The Trump campaign lashed out at ’60 minutes’ after the newsmagazine said Tuesday that the Republican presidential nominee had backed out of a scheduled primetime interview.
“For over half a century, 60 Minutes has invited the Democratic and Republican tickets to appear on our broadcast as Americans head to the polls,” the newsmagazine posted on X. “This year, both the Harris and Trump campaigns agreed to sit down with 60 Minutes.”
The statement went on to say that “after initially accepting 60 Minutes‘ request for an interview” with Scott Pelley, Trump’s campaign “has decided not to participate.”
In a statement to CNN, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung claimed they never agreed to an interview.
“Fake News,” Cheung said. “60 Minutes begged for an interview, even after they were caught lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop back in 2020. There were initial discussions, but nothing was ever scheduled or locked in.”
“They insisted on cutting out of the interview to do fact-checking,” he added
Asked by the network if there was any chance Trump might still sit for the interview, Cheung responded, “Now that they’ve lied about the interaction, they just f–cked themselves.”
Cheung kept his rant going on X writing: “60 Minutes is a relic of the past, unable to keep up with the times and changing media environment, instead turning into liberal, biased propaganda. Nobody ever says, “Oh, did you see what happened on 60 Minutes?” Instead, people usually ask, ’60 Minutes is still on?'”
’60 Minutes’ is the most-watched newsmagazine in the United States. Last month, more than 10 million people tuned in for its season premier.
Despite Cheung’s public meltdown, sources told CNN that Pelley was schedule to sit down with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club on Thursday and attend Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday.
The election special will still air Monday at 8 p.m. ET as planned, and include Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview with correspondent Bill Whitaker.
The Harris campaign criticized Trump on Tuesday night for backing out of the interview.
“Afraid of the debate stage. Afraid of 60 minutes. And his campaign team – after the last three days of increasingly unhinged and unstable ranting at his rallies – is clearly afraid of exposing him beyond comfortable confines,” said Harris senior adviser David Plouffe.
Trump has backed out of a ’60 minutes’ interview before, but it was in the middle of the sit down.
In October 2020, he abruptly ended a solo interview with Lesley Stahl after becoming visibly frustrated with her questions.
