Viewers of President Donald Trump's latest network interview missed much of what he said, and a progressive political analyst says that helped him.
David Pakman said on Wednesday's episode of "The David Pakman Show" that CBS News' "60 Minutes" cut about half of its recorded interview with the president, including Trump's insistence that the 2020 election was "rigged." The edits, Pakman argued, made Trump "look a lot less crazy, even though he still looked nuts in the interview."
The interview, which aired Sunday, was conducted by Ross Douthat, a conservative New York Times columnist who Pakman noted joined CBS under Bari Weiss, the network's editor in chief. Pakman said the broadcast segment ran about 27 minutes with narration and transitions included, while the full recording ran about 52 minutes.
Pakman walked through a side-by-side edit from Decoding Fox News that shows the aired footage in color and the removed footage in black and white. In one exchange, Trump answered a question about the biggest obstacle to peace in Ukraine by pointing to the "hatred" between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin. What viewers didn't see, Pakman said, was Trump drifting from there into his 2020 election grievances.
"They are making Trump look less unhinged and more coherent by removing that," Pakman said.
He added that the network also cut Trump's rambling about an upcoming meeting and trimmed an exchange about arming Ukraine in which Trump made "wacky claims" about former President Barack Obama.
"What they broadcast on TV was this tight answer that makes it seem as though Trump is staying on topic when he isn't, and this happened throughout the interview," Pakman said.
The analyst acknowledged that "60 Minutes" routinely edits interviews and that he doesn't know the reason behind every cut, noting some may have been requested by Trump's camp.
"But the effect of these edits is Trump doesn't seem like he's rambling as much. Trump doesn't seem like he's lying as much," he said.
Pakman contrasted the edits with Trump's lawsuit over the network's October 2024 interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, which Trump branded election interference. Trump also suggested CBS should lose its broadcast license. Pakman noted Paramount settled in July 2025 for $16 million without admitting wrongdoing while it sought federal approval for its merger with Skydance.
As part of that settlement, Pakman said, Paramount agreed to release transcripts of future presidential candidate interviews, and CBS posted the extended Trump interview on YouTube.
"It wasn't hidden," Pakman said. "But we now see damn Trump really benefited from the edit."
He then turned the president's own argument back on him.
"So if editing an interview is election interference, when CBS does it to Kamala Harris, what is it when they do it to Trump's interview?" Pakman asked. "Funny how that works, isn't it?"