CBS Yields To FCC Chairman’s Demand, Agrees To Surrender Kamala Harris’s ’60 Minutes’ Interview Transcript

CBS News agreed Friday to heed the request of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr for the unedited transcript of its October “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, according to reports.

Carr sent CBS’s news division a letter of inquiry Wednesday requesting “the full, unedited transcript and camera feeds” of the interview, The New York Times reported.

“We are working to comply with that inquiry as we are legally compelled to do,” a CBS News spokesman said Friday, the outlet reported.

The development occurs amidst CBS News’s parent organization, Paramount Global, negotiating a settlement with President Donald Trump’s lawyers while seeking the FCC’s approval to sell Paramount to Skydance Media, the Los Angeles Times reported. Some journalists — including at CBS — and media experts told the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times that the FCC’s inquiry could produce a chilling effect and that the reported plans for a settlement would amount to compromise.

CBS correspondent Bill Whitaker interviewed Harris on Oct. 5, 2024 in Washington, during which he suggested Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not listening to the Biden administration amidst the political upheavals in the Middle East. In a preview airing Oct. 6 on “Face the Nation,” Harris was shown giving a long-winded reply, whereas in the primetime Oct. 7 airing of “60 Minutes” Harris’s answer was direct and brief.

“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 to Whitaker in the teaser.

Monday, on a 60 Minutes election special, Bill Whitaker asks Vice President Kamala Harris if the U.S. lacks influence over American ally Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. https://t.co/TG3WOCA23A pic.twitter.com/IH6MXMjuCP

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 6, 2024

“We’re 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 replied to Whitaker in the full “60 Minutes” primetime episode.

Then-2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump shared a video clip showing both responses and slammed CBS and Harris, alleging CBS tried to improve the Democratic presidential nominee’s chances and calling for the outlet’s license to be suspended.

CBS did not publicly respond to Trump on the matter but privately said it did not intend to benefit Harris and had followed the same editing process for Trump several times before, The Associated Press (AP) reported.

Trump ultimately declined an interview with the outlet and filed charges against it in Texas on Nov. 1, seeking $10 billion. He also repeatedly requested a full interview transcript — requests CBS refused, The New York Times reported. (RELATED: Major Media Outlet Forced To Pay $15,000,000 To Trump)

Another Israel-focused segment of the same interview was also similarly edited, according to AP.

The interview “was not doctored,” but what appeared to be two answers from Harris were two parts of one long answer, and time constraints forced the producers to air the shorter part in primetime, CBS argued, according to The New York Times.