Johnson accuses CBS of 'selectively editing' his interview, new blow amid '60 Minutes' controversy

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday accused CBS News of cutting critical parts of his answers during a Sunday appearance on "Face the Nation," as part of an effort to "undermine Republicans." 

The criticism comes after multiple Republican politicians urged the network to release the full unedited transcripts of Vice President Kamala Harris's appearance on "60 Minutes" last week, after the vice president's answer in a clip promoting the interview differed from the answer in the full interview that aired.

News networks often trim interviews for timing purposes, but those edits do not usually include nixing important context or rearranging answers.

Johnson claimed that the network "selectively edited" portions of his responses related to the federal response to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, the SAVE Act, and Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin's efforts to remove noncitizens from voter rolls. 

"CBS has been under fire for selectively editing their interviews to PROMOTE Democrats and UNDERMINE Republicans," Johnson posted to X on Monday. "Yesterday, they chose to cut FIVE important minutes out of my nearly 15 minute interview. You can be the judge as to why."

He then shared multiple clips that his office appeared to film alongside CBS's recording, which showed the full responses to the interviewer's questions. The first was related to Hurricane Helene, which he accused the network of editing out his first-hand account of talking to voters who claimed that the Biden-Harris administration had not given them the resources they needed.

"So they've obligated some funds, but they've only distributed two percent," Johnson said in the answer that aired on CBS. "The rescue and recovery effort is still going on, and then we address the rest of it" 

But Johnson's more thorough response was: "So they’ve obligated some funds, but they’ve only distributed two percent. When I was there on the ground, and you should go, I mean bring the cameras and talk to the people there, they’ll tell you. Don’t take a politician’s word for this, or the administration’s word for this, talk to people there on the ground. They had not been provided the resources, almost two weeks after the storm, that they desperately needed. 

"And when I was there, 13 days post the storm hitting that state, people are still being rescued," he continued. "They are stuck in the higher elevations and the mountains because the roads are down… they need every available resource and all hands on deck. The rescue and recovery effort is still going on, and then we address the rest of it."

In the second, he highlighted the administration's response to Youngkin's removal of noncitizens from voter rolls. 

"Here’s the problem, there is a number of states that are not requiring proof of citizenship when illegals or non-citizens register to vote. We know that’s happening," the speaker said in the full clip. "Look, Glenn Youngkin in Virginia, I was going to say, he issued an executive order to clean up the voting rules heading into the election. 

"Less than 30 days out, a couple of days ago, the ... Biden administration's Department of Justice… sued the governor and the commonwealth of Virginia to try to prevent them from cleaning up their voter rolls," he continued. "See, that kind of thing creates a lot of doubt and concerns in the minds of the American people. Why would they do that? We want, everybody should want the law to be followed."

Johnson accused CBS in the final clip of focusing on his response regarding the 2020 election, instead of the Biden administration's border policies that prompted the House to pass the SAVE Act. 

The network was once home to giants in journalism, including Walter Cronkite, Edward Murrow, and Mike Wallace. But recent scandals have marred CBS's good name, including the Harris debacle, the network's claim its moderators would not fact-check the vice presidential candidates during its debate and then pushing back on Ohio Sen. JD Vance's answers, and the leak of a memo from its director of standards and practices, who reportedly told reporters not to refer to Jerusalem as being in Israel.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage