CBS anchor Margaret Brennan on Sunday repeated false accusations suggesting that Donald Trump threatened Liz Cheney, prompting Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to correct the record.
And in the end, Brennan could no longer defend that narrative.
'You don't normally give a gun to someone that is going to be facing a firing squad, which is what much of the media made it sound like.'
During an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation," Rubio argued that Trump is the presidential candidate who will promote safety and security in the U.S. and abroad. Brennan then used Rubio's assertion to confront him over, in her words, "Donald Trump talking about training guns on the face of Liz Cheney."
But Rubio was not interested in playing Brennan's game.
"That's not what he said," Rubio told Brennan.
At first, Brennan defended her assertion because, according to her, CBS producers had played a "sound bite" of Trump's remarks from last Thursday, when he accused Cheney of being a so-called chicken hawk. Notice, though, that CBS played only a sound bite of Trump's remarks — not the full context.
"Donald Trump doesn't talk like someone who's been in Washington for 30 years," Rubio defended.
"Training guns on her face?" Brennan pushed back.
"He doesn't say it the way I would have said it, no, but that's not what he said, Margaret. You guys know that. Come on," Rubio responded. "I mean, everybody knows exactly what he was saying."
Instead of acknowledging that Trump was not, in fact, threatening Cheney, Brennan for a third time pushed the media's false narrative about Trump's words.
"We played the sound bite," Brennan said.
For Rubio, that was the straw that broke the camel's back.
"No, you played a piece of the sound bite, because, in another piece of it, he said he would give her a gun to go stand in conflict as well. You don't normally give a gun to someone that is going to be facing a firing squad, which is what much of the media made it sound like," Rubio said. "The point he was making is not a new point. It is a point that has been made by people in both parties for decades. And that is: You're all for war, and it's easy to be for war when you're in some fancy building and you're safe and sound in Washington, D.C."
After Rubio made the facts surrounding Trump's remarks indisputable, Brennan appeared to concede and stopped disagreeing with him.
"Yep," she said as Rubio continued speaking.
"Let's see how much you are for war when you yourself get deployed into combat. That's the point that he was making," he said. "That he uses language that maybe is not what we typically hear from someone that works at a think tank —"
"Yes," Brennan affirmed again.
"But I think it's not just unfair, it's egregious to see that reported the way that it was," Rubio continued. "I have never seen such a concerted effort.
"And look, I have always believed there's bias because no one's unbiased, but I have never seen such a concerted effort like what I have seen, especially in the last two weeks, among multiple media outlets in this country to, in some cases, breathlessly distort and lie about what's being said and to create and manufacture these gotcha moments against Donald Trump," he added. "I have never seen it before. It's over the top."
Brennan, unfortunately, did not engage Rubio on his observation about the legacy media. Instead, she shifted the interview to a different topic.
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CBS News broke its silence Sunday, addressing President Donald Trump and other critics' concern that its "60 Minutes" interview with Kamala Harris was deceptively edited in hopes of portraying the vice president as more coherent than the original footage would otherwise suggest.
Rather than admit the difference between previews of the interview and the final that ultimately aired on Oct. 7 amounted to strategic changes in Harris' favor, CBS News instead suggested it was par for the course and that Trump was in the wrong.
"Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceitful editing of our Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false," the network said in a statement, released just one week after Gallup revealed Americans continue to register record-low trust in the media.
Trump previously suggested:
I've never seen this before, but the producers of 60 Minutes sliced and diced ('cut and pasted') Lyin' Kamala's answers to questions, which were virtually incoherent, over and over again, some by as many as four times in a single sentence or thought, all in an effort, possibly illegal as part of the 'News Division,' which must be licensed, to make her look 'more Presidential,' or a least, better. It may also be a major Campaign Finance Violation. This is a stain on the reputation of 60 Minutes that is not recoverable — It will always remain with this once storied brand.
CBS News, which has yet to release the undoctored transcript, said further in its Sunday statement, "60 Minutes gave an excerpt of our interview to Face the Nation that used a longer section of her answer than that on 60 Minutes. Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response."
"When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point," continued the statement. "The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment."
'The extent of their deceptive edits must be SIGNIFICANT for them to refuse to release the actual transcript.'
Contrary to its suggestion, CBS News appears to have ventured beyond Harris' actual response for a usable answer in an effort to make the vice president come across as "clear, accurate and on point."
Blaze News previously reported that in one preview for the interview, CBS News' Bill Whitaker asked the vice president whether America lacks influence over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his strategic decisions in the Middle East.
After a labyrinthine response from Harris, Whitaker stated, "It seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening."
Harris then responded, "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."
The vice president's response was widely mocked as another word salad when previewed by CBS' "Face the Nation" — such that its absence was hard to miss when the final version was released the following day.
The final makes it look as if Harris responded by saying, "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."
Karoline Leavitt, press secretary for the Trump campaign, said in response to CBS News' Sunday statement, "60 Minutes just admitted to doing exactly what President Trump accused them of doing. They edited in a different response — from another part of her answer — to make Kamala Harris sound less incoherent than she really was."
Leavitt noted that "their statement is not a denial, it is an admission that they did exactly what they were accused of."
"Release the transcript!" added Leavitt.
Numerous other critics have demanded the release of the transcript and speculated about the true nature of Harris' responses.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has himself been subjected to deceptive edits on CBS News, wrote, "@60Minutes has now confirmed what we all know: they edited the video. Now release the FULL transcript and video."
"60 Minutes continues to conceal the unedited transcript of its interview with Kamala Harris. Here, they also lie about the controversy surrounding that transcript. The extent of their deceptive edits must be SIGNIFICANT for them to refuse to release the actual transcript," tweeted Federalist editor in chief Mollie Hemingway.
Curtis Houck, managing editor of News Busters, asked, "What are you all hiding?"
'When broadcasters manipulate interviews and distort reality, it undermines democracy itself.'
The Center for American Rights has filed a formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission over its edits to the Harris interview, noting that "CBS crosses a line when its production reaches the point of so transforming an interviewee's answer that it is a fundamentally different answer. This CBS may not do."
Daniel Suhr, President of the Center for American Rights, said in a statement, "This is about the public's trust in the media on critical issues of national security and international relations during one of the most consequential elections of our time. When broadcasters manipulate interviews and distort reality, it undermines democracy itself. The FCC must act swiftly to restore public confidence in our news media."
CBS News' treatment of Harris prompted a former guest to conclude the network is politically motivated.
"I can testify from our personal experience that @60Minutes is not honest in their journalism," wrote Moms for Liberty co-founder Tina Descovich. "They came to our interview with a predetermined narrative & when we pointed to truth they used tactics & editing to tell the story they were determined to tell."
Descovich and fellow Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice spoke to "60 Minutes" host Scott Pelley in October 2023 about their organization and its work reinforcing parental rights and combating grooming efforts in the classroom.
Noticeably absent from the final, released in March, was footage of Descovich and Justice describing the graphic sexual content contained in the books that Democrats wanted to keep in public school libraries — footage that would have damaged CBS News' preferred narrative.
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Keeping voters in suspense while officials take days to announce outcomes rightfully breeds distrust in the electoral process.
The American people should be able to trust that the news they watch is not deliberately distorted.
Americans have watched as the media outlets once trusted as objective news sources have fractured that faith with journalistic malpractice.
As the life cycle of each media lie shrinks, the disinformation gets even more desperate.
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