Trump’s unedited CBS interview exposes much less 'sane' answers

Thomas Kika
4h
Donald Trump attends the America First Policy Institute gala at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 14, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

President Donald Trump's recent interview with60 Minutes about the fallout of the midterms was even worse than what actually made it to air, according to a new report from The New Republic, with an unedited version of the segment exposing answers that come off as much less "sane."

Trump's interview on the newly MAGA-friendly CBS already sparked much alarm and mockery as it aired, with the president making several less-than-flattering answers, including that people complaining about his economy should have been invested in the stock market and that he would rather go to Hell than offer his enemies forgiveness. As it turns out, however, the segment was heavily edited, seemingly in an attempt to sane-wash Trump's responses to conservative interviewer Ross Douthat.

An unedited portion of the segment was initially circulated online by Juliet Jeske, founder of Decoding Fox News, featuring portions of the footage not aired on CBS in black-and-white. As The New Republic explained in its report on the footage, an exchange about the Ukraine war seemed to have been edited to excise "false claims or total fabrications."

When Douthat pressed about what the "biggest obstacle to peace" was, in the broadcast version of the interview, Trump said, "It was the hatred between [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskiy and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin."

As Jeske's post exposed, "much more was left on the cutting room floor."

“I believe that we’re very close to making a deal,” Trump said. “And I think it — two things, if I were president, because as you know, well you’re not going to admit it, it was rigged. That’s why I did it a third time. If I was president that war would have never started.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the program appeared to cut responses in which Trump tried "to puff himself up as tough on Russia and soft on Ukraine.

“Look what I did to them as an example. I gave them the anti-tank busters, right?” the president said. “I’ve given them, in fact there’s an old statement, that [Barack] Obama gave them sheets, and I gave them anti-tank busters, okay? That’s what I gave them,” Trump said.

“But now it’s Europe supplying weapons, not us?” Douthat asked.

“No, it’s us. We’re supplying the weapons, Europe is paying for them,” Trump responded. “Here’s the difference: [Joe] Biden gave them $350 billion worth of cash and weapons. I gave them nothing.”

The New Republic report noted that there is a "deep irony" to Trump's interview being edited in this way, considering that he previously sued CBS, alleging that a 60 Minutes interview with his 2024 opponent, Kamala Harris, had been "selectively edited" in a manner that amounted to "election interference." Paramount Global ultimately opted to settle the suit to the tune of $16 million, despite editing in this manner being commonplace for news programs.

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