(The Hill) -- "60 Minutes" offered a lengthy on-air explanation to viewers Monday for why former President Donald Trump declined to participate in the program's traditional interviews it has with presidential candidates ahead of the election.
The news program addressed the cancellation ahead of an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), as part of a prime-time special. In its opening segment, Scott Pelley, who was set to interview Trump for the same special, went into a detailed timeline about how Trump's campaign at first agreed to appear and then pulled out.
"It’s been a tradition for more than half a century that the major party candidates sit down with '60 Minutes' in October," Pelley said.
Pelley said the Trump campaign and "60 Minutes" had agreed to a sit-down at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last Thursday. The two sides had also agreed that "60 Minutes" would join Trump at his campaign rally last Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, at the site where he was grazed by a bullet in a July assassination attempt.
"A week ago, Trump backed out," Pelley said. "The campaign offered shifting explanations. First, it complained that we would fact-check the interview. We fact-check every story."
"Later, Trump said he needed an apology for his interview in 2020," Pelley continued, citing a contentious interview during that campaign in which Trump sparred with Lesley Stahl over Hunter Biden's laptop.
The news program's questions for Trump were focused on the economy, immigration, reproductive rights and wars abroad, Pelley said. He noted that with no additional debates on the calendar, Monday night's program could have been one of the largest audiences for Trump before Election Day.
"Both campaigns understood this special would go ahead if either candidate backed out," Pelley said.
Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung had previously insisted no interview was ever "locked in."
“60 Minutes begged for an interview, even after they were caught lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop back in 2020,” Cheung said when it was first announced Trump would not join the program. “There were initial discussions, but nothing was ever scheduled or locked in.”
"They also insisted on doing live fact-checking, which is unprecedented," he added.
When asked for comment about Monday's broadcast, Cheung also pointed to a post of his on X from Oct. 1 when he claimed the campaign had already given an exclusive to another outlet to film Trump in Butler and that Trump could not have done the interview last Thursday because of a campaign event in Michigan.
