CBS News defended on Tuesday its “Face the Nation” interview with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, saying it abided by its editorial standards after the federal department alleged CBS tried to “whitewash” Noem’s comments on migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
The network said it consolidated its interview with Noem to fit its broadcast time slot, and it published the full transcript of the exchange shortly afterward along with the entire interview on YouTube.
“Secretary Noem’s ‘Face The Nation’ interview was edited for time and met all CBS News standards,” representatives for the network said in a statement. “The entire interview is publicly available on YouTube, and the full transcript was posted early Sunday morning at CBSNews.com.”
The statement came two days after the Department of Homeland Security claimed Sunday that CBS News failed to air her entire remarks on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an undocumented immigrant who the Trump administration wrongly deported in March and has since tried to remove from the country.
It alleged that instead of broadcasting Noem’s comments — where she accused Garcia of being a “known human smuggler,” a “MS-13 gang member” and “a wife beater,” among other things — it aired a condensed version of them that stripped all of her claims.
“SHAMEFUL: CBS attempts to whitewash the TRUTH about MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” the department posted on X on Sunday alongside a clip featuring the uncut and aired versions of the interview. “WATCH for the truth.”
“Prosecution decisions are always made by the Department of Justice and in Pam Bondi’s department, so we will let them do that,” she said on the Aug. 31 broadcast. “Although this individual does have criminal charges pending. He has charges pending against him civilly as well, and the one thing that we will continue to do is to make sure that he doesn’t walk free in the United States of America.”
TheWrap was directed to the DHS statement from Sunday upon request for comment.
The accusation came more than a month after CBS News’ parent company, Paramount Global, secured approval from the Federal Communications Commission to merge with David Ellison’s Skydance Media.
The merger had been mired in regulatory limbo as the FCC, under chairman and Trump ally Brendan Carr’s control, investigated claims that a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris amounted to news distortion. Paramount also settled for $16 million Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit that claimed it illegally distorted the “60 Minutes” interview.
The FCC did not immediately respond to questions over whether it received any news distortion complaints over the interview.
