Scott Pelley has covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait, spent nights in foxholes and won 51 Emmy Awards. He was fired from 60 Minutes last Tuesday. A day later, Donald Trump called him a stiff who doesn’t care about the country. Pelley eventually heard those comments for the first time and brought up the foxholes.
The podcast remarks were made the day Pelley was fired, though Trump apparently did not know the firing had already happened.
“I think Scott Pelley’s got his own problems. He’s terrible,” Trump told Miranda Devine on Pod Force One. “Look, Scott Pelley’s a stiff and he’s afraid and he’s part of this, you know, gang of crooked, stupid people that don’t care about our country.”
🔥NEW: Trump *TORCHES* Scott Pelley🔥
“I think Scott Pelley’s got his own problems. He’s terrible. Look, Scott Pelley’s a stiff — and he’s afraid. And he’s part of this gang of crooked, stupid people that don’t care about our country.” pic.twitter.com/IGFRtSig0j
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) June 3, 2026
Those comments reached Pelley during his first post-firing interview, when New York Times journalist Lulu Garcia-Navarro read them to him. He had not heard them before that moment.
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“I’m surprised that the president of the United States would bother to notice,” Pelley said, before asking to hear the full quote.
Once he heard it, one part of the comments clearly stood apart from the rest.
“Stupid? I can take that. Stiff? Yeah, probably. ‘Don’t care about the country?'”
He stopped for a moment before continuing.
“I’ve never worn the uniform. But I’ve been in combat for this country, in Afghanistan and Iraq, Kuwait. I’ve been shot at, spent nights in foxholes filling up with water in the desert. I’m not aware that the president of the United States has ever done any of those things for his country. Please correct me if I’m wrong.”
Trump received five military deferments during the 1960s, four for academic reasons and one for bone spurs. No correction has been forthcoming.
Pelley also became emotional while explaining why that part of Trump’s criticism landed differently.
“You become a journalist because you love the First Amendment. You become a journalist because you love the country. And while all the other descriptions that the president used about me might be applicable, not that one. There is no democracy without journalism. It can’t be done. That is why I am a journalist.”
The circumstances surrounding the firing added another layer to Sunday’s interview.
Pelley was terminated by new 60 Minutes executive producer Nick Bilton the day after a staff meeting in which he accused CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss of “murdering 60 Minutes” and said Bilton had “slender qualifications for this job.”
In his formal statement after the firing, Pelley kept the same criticism aimed at the institution.
“Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration,” he wrote.
Skydance’s pending $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery still requires federal government approval. Former GOP adviser Steve Schmidt looked at the situation and offered his own conclusion.
“Since the purchase of CBS News by the Ellison family, another word belongs on the list: Sabotaged.”
Pelley also called for Weiss to be removed and described CBS News as currently on fire.
“My hope is that the leadership of Paramount will say to themselves, ‘This isn’t working. We have respected journalists saying that there is a thumb on the scale for one political party over another,'” he said. “We can save this. It’s possible to land this plane. But right now, CBS News is on fire.”
Featured image via YouTube screengrab
