The White House released its own footage Tuesday of President Trump’s recent appearance on 60 Minutes.
The nearly 40-minute video, which comes days before CBS planned to air the official, edited interview, begins with CBS News reporter Lesley Stahl asking Trump if he is “ready for some tough questions.”
“Just be fair,” responds a somewhat irritable Trump. “You don’t ask [Democratic nominee Joe] Biden tough questions. It’s terrible.”
It is all downhill from there, including when the president notes correctly that the Obama administration spied on his 2016 presidential campaign.
“The biggest scandal was when they spied on my campaign,” said Trump. “They spied on my campaign.”
Stahl responds by asserting falsely, “There’s no real evidence of that.”
“Of course, there is,” said the president. “It’s all over the place. Lesley, they spied on my campaign, and they got caught.”
Stahl then informs Trump and his White House aides that CBS will not air that portion of the interview because it cannot verify the president’s claims.
“[T]his is 60 Minutes,” she said. “And we can’t put on things we can’t verify.”
The FBI during the Obama administration absolutely spied on the Trump 2016 campaign, using inaccurate, incomplete, unsupported, and even intentionally falsified information to do so.
Trump also brings up allegations that the Democratic nominee for president may have leveraged his office and authority to enrich his family, including his son, Hunter Biden. Stahl responds, claiming incorrectly that those allegations have been “discredited.”
“All these things have been investigated and discredited,” Stahl asserts, proclaiming something that simply is not true.
An increasingly agitated Trump responds, “It’s incredible the way you can try and say this, sit there, and look me in the eye and say it.”
Stahl explains that the contents of the younger Biden’s laptop, including potentially damning emails, cannot be verified, which is a hell of a thing to allege considering neither Joe Biden nor his campaign has disputed the authenticity of the emails.
“You’re trying to discredit us,” said Stahl.
“No,” Trump responds. “You’re discrediting yourself, Lesley.”
You can watch the video released Tuesday by the White House below, but be warned: Strictly speaking, the tape is not “raw” or “uncut.” There are little edits in at least two spots in the video (one at the 0:32 mark and one at the 4:02 mark), so exercise caution.
