President Donald Trump unloaded on former 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley during a podcast interview that aired shortly after CBS News terminated the veteran journalist for publicly challenging network brass.
“I think Scott Pelley’s got his own problems, he’s terrible,” Trump told New York Post columnist Miranda Devine on the podcast “Pod Force One.” The president, who has a long history of attacking media figures, added: “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.” Mediaite first flagged the remarks.
CBS fired Pelley after he delivered a blistering critique of leadership during a Monday staff meeting. Pelley called the current 60 Minutes executive producer, Nick Bilton, unqualified for the role and accused CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss of trying to “murder” the storied Sunday night program.
Bilton informed staff of Pelley’s dismissal late Tuesday. In a memo obtained by multiple outlets, Bilton wrote that he had “made repeated attempts to have direct conversations with [Pelley] over the weekend, and this afternoon I tried to find common ground. That was not the path Scott chose.” He expressed regret that the incident disrupted his planned address to the team about the show’s future.
Pelley’s ouster is part of a broader shake-up at CBS News as parent company Paramount Skydance pushes through sweeping changes. Paramount owner David Ellison, a Trump ally, has been steering the network in a new direction. Pelley argued that Bilton had “slender” qualifications and that Weiss “does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.”
The firing adds to a growing list of high-profile departures from CBS, including Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, both of whom accused the network of censoring their reporting. Trump has frequently used such internal turmoil to bash mainstream media as hostile to conservative viewpoints.
The president’s latest broadside comes as he continues to reshape the political landscape, including floating a potential Vance-Rubio ticket for 2028 and pushing Congress for rapid action on infrastructure. Meanwhile, Trump’s America 250 plan has sparked division as the nation approaches its semiquincentennial.
Pelley, a former anchor of the CBS Evening News, had been a fixture at the network for decades. His abrupt exit signals the intense internal battles at CBS as it navigates leadership changes and accusations of editorial interference.
