Donald Trump is trying so hard to control his 60 Minutes narrative that he actually released clips from his interview with reporter Lesley Stahl early.
Trump’s 60 Minutes episode is set to air on CBS Sunday night, but on Thursday morning Trump tweeted that he would be giving “a first in television history full, unedited preview of the vicious attempted ‘takeout’ interview.”
Since it was reported that Trump ended his interview with Stahl early on Tuesday, the president has been attacking the anchor on Twitter. He called her out for not wearing a mask, and also claimed she was angry and constantly interrupted his “full, flowing, and ‘magnificently’ brilliant” responses to her questions.
On Thursday, a 38-minute clip of the interview was shared to Trump’s Facebook page, alongside the comment, “Look at the bias, hatred and rudeness on behalf of 60 Minutes and CBS. Tonight’s anchor, Kristen Welker, is far worse! #MAGA”
While Trump argued that “bias, hatred and rudeness” was present throughout the interview, upon watching it’s plainly obvious that Stahl is simply doing her job. It’s certainly not the exposé that Trump seems to think it is.
The footage, which according to the New York Times, was recorded by a member of his staff “for archival purposes.” By releasing it on Facebook, the administration broke their agreement with CBS News, per the Washington Post.
It only shows the president, but Stahl is heard calmly asking questions about healthcare, the coronavirus, and other pressing campaign issues. In almost every case, he either disputed her (true) statements or refused to give a specific or credible answer. So, as journalists are supposed to do, she repeatedly followed up on those questions in an attempt to get a straight answer. She sticks to the facts and maintains her composure, in spite of him repeatedly saying she’s “discredited” herself.
In more than one instance, however, Trump appears visibly annoyed by Stahl’s questions and becomes increasingly defensive as the minutes tick on.
Towards the end of the interview, Trump tells Stahl that she’s making “vicious” statements and eventually confronts her about her “inappropriately brought up” questions.
“You brought up a lot of questions that were inappropriately brought up, right from the beginning,” Mr. Trump says toward the end of the clip.
“You’re the president, don’t you think you should be accountable to the American people?” Stahl asked Trump.
He replied by claiming Stahl didn’t mention she’d be asking him tough questions when the interview was set up.
When someone from Trump’s team interrupted to give a five-minute time warning, Trump said that they had talked enough and felt it was time to wrap up. He abruptly leaves and did not return to film a planned segment including him and Vice President Pence.
Though Trump released footage in advance, the full interview is still set to air on Sunday’s episode of 60 Minutes, and will feature additional interviews with Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris.
Additional reporting by Cassie Murdoch