CBS has reportedly hired full-time security for “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl after a family member received a death threat about her interview with President Donald Trump.
An unidentified suspect called Stahl’s home Thursday, hours before the president released his own copy of the interview on Facebook, and threatened her and her family and “said something about neo-Nazis,” TMZ reported Tuesday.
The Los Angeles Police Department would not confirm whether an investigation has been launched.
Stahl, 78, now reportedly has security guards at her home and with her whenever she goes out in public.
A spokesperson for CBS did not immediately return the New York Daily News' request for comment.
Trump stringently objected to Stahl’s “tough” questions in the taped sit-down before he eventually stormed out, cutting off the scheduled interview before a planned walk-and-talk around the White House grounds.
Trump said he was trying to show “the bias, hatred and rudeness on behalf of ’60 Minutes' and CBS” when he posted his version of the video, which was supposed to be for archival purposes only, online.
CBS decried Trump’s “unprecedented decision” to upload the 37-minute video and said it would not “deter ’60 Minutes' from providing its full, fair and contextual reporting which presidents have participated in for decades.”
“Few journalists have the presidential interview experience Lesley Stahl has delivered over her decades as one of the premier correspondents in America,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
When the network finally aired its full version of the interview Sunday night, nearly 17.5 million people tuned in, the largest “60 Minutes” audience since its March 2018 Stormy Daniels show, according to CBS.
The show featured interviews with Trump and Democratic opponent Joe Biden.
Because “60 Minutes” had been averaging 10.3 million viewers so far this season, clearly some people wanted to see the broadcast after hearing about the controversy or saw the full tape and were curious about how CBS edited it.
Stahl made one reference to the dispute in her introduction, saying “we had prepared to talk about the many issues and questions facing the president, but in what has become an all-too-public dust-up, the conversation was cut short.”
Tribune News Service and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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