angered over Israel’s war against Hamas.
Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) warned donors last week that internal polling from her Senate campaign shows that Harris is “underwater” and trailing Trump in the state, Axios reported.
The New York Times reported on Monday, the first anniversary of October 7, that Israel’s war against Islamic terror groups in the Middle East was “threatening the Democratic coalition in the United States.”
The report states:
Nowhere are those tensions more politically important than in Michigan, a crucial battleground state with a significant population of Arab American and Muslim voters.
Four years ago, President Biden won Michigan with strong backing from many of those Americans. But interviews this weekend with voters, activists and community leaders in the Detroit area suggested that support for the Democratic ticket has not merely eroded among Arab Americans and Muslims.
In some neighborhoods, it has all but vanished.
Harris has responded to her eroding support among Muslims by meeting with Arab leaders in Michigan, even as a growing number of Jews in the United States say they feel threatened by anti-Semitic violence and the political Left’s embrace of pro-Hamas protesters.
Harris’ answer on “60 Minutes” threatened to inflame tensions among the Islamic community who may view what she said as an admission that the administration supports all or most of Israel’s actions.
The response ultimately aired is effectively the opposite of what she originally stated. “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,” Harris said in the answer.
That answer would appease the Islamic community, which has largely sought an end to Israel’s military since October 8, 2023.
The following post is the video that went viral on social media that drew attention to “60 Minutes” deceptive edits:
Remember Kamala’s word salad answer about Israel on 60 Minutes? It’s gone.
This is what many Americans will now see. pic.twitter.com/H4w7btDv6x
— MAZE (@mazemoore) October 8, 2024