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Bari Weiss' CBS News Spiked Interview Question on Trump Crypto ‘Corruption’
"According to the standard set by the Trump FCC, Trump's efforts to control the interview content "could qualify as news distortion and deserve an investigation," according to a spokesperson for the only Democratic FCC commissioner.
Nov 04, 2025
As its new right-wing leadership comes under scrutiny, CBS News was found to have edited out a section from the extended online version of Sunday's "60 Minutes" interview with President Donald Trump in which he was interrogated about potential "corruption" stemming from his family's extraordinary cryptocurrency profits during his second term.
In the first half of 2025, the Trump family raked in more than $800 million from sales of crypto assets, according to Reuters, and the volatile digital currencies now make up the majority of Trump's personal net worth. His administration, meanwhile, has sought to aggressively deregulate the assets, leading to allegations of self-dealing.
Near the end of his appearance on "60 Minutes," anchor Norah O'Donnell asked Trump about his decision last month to pardon Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges in 2023. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump's pardon came "following months of efforts by Zhao to boost the Trump family’s own crypto company,” by helping to facilitate an Emirati fund's $2 billion purchase of a stablecoin owned by World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture backed by the Trump family.
A clip of the extended interview, posted to CBS's website and YouTube channel, showed O'Donnell laying out the crimes for which Zhao was convicted. Trump responded: "I don't know who he is... I heard it was a Biden witch hunt."
"In 2025... Binance, helped facilitate a $2 billion purchase of World Liberty Financial's stablecoin," O'Donnell continued. "And then you pardoned [Zhao]. How do you address the appearance of pay for play?"
Trump then reiterated: "My sons are into it... I'm proud of them for doing that. I'm focused on this. I know nothing about the guy, other than I hear he was a victim of weaponization by government."
He was then shown launching into a lengthy defense of crypto, which he said was a "massive industry" that former President Joe Biden campaigned against, before going "all-in" on it at the very end of the election to win votes.
"I want to make crypto great for America," Trump was shown saying. "Right now, we're number one by a long shot. I wanna keep it that way. The same way we're number one with AI, we're number one with crypto. And I wanna keep it that way."
But a full transcript of the interview, later released on the CBS website, shows that the segment was heavily edited to omit much of Trump's response to O'Donnell's grilling. The version that appeared online did not include several instances in which he interrupted O'Donnell and pushed her to drop the line of questioning.
Rather than dropping the question after Trump's dodge, as the video posted online seemed to portray, O'Donnell persisted, asking Trump again: "So, not concerned about the appearance of corruption with this?”
Trump delivered a hesitant response: "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—."
O'Donnell interjected: "And you answered," to which Trump replied: "I don’t mind. Did I let you do it? I could’ve walked away. I didn’t have to answer this question. I’m proud to answer the question.”
He then concluded the interview by reiterating that America is "number one in crypto" and that "it's a massive industry."
It was not the only portion of the interview that Trump suggested the network could drop. In another moment—which was included in the extended video, but did not make air—Trump bragged that "'60 Minutes' paid me a lotta money," referencing CBS's widely criticized decision to settle a $16 million lawsuit with Trump over its editing of an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris as she ran for president in 2024.
"You don't have to put this on, because I don't wanna embarrass you, and I'm sure you're not—you have a great—I think you have a great, new leader," which likely referred to Bari Weiss, the "anti-woke" editor-in-chief installed by pro-Trump billionaire David Ellison after his purchase of CBS parent company Paramount.
As Deadline reported back in October, CBS Evening News was the only major news network program that did not mention Trump's pardon of Zhao at the time that it happened.
Jonathan Uriarte, the spokesperson for the only remaining Democratic commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), wrote on social media that "according to the standard set by the Trump FCC, Trump's efforts to control the content of his 60 Minutes interview "could qualify as news distortion and deserve an investigation."
He was referencing FCC Chair Brendan Carr's claims that he could strip away the broadcast licenses of outlets for what he called "distorted" news coverage, which has in practice meant coverage critical of Trump.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) chimed in as well, saying: "Maybe I should file a complaint with the FCC against the Trump White House for editing his unhinged '60 Minutes' interview. It will use the exact same language Trump lodged against Vice President Harris."
But others did not let CBS off the hook.
"Insane this isn't a bigger story or scandal," said Mehdi Hasan, founder of the media company Zeteo. "Just amazing that CBS could do this after paying Trump millions to settle his frivolous lawsuit complaining that they... did exactly this."
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New Levels of Corruption Feared as Trump Family Adds Gambling Business Atop of Crypto Grift
"The White House is a full-time, 24/7 corruption machine," said Sen. Chris Murphy.
Oct 29, 2025
President Donald Trump's family has long generated controversy and criticism for running a cryptocurrency business during his second term in office, and now they're adding an online betting business to their portfolio.
The Financial Times on Tuesday reported that the president's Truth Social platform is getting into the prediction market business to allow bettors to place wagers on the outcomes of elections, sports games, and other events.
The new "Truth Predict" betting market platform will be a partnership between the Trump Media and Technology Group and Crypto.com, a cryoptocurrency trading platform that in the past has donated millions to Trump causes.
According to the Financial Times, the Trump family in recent months has become more intertwined with the online betting industry, as Donald Trump Jr. has taken on "advisory roles at the two industry-leading prediction market companies, Kalshi and Polymarket."
Additionally, Trump Jr.'s venture capital firm has invested in Polymarket, which Wired reports has not operated in the US since 2022 when it reached an agreement with the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission to settle allegations that it operated an unregistered derivatives trading market.
Mike Masnick, a journalist at Techdirt, pointed out the glaring conflict of interest posed by the most powerful person in the world owning his own prediction market platform.
"So the company the president currently owns is teaming up with a cryptocurrency company to create a prediction market, which will take bets... on things the president himself has quite a lot of control over?" he wrote in a post on Bluesky. "Gosh, I'm sure nothing bad will happen."
The Trump family's entrance into the online betting market came on the same day that Reuters published an extensive report showing how the Trump family has used its cryptocurrency business to generate a massive increase in wealth in a matter of mere months.
According to Reuters' calculations, "the Trump Organization’s income soared 17-fold to $864 million from $51 million a year earlier," with more than 90% of this income coming from the Trump-backed cryptocurrency venture. Reuters also reported that the $800 million is just the actual income the Trump Organization has taken in so far, and that it has billions more in unrealized gains from the crypto venture.
Washington University law professor Kathleen Clark, who specializes in teaching government ethics, told Reuters it was obvious that investors in the Trump crypto venture were hoping to get some kind of favor from the government in exchange.
"These people are not pouring money into coffers of the Trump family business because of the brothers' acumen,” she said. “They are doing it because they want freedom from legal constraints and impunity that only the president can deliver."
Trump last week sparked corruption accusations when he pardoned cryptocurrency magnate Changpeng Zhao, whose company Binance has been a major booster to the Trump family's crypto business.
“Binance has been one of the main drivers of the growth of World Liberty’s dollar-pegged cryptocurrency, called USD1,”The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. “It delivered World Liberty’s first big break this spring when it accepted a $2 billion investment from an outside investor paid in USD1. Binance has also incentivized trading in USD1 across platforms it controls.”
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer (R-Tenn.), who for years investigated former President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, for his foreign business dealings, was asked by CNN host Jake Tapper if he would investigate the Trump family's crypto venture.
Comer indicated that he was fine with the Trump family's potentially corrupt money-making schemes because they were being done out in the open.
"We... are reading about this, we're trying to digest it," he said. "The difference between the way the Trump family's operating and the Biden family, is they're admitting they're doing this. The president campaigned as a business guy... as long as you disclose the income and disclose the sources, I think that's acceptable."
WATCH — @jaketapper: “The Trumps made $800 MILLION in crypto from foreign influence in half a year. Will you looking into that?”@RepJamesComer: “The difference is they’re open about (their corruption).” 🤔
TAPPER: *ZERO PUSHBACK* pic.twitter.com/QRMHPUZ0Iy
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) October 28, 2025
Critics of the president, however, said this hands-off approach to investigating the Trump family's business dealings was unacceptable.
Democratic operative David Axelrod wrote in a post on X that it is "kind of incredible that the House Oversight Committee is spending its time on Biden's auto pen but they won't touch how Trump has doubled his wealth in a year."
Axelrod also thought congressional investigators should be asking about "who's buying his meme coins," "the deals his kids are cutting all over the world," and "the gifted jet from Qatar."
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) argued that no president in US history has engaged in this level of corruption.
"Trump and his family’s crypto ventures are selling out our national security through sweetheart deals with money launderers, fraudsters, and foreign governments," he wrote on X. "The scale of this corruption—reaping more than $800 million and pardons for business partners—is unprecedented."
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) noted on Tuesday that Binance this week promoted sales of the Trump family's meme coin mere days after the president pardoned its founder.
"The White House is a full-time, 24/7 corruption machine," he said.
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Trump Pardons 'Comically Corrupt' Crypto Magnate Who Helped Boost His Meme Coin
"Most corrupt administration in history," said Sen. Patty Murray of the latest Trump pardon.
Oct 23, 2025
President Donald Trump on Thursday formally pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges in 2023.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the pardon, noted that it came "following months of efforts by Zhao to boost the Trump family’s own crypto company."
According to the Journal, Binance has been a major financial booster of World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture backed by the Trump family that has added an estimated $5 billion to their total wealth.
"Binance has been one of the main drivers of the growth of World Liberty’s dollar-pegged cryptocurrency, called USD1," the Journal reported. "It delivered World Liberty’s first big break this spring when it accepted a $2 billion investment from an outside investor paid in USD1. Binance has also incentivized trading in USD1 across platforms it controls."
Critics of the president hammered him for pardoning Zhao, whose company willfully flouted reporting requirements that allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers. As flagged by CBS News reporter Scott MacFarlane, prosecutors also found that Binance "critically undermined the effectiveness of US sanctions against Iran by providing its Iranian customers the ability to transact with the US customers."
Journalist Isaac Saul described Zhao as "comically corrupt" and said that his pardon would be "a monthslong scandal in any other normal administration" given the role Binance has played in boosting the Trump family's personal wealth.
Tommy Vietor, co-host of the Pod Save America podcast, was aghast at the brazenness of Trump's latest actions.
"Binance willfully failed to report transactions on its platform by al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad," he wrote on X. "But then Trump's crypto company made a multibillion-dollar deal in partnership with Binance, so Trump gave the founder a pardon. Shockingly brazen corruption."
Chuck Todd, the former host of NBC News' "Meet the Press," demanded that Republicans in Congress start doing their jobs and investigate the president's pardons.
"I know the GOP’s tolerance for government corruption has never been higher, but the obvious pay-to-play pardon scam for Trump family business partner Changpeng Zhao must make some elected GOPer squeamish," he said. "A normal functional congressional majority would do things like 'Oversight hearings' on what looks like obvious corrupt act like this one, and yet, cue the crickets."
Several Democratic politicians pounced on Trump's latest pardon, which they called evidence of unprecedented corruption.
"Make Trump rich and he'll gladly pardon you for your crimes," wrote Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). "Most corrupt administration in history. Meanwhile, he doesn't give a damn if you can't afford healthcare next year."
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) argued that pardoning Zhao "rewards corruption" and said it makes the Trump administration "look like a RICO organized crime enterprise."
Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) expressed fury that the president would feel emboldened to pardon a criminal who helped boost his own net worth by billions of dollars.
"Trump got paid," he wrote. "And in exchange, he is rewarding a criminal who will use his new freedom to make every single American less safe. Get furious. I sure as hell am, and wish we had a single Republican who was willing to support ANY oversight."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also demanded congressional Republicans do their jobs and act as a check on the executive branch—and she warned them of political consequences if they failed to do so.
"If Congress does not stop this kind of corruption, it owns it," she said.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) noted that Trump, who commuted the prison sentence of notoriously corrupt former Rep. George Santos (D-NY) less than a week ago, seems to have a soft spot for wealthy white-collar criminals.
"Trump’s pardons and embrace of fraudsters—all to support his corruption—is just outrageous," she said. "So much for Republicans as the so-called party of 'law and order.' Insurrectionists, fraudsters, criminals—oh my."
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