Speaker Johnson accuses CBS of ‘selectively’ editing interview days after ‘60 Minutes’ controversy
House Speaker Mike Johnson ripped CBS News for trimming down his Sunday interview on “Face the Nation,” charging it was part of a pattern of undermining conservatives at the Tiffany Network.
“CBS has been under fire for selectively editing their interviews to PROMOTE Democrats and UNDERMINE Republicans. Yesterday, they chose to cut FIVE important minutes out of my nearly 15 minute interview,” Johnson (R-La.) wrote on X late Monday.
“You can be the judge as to why.”
Johnson, 52, then posted three clips showing how his answers on topics including hurricane relief and election integrity were edited.
The most substantial cut was made to Johnson’s response to a question about whether he was undermining “confidence in the integrity of the state elections.”
CBS News excised roughly a minute and a half of the speaker’s answer, during which he sparred with host Margaret Brennan over the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which requires would-be voters nationwide to present proof of citizenship when registering to cast ballots.
“Noncitizens are not allowed to vote under federal law,” the network showed Johnson saying, before cutting off the next part of his answer.
“But the states have prohibited it,” the unaired statement went. “We passed the SAVE ACT you know, in the House. The SAVE Act says you gotta have proof of citizenship before you register to vote.”
At another point in the cut section, Johnson responded to Brennan, who said: “People can have lots of concerns, but it is already law that noncitizens cannot vote in federal elections.”
“It is a law,” the speaker answered. “That’s correct, but we have to make sure the law is followed. And that is the whole point. That has always been the whole point of the SAVE Act.”
In another cut section, from earlier in the interview, Johnson had praised Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin for trying to “clean up” the commonwealth’s voter rolls, only to be sued by the Justice Department.
“Look, Glenn Youngkin in Virginia, I was going to say, he issued an executive order to clean up their voting rolls heading into the election,” Johnson said in the cut portion. “[The] Biden-Harris administration sued the governor and the state, the Commonwealth of Virginia, to try to prevent them from cleaning up their voter rolls.”
“That kind of thing creates a lot of doubt and concern in the minds of a lot of the American people.”
In the final cut section, Johnson discussed his visit to areas of North Carolina hit by Hurricane Helene.
“When I was there 13 days, post … the storm hitting that state, people are still being rescued,” the Louisianan had said. “They’re stuck in the higher elevations, in the mountains, because the roads are down and all the rest.”
It is common practice in TV news to edit down prerecorded interviews to improve pacing and comply with time restraints.
“Face the Nation” had invited journalists to call in and listen to Johnson’s full interview with Brennan when it was taped earlier Sunday morning
The host also responded Tuesday by noting that CBS News had published a full, unedited transcript of the Johnson interview Sunday, after the show went off the air.
Johnson’s claim comes after another CBS News program, “60 Minutes,” was accused of editing an interview with Harris that aired Oct. 8 to cast her in a more favorable light.
One edit in particular that stoked the Trump campaign’s ire was one of Harris’ responses to a question about Israel.
“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,” Harris told interviewer Bill Whitaker in a preview clip shared ahead of the interview.
During the prime-time broadcast, Harris’ answer was cleaned up: “We are 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.”
CBS News declined to comment on the record about Johnson’s allegations.
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