Donald Trump’s contentious interview with veteran “60 Minutes” host Lesley Stahl, as well as Joe Biden’s less eventful sit-down, scored the show its largest audience since 2018.
Variety: The dual Biden and Trump interviews, the latter of which the President cut short, drew a total of 16.8 million total viewers on CBS and scored a 2.4 rating among adults 18-49, per Nielsen time adjusted fast national numbers.
That represents the most viewers to tune in since the infamous Stormy Daniels interview from March two years ago.
During the Trump interview, Stahl grilled the President on his coronavirus response.
The strong “60 Minutes” performance was likely due in part to the fact it was pre-empted by an NFL game.
However, it still managed to put up those impressive numbers up against “Sunday Night Football” and the World Series.
“We had prepared to talk about the many issues and questions facing the president,” host Lesley Stahl said in a clip before the interview. “But in what has become an all-too-public dust-up, the conversation was cut short. It began politely, but ended, regrettably, contentiously.”
The interview began with Stahl asking whether Trump was comfortable with “tough questions.” Trump replied that he wasn’t and told Stahl that he wanted her to be “fair.”
The interview became increasingly tense. Stahl challenged the president on issues including the coronavirus pandemic, his rhetoric at campaign rallies, and his unproven corruption accusations against Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Late in the interview, Trump complained that Stahl had “brought up a lot of subjects that were inappropriately brought up,” then once more objected to Stahl’s promise to ask him tough questions.
“Your first statement was ‘Are you ready for tough questions?’ That’s no way to talk,” he said.
A “60 Minutes” producer then said that only a few minutes remained in the interview.
Trump turned to his advisor Hope Hicks and said: “I think we have enough of an interview here, Hope. OK? That’s enough. Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go meet for two seconds, OK?”
He left the room. Stahl said she had “a lot of questions I didn’t ask” and waited to see whether the president would return. He did not.
Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, entered the room and gave Stahl a large book that she described as Trump’s “healthcare plan.”
The show later confirmed that the book was filled with existing executive orders and legislation enacted under Trump, as well as pages of a document called the America First Healthcare Plan.
Asked whether his tweets or name-calling turn people off, President Trump says: “I think I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have social media.”
Moments later, he abruptly ended the interview. https://t.co/I6zv8qogcF pic.twitter.com/JYfPYOWGym
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 26, 2020