Chuck Schumer took a swipe at Trump over what he called the president’s “unhinged” 60 Minutes interview, threatening to file the same kind of complaint Trump once lodged against CBS.
“Maybe I should file a complaint with the FCC against the Trump White House for editing his unhinged 60 Minutes interview,” the Senate minority leader wrote on X on Monday.
CBS cut out a presidential meltdown at the end of the interview and took Trump’s own advice to edit out a section where he bragged about the multi-million dollar payout he received from their parent company.
The jab came a year after Trump sued CBS News for allegedly doctoring an interview with then–vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, accusing the network of deceptive editing and seeking $20 billion in damages for “mental anguish.” The case was settled earlier this year, with CBS agreeing to pay Trump $16 million.
Schumer suggested that if he does follow through, his own complaint would “use the exact same language Trump lodged against Vice President Harris.”
CBS aired a 28-minute version of Trump’s interview, which was conducted at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, on Sunday night and released an uncut 73-minute version online. The White House’s RapidResponse47 account shared the longer clip, claiming it was the “FULL” version—“without the network’s edits and cuts.” CBS, however, added a note saying the televised interview had been “condensed for clarity.”
Neither of these video edits contained an outburst at the end of the interview where Trump complained about the questions he was being asked about why he had pardoned a crypto mogul who had invested $2 billion in a project with the Trump family.
Critics of the network noted the interview was edited so much that it appeared “choppy” and was made to make Trump seem coherent, nixing some of his more “unhinged” ramblings.
MeidasNews Editor-in-Chief Ron Filipkowski said that CBS, now under the leadership of the MAGA-curious Bari Weiss, is “Fox Lite.” He theorized that the network could be sued for the significant 60 Minutes edits, but said the network’s parent company will not settle out of court as it shockingly did with Trump earlier this year for $16 million.
“No, CBS will not settle any lawsuits against them that people may bring for editing out over half of Trump’s interview, since none of you are in a position of power to approve their merger with any other media companies,” Filipkowski said.
CBS also honored a Trump request to remove a boast about the previous payout. “And actually 60 Minutes paid me a lotta money. And you don’t have to put this on, because I don’t wanna embarrass you,” he said during the taping. That moment didn’t make it into either version.
“It’s a shame that CBS has shot its credibility in both feet,” posted Bloomberg News editor Gerry Doyle on BlueSky.
Trump launched a $20 billion lawsuit last year claiming Harris’ interview had been edited to “tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party” ahead of the election.
The case was settled in July, ahead of Paramount needing FCC approval for its $8 billion merger with media company Skydance.
Trump did not mention Harris by name Sunday, but said “the press got behind her. Oh, they were so behind her. But, eventually, she failed because she couldn’t speak. She wasn’t a very intelligent person, in my opinion. But she couldn’t speak properly. She could not speak.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
