Donald Trump Backs Out Of ‘60 Minutes’ Interview, CBS News Says
Donald Trump has backed out of a planned interview with 60 Minutes and its correspondent, Scott Pelley, the network said Tuesday.
The interview was to be for a primetime election special Monday, in which the show interviews both the major party candidates.
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“After initially accepting 60 Minutes’ request for an interview with Scott Pelley, former President Trump’s campaign has decided not to participate,” a spokesperson for the show said.
Vice President Kamala Harris has agreed to appear on the special, and will speak with correspondent Bill Whitaker.
The special will air at 8 p.m. ET, following a half-century tradition in which the show has invited the candidates to appear on the broadcast.
“Our election special will broadcast the Harris interview on Monday as planned. Our original invitation to former President Donald Trump to be interviewed on 60 Minutes stands,” the 60 Minutes spokesperson said.
Steven Cheung, Trump campaign spokesman, wrote on X, “Fake News. 60 Minutes begged for an interview, even after they were caught lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop back in 2020. There were initial discussions, but nothing was ever scheduled or locked in.”
He added, “They also insisted on doing live fact checking, which is unprecedented.”
According to CBS News, campaign spokespersons for Trump, and then Harris, accepted the interview requests. The agreement was that each candidate would get two segments in the broadcast, of equal time in length. A campaign spokesperson then notified the show that Trump would not sit for an interview.
Harris’ segment also will include footage of her on the campaign trail this week, and her running mate, Tim Walz, also is expected to participate in the interview.
In 2020, while still president, Trump sat for a contentious 60 Minutes election interview with Lesley Stahl, but he cut the sit-down short. The Trump White House released a video version of the interview in advance of the broadcast.
David Plouffe, senior adviser to Harris, wrote on X, “Afraid of the debate stage. Afraid of 60 Minutes. And his campaign team — after the last three days of increasingly unhinged and unstable ranting at his rallies — is clearly afraid of exposing him beyond comfortable confines.”
Harris has accepted CNN’s proposal for a second presidential debate with Trump on October 23. Trump, though, has declined, telling a rally last month that it was “too late” in the election cycle to do another faceoff.
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