Mike Huckabee is unhappy with how a recent interview with CBS News was edited, insisting that the network made changes to “give you a different story than the one they had.”
On Aug. 7, Huckabee, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, spoke to the network’s Debora Patta about whether the country is committing genocide in Gaza. When asked about reports that the Palestinian population is starving to death, Huckabee answered: “Oh, I think that there are certainly people suffering in Gaza. It’s happening because Hamas has not allowed the food to get to the people who are hungry.”
After Patta said CBS “spoke to the World Food Program” and that the organization has “not shown evidence” of food theft by Hamas, Huckabee added, “I’m shocked they would say that.”
He then touted the work of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a Donald Trump-endorsed non-profit founded in February that has been tasked with distributing aid to Palestinians. “The GHF sites are effective and they are getting food to people. It’s not perfect, but it’s doing what President Trump required us to ask us to do that was set up through GHF,” Huckabee said.
“Get food to people but in a way that Hamas can’t do it. But GHF has no ability to verify who is getting that food. How do we know that those people aren’t from Hamas? You can’t absolutely guarantee that they’re not. But there’s zero verification process.”
In July, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) director of philanthropy Hani Almadhoun told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes that GHF is made up of “mercenaries who are hired with big pay and brought into Gaza to shoot the people who are being starved.”
The narrative Huckabee suggested on Friday is also reminiscent of Trump’s October 2024 claims that CBS edited an interview with presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Trump specifically insisted the network intentionally edited her response to a question about Gaza and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Paramount eventually reached a $16 million settlement with Trump over the lawsuit, covering both plaintiffs’ fees and costs as well as a donation that will be allocated to a future presidential library. Going forward, “60 Minutes” will also “release transcripts of interviews with eligible U.S. presidential candidates after such interviews have aired, subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns.”
However, while Trump also claimed the network will be airing PSAs to combat deceptive editing, CBS refuted that detail and was not forced to apologize.
