President Donald Trump’s angry response to corruption questions at the end of his 60 Minutes interview was cut from the show’s TV and extended cut, according to a full transcript released by the broadcaster.
CBS aired a 28-minute version of the Trump interview on television, and then released a 73-minute extended cut online, which was also shared by the White House’s RapidResponse 47 X account. Neither contained Trump losing his cool over questions about the billionaire he pardoned after a $2 billion crypto deal was struck with the Trump family.
The MAGA social media account claimed it was the “FULL” Trump interview that came “without the network’s edits and cuts.” An editor’s note on 60 Minutes’ YouTube upload of the extended interview said it was “condensed for clarity.”
However, the full tense exchange over crypto corruption with interviewer Norah O’Donnell, which can be seen in the transcript on the 60 Minutes Overtime site, did not appear in either the TV or the extended online video version.
CBS also took Trump’s suggestion to cut a section of the interview in which the president boasted about the payout their parent company paid him earlier this year. “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. The comment did not appear in either of the videos.
At the end of the interview, which was conducted at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, O’Donnell asks Trump if she can ask two more questions, according to the transcript.
During the interview she had frequently mentioned she was conscious of time and occasionally interrupted some of Trump’s longer answers.
“That means they’ll treat me more fairly if I do,” Trump, 79, said, as per the CBS transcript. “I want to get.... Now is good. OK. Uh, oh. These might be the ones I didn’t want. I don’t know. OK, go ahead.”
O’Donnell, 51, then asks Trump about people he has pardoned, focusing on the crypto billionaire Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who was let out of jail in September after pleading guilty to money-laundering violations.
Parts of Trump’s answers were included in the truncated version of the interview, which aired on TV. 60 Minutes averaged just over 8.5 million linear television viewers per show last season.
The moment the president claimed he had “no idea” who the man he had pardoned was—before immediately contradicting himself—was included but not his blow-up afterwards.
“I don’t know who he is,” Trump can be seen claiming of CZ. “I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that, and I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.”
CZ made his fortune as the founder of crypto exchange Binance. The Wall Street Journal claimed CZ had previously struck a $2 billion deal with the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial.
In the aired interview, O’Donnell asks Trump, “How do you address the appearance of pay-for -play?” To which he responded, “Well, here’s the thing, I know nothing about…”
However, when O’Donnell again asked if Trump was “concerned about the appearance of corruption” over pardoning CZ due to the links to his family, the transcript revealed the president became annoyed.
“I can’t say, because—I can’t say—I’m not concerned. I don’t—I’d rather not have you ask the question. But I let you ask it. You just came to me and you said, ‘Can I ask another question?’ And I said, yeah. This is the question... ”
O’Donnell cut in to say “And you answered—” as the president continued on to say, “I don’t mind. Did I let you do it? I coulda walked away. I didn’t have to answer this question. I’m proud to answer the question. You know why? We’ve taken crypto—”
O’Donnell interrupted Trump, presumably to repeat her question, and Trump said “Excuse me... ” before continuing his presidential crypto sales pitch without directly addressing the corruption angle.
“We’re No. 1 in crypto in the whole world,” Trump said. “Other people wanna be. They’re fighting like hell to be. But we’re No. 1 in crypto because I’m the president... We are No. 1 in crypto and that’s the only thing I care about. I don’t want China or anybody else to take it away. It’s a massive industry.”
The Daily Beast has contacted CBS and the White House for comment.
A voiceover from O’Donnell noted in the aired 60 Minutes broadcast that World Liberty Financial has denied any involvement in the pardon.
60 Minutes also did not air on TV a moment where Trump bragged about his $16 million lawsuit victory over Paramount, which owns CBS, over what the president believed was deceptive editing of a Kamala Harris interview.
Trump launched a $20 billion lawsuit 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 their $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 president then noted, “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.“
The Daily Beast has contacted Harris’ office for comment.
Appearing to speak of CBS’s new MAGA-curious editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, he continued, “I think you have a great, new leader, frankly, who’s the young woman that’s leading your whole enterprise is a great—from what I know. I don’t know her, but I hear she’s a great person.”
He continued, “But 60 Minutes was forced to pay me—a lot of money because they took her answer out that was so bad, it was election-changing, two nights before the election. And they put a new answer in. And they paid me a lot of money for that. You can’t have fake news. You’ve gotta have legit news. And I think that it’s happening."
As part of the Paramount settlement, while they were not required to apologize to Trump, they agreed that “in the future, 60 Minutes will release transcripts of interviews with eligible U.S. presidential candidates after such interviews have aired, subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns.”
