FRIENDLY FIRE

MAGA-Curious CBS Boss Rushes to Oval Office for Interview With Loser Trump

Bari Weiss tapped her newest “60 Minutes” correspondent to grill the president about his party’s disastrous midterm losses.

CBS News boss Bari Weiss dispatched her newest 60 Minutes hire to interview President Donald Trump about his midterm election catastrophe.

Trump taped an interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Ross Douthat, the program announced on X Friday, alongside a photo of the two standing in the Oval Office.

“In his first sit-down interview since Tuesday’s election, President Donald Trump speaks with 60 Minutes’ Ross Douthat about the Republican losses in the midterms, congressional investigations, the wars in Iran and Ukraine, the economy and more,” the post reads.

The 80-year-old president appears to have taped the interview Friday morning: The White House schedule listed “a pre-tape interview” for 10:30 a.m. EST.

It seems to be no coincidence that Trump chose CBS for his first sit-down since voters resoundingly rebuked him in the midterms, given the network’s leadership under Weiss, the MAGA-friendly editor-in-chief appointed by Trump-friendly Paramount CEO David Ellison.

Ellison, a 43-year-old nepo baby billionaire who previously supported Democrats, gave $250,000 last year to a super PAC that backed late Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham—and then his sister Darline—according to Deadline.

Darline’s defeat on Tuesday handed Democrats the South Carolina Senate seat for the first time in decades, underscoring the backlash against Trump and his chosen candidates.

For Trump’s interview, Weiss, 42, passed over veteran 60 Minutes correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, Jon Wertheim, and Norah O’Donnell in favor of Douthat, the conservative former New York Times columnist who joined the newsmagazine in September.

Stahl, who was honored at the Daily Beast’s Power 100 luncheon Thursday, spoke candidly about the turmoil at CBS, revealing that she and her colleagues considered quitting in protest after Weiss fired several longtime staffers.

exclusive

HOLD THE LINE

‘60 Minutes’ Legend Reveals Why She Stayed at Trumpy Network

Laura Esposito

Douthat, 46, has been critical of Trump in the past, and earlier this week portrayed the midterms as a failure of “the New Right” in a column for The Free Press, the right-leaning news and opinion site founded by Weiss.

Whether Douthat will press Trump with the kind of pointed questions that prompted the president to blow up at O’Donnell during his last 60 Minutes appearance in April remains to be seen.

Play Video

During that interview, the thin-skinned president called O’Donnell a “disgrace” and said, “You’re horrible people.”

Trump has appeared remarkably unfazed by the GOP’s historic losses, a reaction that may be explained by a Truth Social post Thursday evening in which he declared, “I JUST WASN’T ON THE BALLOT. IF I WERE, WE WOULD HAVE WON IN A LANDSLIDE!”

WHOLE NEW WHITE HOUSE

Trump Axes Wiles and Promotes Top Aide in White House Purge

Farrah Tomazin

Nevertheless, heads are beginning to roll at the White House, with Trump announcing Friday that chief of staff Susie Wiles is leaving the administration and her controversial deputy, Stephen Miller, will take her place.

The Daily Beast has reached out to both CBS and the White House for comment.

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Erkki ForsterNight News Reporter

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.