Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is fighting to distance itself from CBS News’ controversial move to air an edited version of answers to questions she gave in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired this week.
In a preview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, the vice president gave a meandering answer to correspondent Bill Whitaker’s question on how much control the United States has over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But when the “60 Minutes” special aired on Monday, the answer was edited into a shorter, more assertive version, provoking questions about whether CBS executives had moved to conceal lengthy, convoluted “word salads” from Harris.
Now, Harris’ campaign is trying to remove itself from the conversation.
“We do not control CBS’s production decisions and refer questions to CBS,” a Harris campaign aide told multiple outlets including Fox News and Variety.
The Harris campaign and CBS News did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
In the original preview, Whitaker asked Harris whether the US has any “sway” over Netanyahu.
“The aid that we have given Israel allowed Israel to defend itself against 200 ballistic missiles that were just meant to attack the Israelis and the people of Israel. And when we think about the threat that Hamas, Hezbollah presents, Iran, I think that it is without any question our imperative to do what we can to allow Israel to defend itself against those kinds of attacks,” Harris replied.
“Now the work that we do diplomatically with the leadership of Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles, which include the need for humanitarian aid, the need for this war to end, the need for a deal to be done which would release the hostages and create a ceasefire,” Harris continued.
“And we’re not going to stop in terms of putting that pressure on Israel and in the region, including Arab leaders.”
When the primetime “60 Minutes” special aired, however, Harris’ four run-on sentences had been condensed into a short one-sentence answer.
“The work that we do diplomatically with the leadership of Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles,” Harris said in the primetime episode.
When Whitaker pushed Harris and said that Netanyahu does not seem to be listening, Harris’ answer in the “Face the Nation” preview was similarly vague.
“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,” Harris said.
Unlike the first editing change – which just clipped down her long answer – the primetime interview this time included a completely different answer from the Democratic nominee.
“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 primetime version.
Critics have claimed that the edit is a stumble on the network’s part and an attempt to influence the public’s opinion in favor of Harris.
Former president Donald Trump’s campaign has called for CBS News to release an “unedited transcript” of the full interview.
“The word salad was deceptively edited to lessen Kamala’s idiotic response,” Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s press secretary, told The Post in a statement. “Why did 60 Minutes choose not to air Kamala’s full word salad, and what else did they choose not to air? The American people deserve the full, unedited transcript from Kamala’s sit-down interview.”
CBS has not directly commented on the editing controversy.
During the “60 Minutes” broadcast, correspondent Scott Pelley claimed Trump had backed out of a planned interview after his campaign complained that the network wanted to fact-check his interview.
“We fact-check every story,” Pelley said.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung previously said “there was nothing scheduled or agreed upon.”
Harris’ interview marks the first time since the 1960s in which both presidential candidates did not sit with “60 Minutes” for an interview in October.
