The CBS news magazine "60 Minutes" has been on since 1968. Of course not every interview went
well. What led to a heated moment with Tom Cruise? What bizarre interactions did Mark
Zuckerberg have? Keep watching for the most awkward "60 Minutes" interviews.
The run-up to the 2020 Presidential Election was a strange time all-around,
from President Donald Trump's surprise COVID diagnosis to that fly on Mike Pence's head.
There was also Trump's strange interview on "60 Minutes," which saw the former president
walk off set and end the interview early, complaining about how hard the questions were.
CBS released footage of the confrontation, in which Lesley Stahl reminded Trump that
he had personally told her his use of the term "fake news" was an intentional attempt
to "discredit" the media. The president disputed her recounting of the facts. When
Stahl claimed she hadn't wanted to have an angry conversation, Trump disagreed.
He complained that his questions were harder than the ones "60 Minutes" had asked Joe Biden.
"I've seen all of his interviews. He's never been asked a question that's hard."
Eventually, Trump gave up on the interview and walked out.
"I think we have enough of an interview here, Hope. Okay, that's enough."
This kicked off a days-long back-and-forth between the Trump camp and the team over at
"60 Minutes," with both sides accusing each other of misrepresenting what had gone down.
In 2011, as Lady Gaga was gearing up for the release of her single "Born This Way,"
Anderson Cooper sat down with the superstar for "60 Minutes."
He spoke with her about how open she is with her fans. The interview took
a turn when Gaga seemed frustrated by a question about what she's "really" like.
"You've seen me with no makeup. You've asked about my drug history, my parents,
my bank account. I mean, how much more real could I be?"
In a segment that was cut from the broadcast but released online, Cooper then asked her to address
rumors that she, quote, "had a male appendage" and was "a hermaphrodite" — a term that has
most definitely fallen out of use over the past decade. She shot back in classic Gaga fashion:
"Maybe I do. Would it be so terrible? Why the hell am I gonna waste my time and give
a press release about whether or not I have a penis? My fans don't care and neither do I."
Despite the cringeworthy moment, it seems no love was lost;
Gaga joined Cooper on "60 Minutes" again a decade later to discuss her love for Tony Bennett.
Ahead of the release of his version of "War of the Worlds," a "60 Minutes Australia"
journalist named Peter Overton found himself on the receiving end of an unusual request:
before he could interview Tom Cruise, he had to attend an information session about Scientology.
Cruise is the highest-profile member of the infamous, controversial "religion,"
and he told Overton that it informs every aspect of his life as a father, actor, and businessman.
In Overton's words, the interview turned "cold" when he asked Cruise why he was made to attend
a "four-hour crash course in Scientology" before they spoke. After Cruise said the reporter could
have declined, he called Overton's questions about Scientology "appalling" and went on to
liken the treatment he receives as a Scientologist to a number of other things he finds "appalling,"
including the burning of synagogues and the plight of people living with drug addiction.
When Overton asked about Cruise's relationship with ex-wife Nicole Kidman, Cruise became "icy."
"So, I'm just telling you right now, okay? Just, put your manners back in."
They moved on to discussing the Spielberg-directed alien-invasion film,
but the specter of the awkward exchange lingered over the rest of the segment. In the end,
Cruise called the interview "terrific," flashed his million-dollar smile, and said:
"It's alright! You stepped out of line; I whacked you; we got on with it!"
As many of us remember, Bill Clinton's presidency was dogged by accusations
of infidelity and questions about the stability of his marriage to Hillary.
The allegations started before he was elected, while he was still Governor of Arkansas;
an erstwhile TV reporter named Gennifer Flowers claimed to have had an affair with Bill,
threatening to derail his presidential campaign. Their solution: a post-Super Bowl interview with
"60 Minutes," watched by an astounding 34 million viewers. Producer Frank Devine later recalled:
"It was interesting to be in the room. It was clear that there was some kind of
serious relationship between the two of them, that despite what had gone on, that they were a team."
During the tense interview, Hillary expressed how awkward it was to be
on television discussing intimate details of their marriage for public consumption.
"There isn't a person watching this who would feel comfortable
sitting on this couch detailing everything that ever went on in their life or their marriage."
About 40 minutes into the interview,
in an incident that didn't make it to air but was released online years later,
a light bar crashed down on the couch, sending the Clintons running for cover.
Devine noted:
"In some ways, after the light fell, everybody loosened up!"
Back in the early days of Facebook — before it was clear that Mark Zuckerberg's social-media empire
would wind up breaking the country — Zuckerberg gave an awkward interview to "60 Minutes."
What was otherwise a relatively-glowing profile turned somewhat strange as
Lesley Stahl compared Zuckerberg to Google founders Larry Page and
Sergey Brin. In response, he awkwardly remained silent, staring blankly into Lesley's eyes.
[Stares awkwardly]
"You're just staring at me."
"Is that a question?"
In voiceover, Stahl narrated the cringeworthy exchange with the
man tech journalist Kara Swisher called "the toddler CEO" for the audience. She revealed:
"We were warned that he can be awkward and reluctant to talk about himself."
Now, if only someone had warned us before we
watched that bizarre patriotic surf video on his Instagram.
When Jacinda Ardern was elected Prime Minister of New Zealand,
she captured the attention of the media for being a trailblazing politician in several ways:
though New Zealand had been governed by several female Prime Ministers in the past,
Ardern revealed she was pregnant shortly after taking office. She said upon announcing the news:
"I am not the first woman to work and have a baby. I know these are special circumstances,
but there are many women who have done it well before I have."
She appeared on "60 Minutes Australia" to discuss her momentous first few months in office,
and the interview turned extremely awkward as reporter Charles Wooley asked invasive questions
about when, precisely, she conceived the child. After asking for the baby's due date, Wooley said:
"It's interesting how much people have been counting back to the conception,
as it were. Why shouldn't a child be conceived during an election campaign?"
Both Ardern and her husband looked visibly uncomfortable,
laughing awkwardly and shaking their heads. Rolling her eyes, Ardern clarified:
"The election was done. Yup, yup, yup.”
“It was over.”
“The child is…”
“Not that we need to get into those details."
Wooley's post-interview voiceover included his observations of how,
quote, "smitten" he was with this "attractive" politician.
The interview caused a media firestorm in New Zealand. In response, Wooley told the NZ
Herald that the controversy was, quote, "a bit Orwellian, you know." He added:
"I think you got to be so careful with newspeak and thought crime and everything else."
As The Huffington Post reported, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was at one point the
Trump administration's most-hated Cabinet secretary. Senator Elizabeth Warren said:
"People come up to me to talk about Betsy DeVos.
I've never had this happen with any other Cabinet secretary."
DeVos appeared on "60 Minutes" a few months after a Consult/Politico poll
marked her with a -12% net favorability rating — the worst in the administration.
The interview was called a "trainwreck" by CNN analyst Chris Cillizza, who noted that
DeVos' answers on a wide-ranging list of topics from sexual assault to school choice
fell short of what a Secretary of Education should know about her field.
Journalist Lesley Stahl, looking exasperated, caught on to it quickly;
she told DeVos that her answers, quote, "[sound] like talking instead of acting."
DeVos then made the argument that schools actually improve when students leave them
and money gets taken away, which Stahl pressed her on, directly asking if public
schools in Michigan — DeVos' home state — had gotten better. To this, DeVos said:
"I can't say overall that they have all gotten better."
When Stahl asked if DeVos had visited schools that were doing poorly,
she seemed caught off-guard, stuttering as she admitted:
"I have not intentionally visited schools that are underperforming."
"Maybe you should."
"Maybe I should."
After the interview caused a firestorm of questions about her competency, CBS News reported:
"Administrative officials both inside and
outside of the White House regarded this interview as uneven and ill-prepared."
Baseball icon Roger Clemens' legacy was endangered in the 2000s by allegations of steroid use,
which Clemens claimed were untrue. In December 2007, he posted a video on his
personal website claiming that at that point he was, quote, "almost numb" to the accusations.
In an effort to clear his name, Clemens appeared on "60 Minutes",
but the resulting interview was tense and uncomfortable for all involved;
Clemens seemed visibly angry rather than numb. He even admitted:
"I'm angry that what I've done for the game of baseball and as a person in my private life,
what I’ve done... that I don't get the benefit of the doubt."
While Mike Wallace sat there silently, Clemens added:
"The stuff that's being said is ridiculous. It's hogwash. 24,
25 years, Mike, you'd think I'd get an inch of respect."
Wallace, however, had come prepared. He was armed
with quotes from the testimony of Clemens' former coach Brian McNamee,
who claimed to have personally injected Clemens with steroids. Clemens insisted:
"It never happened."
Wallace pressed him on the issue several times, finally asking him to swear on it.
"Swear?"
"Swear."
Though Clemens was cleared, Assistant United States Attorney Matt Parrella
told Forbes that the case was decided on a technicality, not on the evidence. He said:
"The only question is, did [Clemens and Barry Bonds] use steroids? The
evidence is incontrovertible. It's scientifically certain."
In 2015, then-President Barack Obama sat for an oddly-contentious interview with "60
Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft about his foreign policy successes and failures. From
the very beginning of the interview, Obama and Kroft seemed at odds with one another,
with the president immediately questioning Kroft's angle about why
ISIS had not been destroyed in the year since they'd spoken. Obama insisted:
"I didn't say it was going to be done in a year."
After a brief back-and-forth about what the question was exactly,
Kroft went on to insinuate that progress on the defeat of ISIS wasn't readily apparent,
and that, quote, "the only thing that's changed really is the death toll."
As the conversation went on, Kroft and Obama repeatedly interrupted and spoke over one
another. Kroft called Obama's handling of Syria, quote, "some sort of a serious miscalculation"
and "an embarrassment," and he pressed the President about his
response to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kroft insisted:
"He's challenging your leadership, Mr. President. He's challenging your leadership."
After finally allowing Obama to speak at length,
Kroft said he felt like he was being filibustered. Obama defended himself.
"If you ask me big, open-ended questions, expect big, open-ended answers."
In November 1979, America was gripped by news of what would later be called the Iran Hostage
Crisis, which saw 52 American diplomats and their families held inside the embassy in Tehran for 444
days. Elaine Kamarck, Founding Director of the Center for Effective Public Management, explains
that the crisis was the first time many Americans became aware of Iran, of Islam, and of terrorism.
In perhaps "60 Minutes'" most consequential interview, correspondent Mike Wallace traveled
to Iran amid the crisis to speak with the Ayatollah Khomeini, at the time the Supreme
Leader of Iran. The interview was controversial before it even aired, with President Jimmy
Carter — whose administration was embroiled in scandal over its handling of the tense
situation — trying to kill it. In a phone call with CBS News Chief William Leonard, Carter said:
"'60 Minutes' is a very important show, and this is a critical time in the history of our
country. We think it's very important for the country that you all don't run that program."
The segment with the Ayatollah did indeed run, and it was incredibly tense.
Wallace had to argue with the translator to get him to even relay certain questions,
including one where Wallace quoted Egyptian President Anwar Sadat,
who had called the Ayatollah "a lunatic." Khomeini called for Sadat to be overthrown.
"He calls upon the Egyptian people to overthrow Sadat?"
"He does."
"The way the Iranian people overthrew the Shah?"
"Exactly."
Anwar Sadat was later assassinated.
Controversial "Fox News" host Lou Dobbs' show was canceled in 2021,
in part because he peddled repeated lies about the 2020 election. Dobbs caused consternation
in the "60 Minutes" world in 2007 after he stuck to his guns about getting some basic facts wrong.
Dobbs, who had a show on CNN at the time, is above all else staunchly anti-immigration.
"60 Minutes" reporter Lesley Stahl highlighted inconsistencies in the reasoning Dobbs uses for
his stance. She narrated before playing a clip of a correspondent on Dobbs' show sharing blatantly
racist theories about immigrants bringing disease across the border:
"His critics say his advocacy can get in the way of the facts."
The correspondent, Christine Romans, incorrectly stated that there were 7,000 leprosy cases in
the United States in the preceding three years; a "60 Minutes" fact check revealed that the number
actually refers to the number of cases in the past 30 years. When Stahl pressed Dobbs on the factual
inaccuracy of his show, he awkwardly doubled down instead of admitting they'd made a mistake.
"Well, I can tell you this: if we reported it,
it's a fact. We don't make up numbers, Lesley, do we?"
Further compounding the strange nature of the segment, Stahl then had to disclose
to the audience that, "unbeknownst to [her]" at the time of the interview,
Dobbs was now a member of the CBS family and had been hired by "The Early Show."
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more Nicki Swift videos about people in the news are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.