CBS says Trump will not participate in 60 Minutes interview

WASHINGTON – CBS News on Oct 1 said that former president Donald Trump had declined to participate in an interview with 60 Minutes that would have been broadcast during a prime-time election special next week.

The election special, a quadrennial tradition for the programme, will move ahead on Oct 7 and feature interviews with the Democratic candidate, Vice-President Kamala Harris, and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota.

In a statement, the network said Trump had initially accepted an invitation to be interviewed by one of the show’s correspondents, Mr Scott Pelley. But on Oct 1, CBS was told that Trump’s campaign “has decided not to participate”.

“Our original invitation to former president Donald Trump to be interviewed on 60 Minutes stands,” the network added.

A Trump spokesman, Mr Steven Cheung, pushed back on the network’s characterisation of events. “60 Minutes begged for an interview,” he wrote in a post on social platform X. “There were initial discussions, but nothing was ever scheduled or locked in.”

60 Minutes typically runs interviews with both major-party candidates in the weeks before a presidential election. According to CBS, Trump’s campaign had been the first to accept its invitation; each candidate was to receive two segments during the one-hour broadcast.

Mr Pelley is expected to address the matter with viewers on Oct 7.

This is not the first time that Trump has clashed with 60 Minutes, which is the United States’ most popular television news programme.

In 2020, his campaign abruptly cut short an interview with correspondent Lesley Stahl, complaining that she was “negative”, and later taunted her on Twitter. Trump also posted online unfiltered footage from the interview, during which he had become increasingly irritated with Ms Stahl’s questions about his handling of the pandemic and other subjects.

For the Oct 7 episode, Ms Harris will be interviewed by 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker.

NYTIMES