The longtime news program has been plagued by controversy in recent days after it edited an unflattering exchange Vice President Kamala Harris had with veteran correspondent Bill Whitaker, which aired in a preview clip on Sunday’s “Face The Nation” but was changed for Monday’s primetime election special.
Harris was mocked by conservatives for offering a lengthy “word salad” when she was asked why it seemed like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t listening to the U.S.
“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 responded in Sunday’s “Face the Nation” clip.
However, a shorter, more focused answer from the vice president was shown to the same question on Monday night.
“We are not going to 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 special.
It appears the two different responses were part of the same long answer, but CBS has not offered answers for the discrepancy.
CBS News is facing mounting pressure to release the transcript of the full Harris interview to account for the discrepancy. Meanwhile, former President Trump has called for the network to lose its broadcasting license, and former CBS staffers are demanding an outside probe to look into the controversy.
It’s yet another controversy and accusation of liberal bias the venerable show has taken in recent years.In the final days leading up to the 2020 election, then-President Trump famously sparred with “60 Minutes” veteran Lesley Stahl over the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, which had just been unearthed by The New York Post.
Trump insisted at the time that then-candidate Joe Biden was “in the midst of a scandal.” “He’s not,” Stahl gleefully replied. “Of course he is, Lesley,” Trump sternly doubled down. “No, c’mon,” Stahl continued to reject the president’s claim, before lecturing him, “This is ’60 Minutes’ and we can’t put on things that we can’t verify.”
CBS News eventually went on and verified the infamous laptop in 2022. At the time, the laptop and its contents were accused of being part of a Russian disinformation campaign in wide swaths of the media, and the New York Post’s story was even blocked from being shared on Twitter.
