Did the questions kamala harriss get asked on her 60 min interveiw get changed
Executive summary
CBS released an unedited transcript and video of its October 2024 “60 Minutes” interview with then–Vice President Kamala Harris after an FCC request; that release shows the program aired parts of Harris’s longer reply in different places, which critics said looked like changing answers, but investigators and fact-checkers found no evidence CBS substituted answers from another interview to alter meaning (see CBS/FCC release and Reuters coverage) [1] [2]. PolitiFact and Skeptics Stack Exchange explain that the full response combined two sentences that were shown separately across programs, which created the appearance of edited inconsistency [3] [4].
1. What actually happened on air: different slices of the same interview
CBS aired a “60 Minutes” segment and also had released teasers and footage that presented parts of Harris’s answer on related programs; the unedited footage later published by CBS and the FCC shows Harris’s full reply consists of multiple sentences, with the first sentence appearing on one program and the subsequent sentence appearing in the “60 Minutes” broadcast — giving viewers two different short clips from the same continuous answer [4] [1].
2. Why critics said answers were “changed”
Conservative commentators and then-candidate Donald Trump argued CBS “replaced” Harris’s original answer with a different one to make her look better; the claim focused on a particular exchange about U.S. influence over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where a teaser clip and the broadcast showed different short takes, prompting accusations of deliberate substitution [5] [2].
3. What fact‑checking and official records show
PolitiFact reviewed the unedited transcript and video released by CBS and the FCC and concluded that the network did not replace answers with “completely different” replies from another interview; rather, the full answer is the two sentences together, and the edited broadcasts juxtaposed different parts of that same answer [3] [6]. Reuters reported the FCC made the transcript and footage public and quoted officials noting CBS played the same question on two different programs and that the answers shown in those airings were different slices of the full reply [2].
4. How editing choices create impressions of manipulation
Journalistic editing routinely condenses long answers; when shows run teasers, promos, or excerpts on sister programs, selecting different contiguous fragments can change tone or apparent coherence. Skeptics Stack Exchange and other outlets explain that showing the first sentence in one context and the second sentence in another made Harris’s full reply read as two distinct, inconsistent responses, which fueled claims of manipulation even though the material came from the same recorded session [4] [7].
5. Competing narratives and agendas in the coverage
Conservative outlets and social posts framed the difference as evidence of deliberate media protection for a Democratic candidate, an account embraced by Trump’s public statements and his lawsuit against CBS [5] [2]. CBS and supporters argued the unedited materials show no fabrication; the FCC’s publication of the full footage was itself prompted by legal pressure and public dispute, and Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said the materials provided no evidence of rule violations by CBS [2] [1].
6. What the released transcript actually shows — concrete example
The transcript and unedited video posted by CBS and made public via the FCC contain the full exchange: the sentence that aired on “Face the Nation” and a following sentence that aired on “60 Minutes” are contiguous in the complete footage, meaning the network excerpted different parts of the same answer rather than inserting a different answer from elsewhere [1] [4].
7. Limits of current reporting and remaining questions
Available sources do not mention internal CBS editorial deliberations beyond public statements and released footage; they document the slices aired and the full unedited material but do not provide internal memos or private rationales explaining why producers chose those specific excerpts [1] [4]. That gap leaves room for competing interpretations: one that treats the discrepancy as routine editing and another that sees selective excerpting as enabling misleading impressions [3] [5].
8. Bottom line for readers
The documented record released by CBS and the FCC shows the differing on‑air answers came from different parts of the same recorded reply, not from a substitute answer from another interview, according to fact‑checkers and the unedited transcript; however, editorial choices about which sentence to present where created the appearance of inconsistency and fed partisan claims that the network was protecting a candidate [3] [2].