“60 Minutes” aired Sunday its report on Trump administration deportations that the show had abruptly pulled from its lineup a month earlier, CBS News said. The segment centered on migrants sent to El Salvador’s CECOT prison, and correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi reported internally that the removal was not an editorial decision but a political one.
The story broadcast Sunday did not reference Alfonsi’s dispute with CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, according to the Associated Press. The segment also included no on-camera interviews with Trump administration officials, though it did include statements from the White House and the Department of Homeland Security that Alfonsi said were not part of what she had used before her report was pulled.
Some of those statements, the AP reported, were dated prior to Dec. 21 and were carried in full on the “60 Minutes” website. Alfonsi said that “Since November, ‘60 Minutes’ has made several attempts to interview key Trump administration officials on camera about our story,” and that “They declined our requests.” She also said in an email that the administration’s refusal to consent to on-camera interviews was a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story.
CBS News, in a statement, said its leadership had “always been committed to airing the ”60 Minutes” CECOT piece as soon as it was ready.” The network said the segment would air that night, along with other stories, “all of which speak to CBS News’ independence and the power of our storytelling.”
On Sunday’s program, Alfonsi’s report was the second of three, with Cecilia Vega’s Minneapolis report on ICE enforcement efforts and protests to its tactics serving as the lead segment.
The controversy over the CECOT story began after critics said Weiss’ appointment represented an attempt by CBS’s new corporate leadership to curry favor with Trump. While the segment was removed from the broadcast in December, an earlier version became available online when CBS fed the newsmagazine to a Canadian partner that airs “60 Minutes,” allowing viewers to compare what Weiss had rejected with what aired later. The AP reported that the story’s body was unchanged, though Alfonsi updated the introduction and the ending for the Sunday broadcast.
In the version aired Sunday, the AP said the story included a brief clip of President Donald Trump saying the prison operators “don’t play games,” and a clip of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying that “heinous monsters, rapists, murderers, sexual assaulters, predators who have no right to be in this country” were sent there. Alfonsi also updated the introduction to lead with a Jan. 3 U.S. raid that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is currently held in U.S. custody.
The AP reported that Alfonsi changed the end of the story to include an administration comment explaining why it did not provide detailed records on the migrants sent to El Salvador. The administration also provided photos of tattoos worn by two migrants Alfonsi interviewed, including one swastika that an interviewee said he had gotten as a teenager without knowing what it meant.
The AP said the CBS-administration relationship has shifted since Weiss was appointed, with Trump administration officials becoming more visible on CBS News. It reported that President Donald Trump was interviewed by Norah O’Donnell on “60 Minutes” on Nov. 2, and that the New York Times previously reported that after Trump’s interview with new “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil, Leavitt told CBS, “we’ll sue your ass off” if the exchange was not aired in full.
CBS, the AP reported, told the Times it decided to run the interview unedited at the time it was booked, and it later showed the full 13-minute interview on Tuesday. The AP also said Trump has objected in the past to how his interviews have been edited, including by releasing an unedited transcript of a 2020 interview conducted by Lesley Stahl for “60 Minutes.”