CBS News Faces Fire For Editing Speaker Johnson’s Interview

CBS News has faced substantial backlash for editing an interview with Republican Houser Speaker Mike Johnson. The Louisiana Republican took to social media, sharing clips of his full comments recorded by his team during the interview on “Face the Nation” and comparing those to what was actually aired by the news network on television.

Johnson pointed out that the network omitted significant chunks of his comments during his conversation with Host Margaret Brennan, leaving out critical contexts in his answers to key questions about topics such as Hurricane Helene and voter integrity initiatives. Notably, CBS News has already been criticized for editing Vice President Kamala Harris’ answers to make her sound more coherent in an interview with “60 Minutes,” suggesting bias.

“CBS has been under fire for selectively editing their interviews to PROMOTE Democrats and UNDERMINE Republicans. Yesterday, they chose to cut FIVE important minutes out of my nearly 15 minute interview. You can be the judge as to why. Stand by for the receipts,” Johnson said in a thread posted to X, while sharing clips juxtaposing his complete answers with the edited clips CBS aired.

Johnson added, “I recently traveled to NC and victims of Hurricane Helene told me nearly two weeks after landfall, the Biden-Harris Administration had STILL not provided them with all the resources they desperately needed. But CBS selectively edited OUT ENTIRELY this first-hand perspective.” Johnson’s full answers contained much more critical context.

“Apparently, CBS also doesn’t want you to hear about Virginia Gov. Youngkin, who is trying to clean the state’s voter rolls so non-American citizens can’t vote there. We need more states doing this, but the Biden-Harris Administration is SUING VIRGINIA and trying to STOP it,” he said, pointing out another example during the interview.

“The Biden-Harris Admin let millions of illegal aliens in our country. So, the House passed the SAVE Act to ensure only American citizens vote in American elections. CBS edited that out and focused on 2020 instead of immediate threats to election integrity,” in this instance, CBS cut well over a minute worth of insightful commentary from Johnson.

Brennan had asked Johnson why he wasn’t working with Governors around the country instead of trying to pass the SAVE Act. “Wait a minute. Wait, wait just a minute. It’s not me undermining it. It’s the actions of the Biden Harris administration. In some of these states, non citizens are not allowed to vote under federal law,” was the only portion of Johnsons’ response aired by CBS.

Johnson’s full comments included, “Wait a minute. Wait just a minute. It’s not me undermining it. It’s the actions of the Biden Harris administration. Some of these states, non citizens are not allowed to vote under federal law, but the states have prohibited we passed the Save act. You know, in the house the Save Act says you’ve got to have proof of citizenship before you register to vote, and Chuck Schumer and the Democrats blocked that in the Senate.”

The House speaker added, “We have to make sure the law is followed. And that is the whole point. That has always been the whole point for the Save act and all the measures that we’ve tried to ensure. I believe, by my count, we have about 16 million illegal aliens in the country since Mayorkas and Harris and Biden opened the border wide. And because of that, there’s concern, because those people are distributed all around the country, as you know, there’s concern some of those people will try to participate in the elections.”