(Reuters) – The White House on Thursday released raw footage from U.S. President Donald Trump’s contentious interview with “60 Minutes” reporter Lesley Stahl, breaking an agreement to keep the material private until an edited version could air this weekend.
“Look at the bias, hatred and rudeness on behalf of 60 Minutes and CBS,” Trump said in post on his Twitter profile on Thursday morning, with a link to his Facebook page, where he posted the nearly 38 minute interview.
The Facebook post quickly gained attention, garnering more than 26,000 comments in less than two hours.
The White House had kept a single-frame copy of the interview, in which only Trump is visible but Stahl can be heard asking questions.
CBS News, a division of ViacomCBS Inc and the network that airs “60 Minutes,” blasted Trump’s “unprecedented decision” to disregard an agreement to keep the footage private, but said the move would not defer the show “from providing its full, fair and contextual reporting which presidents have participated in for decades.”
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
