I wasn’t planning to write another post tonight, but after watching the 60 Minutes interview with President Trump, I felt compelled to. I have long been a fan of 60 Minutes, or at least I was. CBS News once stood as the gold standard of journalism, the network of Walter Cronkite, a name synonymous with integrity and truth. That legacy now feels like a memory, replaced by something far more troubling.
Tonight, I write as someone deeply saddened by what CBS News has become. The state of mainstream media has reached a point where independent journalism is not just valuable, it is essential. If I ever had the chance to interview a president, Republican or Democrat, I would insist on accountability. No one should be allowed to lie without challenge. That’s why I took Trump’s claims and fact-checked them for you below.
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That is why what aired tonight was so disappointing. In an interview edited by CBS, Donald Trump was allowed to mislead viewers freely, while Norah O’Donnell offered little in the way of meaningful pushback. Her most pointed moments were cut short, replaced by abrupt edits that seemed to serve the network more than the public.
Even more concerning, CBS did not air the full interview. What viewers saw was a fragmented version, the kind of selective editing that Trump himself once sued CBS over when the network interviewed Vice President Kamala Harris.
Here are some key exchanges that deserve attention:
O’DONNELL: Why did you pardon Changpeng Zhao?
TRUMP: Are you ready? I don’t know who he is.
O’DONNELL: His crypto exchange, Binance, helped facilitate a $2 billion purchase of World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin. And then you pardoned him.
TRUMP: Here’s the thing. I know nothing about it.
Fact Check: Take a minute and imagine if President Biden did not know who he pardoned. If Donald Trump did not know who he was pardoning, then presumably a staffer used an auto-pen, the same thing Republicans in Congress are investigating Biden for doing.
O’DONNELL: Are we going to war with Venezuela?
TRUMP: I doubt it. They emptied their mental institutions and insane asylums into the United States of America.
Fact Check: There is no evidence that supports the claim that Venezuela “emptied their mental institutions and insane asylums into the United States of America.”
O’DONNELL: The stock market doesn’t affect everybody. Not everyone is invested.
TRUMP: It does.
O’DONNELL: But grocery prices are up.
TRUMP: No. 401(k)s. People have 401(k)s.
Fact Check: While the stock market is generally performing well, prices have gone up during the Trump Administration. Grocery prices, including eggs, bread, ground beef, and chicken, remain high despite President Trump’s campaign promise to lower food costs. NBC’s ongoing data graphic tracks national checkout prices from NIQ, showing eggs have fallen from spring peaks, while orange juice is up 10% and ground beef up 7% from a year ago.
O’DONNELL: Can you set the record straight? You’re not planning to run for a third term?
TRUMP: I don’t even think about it. I’ll tell you this — a lot of people want me to run.
Fact Check: O’Donnell did not push the President on whether or not he would serve a third term, but Trump has said that while he wants to serve, he looked into it and cannot. Trump’s allies are actively saying, however, that there is a plan for him to serve another term despite it being blatantly unconstitutional under the 22nd Amendment.
Each of these moments deserved serious follow-up. Instead, viewers were left with silence. No correction. No fact-check. No accountability.
What aired tonight wasn’t the journalism I grew up respecting. It was television — polished, produced, and hollow. And it left me convinced more than ever that independent media must rise to fill the void left by corporate journalism.