‘There’s no real evidence of that’: Donald Trump really didn’t like the time Leslie Stahl played the brassy David to his whining Goliath

Former President Donald Trump has a well-documented history of throwing tantrums when his fragile ego faces even the slightest challenge. His recent decision to duck out of a pre-election interview with 60 Minutes is just the latest example of his aversion to anything resembling accountability.

Sadly, Trump’s cowardly 60 Minutes snub spits on a proud half-century tradition of presidential nominees sitting down with the legendary CBS program before Americans cast their votes. 60 Minutes has hosted towering figures like JFK and Ronald Reagan, grilling them with hard-hitting questions that reveal the mettle of those who would lead the free world. Apparently that’s too much to ask of the bone spur draft dodger.

While Vice President Kamala Harris did speak with correspondent Bill Whitaker, Trump’s handlers clearly feared he would once again faceplant like he did in last month’s debate debacle, which even fawning right-wing pundits couldn’t spin as anything but a Harris rout. 60 Minutes announced the cancellation on X/Twitter, stating that while the “grand wizard” (the one despised by Hocus Pocus witch Bette Midler) had initially accepted the invitation, his campaign later decided not to participate. The show, however, made it clear that the invitation still stood. 

The Former President better not hold his breath waiting for flowers and a muffin basket, or even his favorite—Filet-O-Fishes— as an apology at Mar-a-Lago, though. The pouty demand for a “sorry” comes from his last 60 Minutes trainwreck in 2020. Trump’s beef was the program’s refusal to peddle the preposterous Hunter Biden laptop conspiracy theory, which he touted as an “October surprise” to smear his opponent Joe Biden.

Hunter Biden served on the board of Burisma Holdings, a major Ukrainian natural gas company, from 2014 to 2019. During this period, Joe Biden was actively involved in U.S. policy toward Ukraine, including efforts to press the country to crack down on corruption. Critics, including Trump, have suggested that Hunter’s position at Burisma was a conflict of interest, given his father’s role in U.S. policy toward Ukraine. They insinuate that Hunter was leveraging his father’s position to benefit financially. Trump claimed that Hunter received $3.5 million from Elena Baturina, a Russian billionaire and the widow of Yury Luzhkov, who was the mayor of Moscow from 1992 to 2010. This claim, though, has been widely debunked.

During the interview, when veteran journalist Lesley Stahl calmly pointed out that the fishy allegations couldn’t be verified before the election, Trump unfurled his usual Twitter-tantrum. Facts never penetrate his fortress of delusion anyways. Like David slaying Goliath, Stahl’s slingshot of truth hit the billionaire right between his beady eyes, and thus he ended the interview prematurely.

Nursing his wounded pride, Trump now wants his pound of flesh: “First I want to get an apology…They said the laptop from hell was from Russia. And I said it wasn’t from Russia, it was from Hunter, and I never got an apology,” he whined in a press conference on Oct. 8, 2024. This from the bleach-injecting birther who howled “fake news” at any story that exposed his titanic incompetence.

The bully also chickened out of a proposed third debate with Harris, which he pouted was “too late.” Too late indeed, now that pop goddess Taylor Swift has unleashed her star power to turbocharge the Harris juggernaut while Trump limps along touting endorsements from the likes of disgraced Hercules and Hulk Hogan. If the self-proclaimed “ratings machine” wilts under anything tougher than a Sean Hannity tongue bath, maybe the Oval Office is too big a job for such a small, small man.