Sunday’s 60 Minutes kicked off with Lesley Stahl’s 13-minute interview with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who’s quitting in January. CBS played up the anti-Trump angle, as expected:
Marjorie Taylor Greene says Republicans "terrified to step out of line" when it comes to Trump
Naturally, Stahl was eager to know what nasty things Republican members of Congress say about Trump behind his back. But the most amusing part came when Stahl attacked Greene over her lack of civility, an interesting take coming from nasty CBS. It's disorienting to hear Greene mocking other Republicans who started "kissing his ass" when Trump secured the GOP nomination in 2024.
Stahl proclaimed: “Greene has built her reputation on feisty combat and inflammatory insults, like calling President Joe Biden a "liar" during the 2023 State of the Union. It's been five years of almost constant drama, with her adding fuel to the nation's loss of civility.”
Wait. So from 2016 forward, the media elites convinced themselves that they all just must call Trump a “liar” on the front pages and the network newscasts. But when a Republican yells it at Biden, it’s “inflammatory”?
Stahl noted that Greene apologized for contributing to toxic talk in an interview on CNN, but "it became clear to us that she hasn't entirely lost her appetite for combat." So Stahl launched at her:
GREENE: It’s the most toxic political culture and it’s not helping the American people.
STAHL: But, you contributed to that! You! You were out there pounding, insulting people.
GREENE: Lesley, you’ve contributed to it as well with your —
STAHL: Me?
GREENE: Yes, you’re accusatory, just like you did just then.
STAHL: I know you’re accusing me, but I’m smiling —
GREENE: You’re accusing me!
STAHL: I am accusing you!
GREENE: But we don’t have to accuse one another.
STAHL: I want you to respond to what you have done in terms of insulting people, yelling at people, and then saying —
GREENE: I’d like for you to respond for that. No, you can respond for that.
STAHL: I don’t insult people.
GREENE: You do in the way you question. And you’re accusing me right now.
For us, Stahl is most notorious for telling Donald Trump you can't confirm that Hunter Biden's laptop was real, which wasn't so much an insult as a preposterous assertion. In our files, we have more examples of Stahl gushing over Jimmy Carter or Nancy Pelosi or other Democrats. But her questions can be insulting, like asking the Israeli ex-hostage in April a Hamas-sympathetic question: “Do you think they starved you or they just didn’t have food?”
We could cite this Stahl question to the Trump family on 60 Minutes just days after Trump won in 2016: “A lot of people are afraid. They’re really afraid. African Americans think there’s a target on their back. Muslims are terrified...Do any of you want to say anything about this fear that’s out there?”
But Greene was probably thinking of when Stahl interviewed her in 2023, when she brought a litany of insults -- but from other people. “We looked up some words that have been said about you,” Stahl informed her. Among the list of words were apparently “crazy,” “Q-clown,” “looney tune,” “unhinged,” and “moron.” Later, Stahl pointed out how “people say” Greene was “Trump in high heels.”
Stahl also insulted Greene when she gave a typical Republican answer on the budget, when she said Washington doesn't have a tax-revenue problem, it has a spending problem. Stahl shot back: "You know something, that's glib. That's glib. What does that mean? The two sides have to come together and hammer it out." (Translation: Raise taxes.)
And Stahl lost her mind back then when Greene said the Democrats were the "party of pedophiles." So again, let's point out that these days, leftists constantly argue that President Trump is a pedophile (over the Epstein scandal), but Stahl hasn't freaked out over that at all. All the "fact checking" goes one way, just like all the "civility checking" does.
PS: Stahl had a slightly fraught conversation with former network correspondent Jeff Greenfield over the 2023 MTG interview here.
