CBS News Cut a Telling Trump Quote from His Recent TV Interview

There is not a lot to say about the farcical interview that the president gave to Norah O’Donnell. Yes, there were more than a few softballs dished up. Yes, the president lied and blustered and then lied again. But the abiding impression conveyed by the session was the fact that it was a perfect view of the way CBS News is circling the drain. Remember when the network caved to the president to the tune of $16 million rather than fight a preposterous case regarding CBS having edited an interview with Kamala Harris? He surely has no objection to the way CBS edited his 70-plus minutes with O’Donnell down to a manageable 28. CBS, however, was broad-minded enough to release a full-text transcript, and here’s part of what they cut out.

NORAH O’DONNELL: This is a question about pardons. The Trump family is now perhaps more associated with cryptocurrency than real estate. You and your son—your sons, Don Jr. and Eric, have formed World Liberty Financial with the Witkoff family.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Right.

NORAH O’DONNELL: Helping to make your family millions of dollars. It’s in that context that I do wanna ask you about crypto’s richest man, a billionaire known as C.Z. He pled guilty in 2023 to violating anti-money laundering laws.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Right.

NORAH O’DONNELL: Looked at this, the government at the time said that C.Z. had caused “significant harm to U.S. national security,” essentially by allowing terrorist groups like Hamas to move millions of dollars around. Why did you pardon him?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Okay, are you ready? I don’t know who he is. I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt. And what I wanna do is see crypto, ’cause if we don’t do it it’s gonna go to China, it’s gonna go to—this is no different to me than AI. My sons are involved in crypto much more than I—me. I—I know very little about it, other than one thing. It’s a huge industry. And if we’re not gonna be the head of it, China, Japan, or someplace else is. So I am behind it 100 percent. This man was, in my opinion, from what I was told, this is, you know, a four-month sentence. But this man was treated really badly by the Biden administration. And he was given a jail term. He’s highly respected. He’s a very successful guy. They sent him to jail and they really set him up. That’s my opinion. I was told about it.

I can’t say, because—I can’t say—I’m not concerned. I don’t—I’d rather not have you ask the question. But I let you ask it. You just came to me and you said, “Can I ask another question?” And I said, yeah. This is the question. I don’t mind. Did I let you do it? I coulda walked away. I didn’t have to answer this question. I’m proud to answer the question. You know why? We’ve taken crypto—Excuse me. We’re number one in crypto in the whole world. Other people wanna be. They’re fighting like hell to be. But we’re number one in crypto because I’m the president. Biden wanted to also, at the very end, you know, he totally switched his thing.

The C.Z. pardon stinks to the ionosphere above heaven. Even some Republicans found it rank, but not rank enough that they didn’t move to kill a Democratic attempt to condemn it. CBS chose to bury this mendacious—and barely coherent—defense of what is clearly a corrupt use of the pardon power designed to help his two spalpeens get rich on funny money. Walter would’ve been so proud.