In recent weeks, Donald Trump has been more animated and more fixated on one issue above all others. It’s not immigration or the economy. It has nothing to do with transgender rights or trade tariffs.
The former Republican president has instead obsessed over “60 Minutes.”
By now, you’ve probably heard the story. Vice President Kamala Harris sat down for an interview with the news program; some of her answers were edited for time; and the GOP nominee has spent every day since pretending that this is some kind of scandal. Trump has, among other things, called for CBS to lose its broadcasting license, “60 Minutes” to be pulled from the air and for the Democratic nominee to end her candidacy altogether.
After the Republican candidate described the editing of the interview as “totally illegal” — a bonkers claim, by any fair measure — Trump’s legal team wrote to CBS News this week, threatening litigation.
The network has patiently explained that the claims are baseless and that the editing process was routine and fair, but the former president won’t hear of it. Trump has apparently convinced himself that editing an interview in a way that might’ve made a candidate look slightly better constitutes “A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY” and “the single biggest scandal in broadcast history.”
It’s against this backdrop that CNN reported on Trump’s staged event at a New York barbershop this week, which was aired on Fox News:
[T]he version of the visit shown on television was, to borrow a hairstyle metaphor, a crop cut. Fox edited out many of Trump’s rambling comments and false claims. Participants had to repeatedly follow up when Trump meandered away from the original point of their questions. CNN reviewed a more complete video of the barbershop visit that was uploaded to Instagram on the day of Trump’s appearance in the Bronx and compared it to the segments that were shown on ‘Fox & Friends’ on Monday.
CNN’s report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC, added that what Fox News showed viewers “omitted numerous Trump tangents and exaggerations,” as well as his “rambling comments.”
In other words, Fox’s on-air segment was edited in such a way as to make the Republican candidate look better.
The segment that reached the air didn’t exactly make Trump look good. At one point, asked about improving education, the former president gave a truly ridiculous and utterly false response about schools performing transgender surgeries without parental consent.
At the same event, the GOP nominee fielded a question from a voter who was concerned about banning artificial foods in urban communities.
“So, Bobby Kennedy, right?” Trump responded. “Everybody likes Bobby, and he’s so big into the health food and women things, everything.”
In other words, the appearance wasn’t exactly a great success. But according to CNN’s report, Fox’s segment was edited in such a way as to prevent Trump from looking even worse. The result is a set of questions that seems rather obvious but are worth asking anyway: Will the former president demand that “Fox & Friends” be pulled from the air? Will he target Fox’s broadcast license? Will he withdraw from the 2024 race as a result of the allegations? Will he demand that Fox release the full and unedited version of his appearance? Will he characterize the network’s edits as “totally illegal,” a “threat to democracy” and “the single biggest scandal in broadcast history”? Will Fox’s lawyers be hearing from Trump’s attorneys? I have a hunch we know the answers.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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