Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer isn’t happy his old boss gave “60 Minutes” another shot.
Spicer, who served as President Donald Trump’s first press secretary in 2017, vented Monday over the president’s decision to sit down with CBS News correspondent Ross Douthat for an interview that aired Sunday night.
Speaking on “The Huddle” podcast alongside co-host Dan Turrentine, Spicer said he was frustrated that Trump continues to lend credibility to legacy outlets that he believes have treated him unfairly.
The two hosts noted that Douthat repeatedly interrupted the president throughout the interview and said they were impressed that Trump managed to keep his cool.
Spicer pointed out that Douthat comes from the print world and said there were questions about how he would perform on television when CBS News chief Bari Weiss brought him on board.
“I give him a mixed bag,” Spicer said of Douthat’s performance.
The former press secretary said one of the hardest parts of hosting a show is allowing a guest to finish a thought. Spicer explained that the goal should be to let a guest breathe, adding that he was surprised Trump went along with the constant interruptions.
But Spicer saved his sharpest criticism for the decision to do the interview in the first place. He argued that “60 Minutes” has not done Trump any favors and urged the president to stop appearing on network programs such as “60 Minutes” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“It kills me when I see this,” Spicer said.
Spicer has been critical of the CBS newsmagazine before. Last year, after the program aired a roughly 27-minute version of a Trump interview with Norah O’Donnell that ran more than 73 minutes in full, Spicer took to X to blast the edits. He referenced the $16 million Paramount, CBS’ parent company, paid Trump to settle his lawsuit over the editing of a 2024 “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Douthat, a former New York Times columnist known for his conservative views, pressed Trump on a range of topics during Sunday’s interview, his first sit-down since Republicans lost control of both chambers of Congress in last week’s midterm elections.
The correspondent grilled the president on a Forbes estimate that his net worth has grown by roughly $3 billion since he returned to office, as well as his family’s cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial. The pair repeatedly talked over each other during that exchange.
Douthat also asked Trump about his mortality and faith, prompting a memorable moment in which the president admitted he could not forgive some of his political enemies, even before God.
The interview drew strong reactions from both sides. Some critics on the left claimed Douthat landed major blows on the president, while some of Trump’s defenders praised his candor.
For Spicer, though, the bigger issue was strategy, not substance.
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