CBS announced Tuesday that Donald Trump backed out of an interview on “60 Minutes” after previously agreeing to it, a characterization that the former president’s campaign disputed.
The network said that Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris each agreed to be interviewed for a special Monday episode about the election — and that Harris’s interview was moving forward with correspondent Bill Whitaker.
“After initially accepting 60 Minutes’ request for an interview with Scott Pelley, former President Trump’s campaign has decided not to participate,” the show said on X. “Pelley will address this Monday evening.”
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung called the show’s announcement “fake news,” saying there were “initial discussions [about an interview], but nothing was ever scheduled or locked in.”
“They also insisted on doing live fact checking, which is unprecedented,” Cheung said on X.
Trump clashed with “60 Minutes” during the 2020 election, when he cut short an interview with one of its journalists, Lesley Stahl, after growing frustrated with her questioning. Trump retaliated by posting unedited video of the interview on social media before it was set to air, a move that CBS called “unprecedented” and a violation of an agreement with Trump.
Trump, campaigning Tuesday evening in Milwaukee, said he would “love to do” the show but wants an apology for the Stahl interview.
“I’ve asked them for an apology,” Trump said. “Let’s see if they do it.”
Real-time fact-checking by the media has been a point of contention throughout the election season. Trump and his supporters complained after the moderators at last month’s ABC debate sought to address his false and misleading claims, including that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets.
For Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate, CBS is broadcasting a QR code on the screen that viewers can scan to read real-time fact-checking.