“I’ve never worn the uniform. But I’ve been in combat for this country,” Pelley replied in an emotional interview.

Scott Pelley fires back at Trump for saying he doesn’t care about America after* 60 Minutes *firing

"I’ve never worn the uniform. But I’ve been in combat for this country," Pelley replied in an emotional interview.

By Shania Russell

Shania Russell

Shania Russell is a news writer at *, *with five years of experience. Her work has previously appeared in SlashFilm and Paste Magazine.

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June 8, 2026 1:00 p.m. ET

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Scott Pelley and Donald Trump. Credit:

Michele Crowe/CBS via Getty; Kevin Dietsch/Getty

- Scott Pelley slams Trump in his first interview since being fired from *60 Minutes.*

- In a podcast taped just before Pelley's firing, the president criticized the journalist, calling him “terrible” and part of a “crooked, stupid” group.

- Pelley replied that as a reporter, he has fought for America in ways that the president has not.

Scott Pelley can brush off all kinds of criticism, but there is one insult that he simply can't abide. And it was recently delivered by President Donald Trump.

Last Tuesday, Pelley was dramatically fired from his longtime role at *60 Minutes** *after clashing with the new leadership of CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss and newly appointed *60 Minutes *executive producer Nick Bilton. One day later, in an interview taped hours before Pelley's firing, President Trump delivered some scathing remarks about the veteran journalist.

“I think Scott Pelley's got his own problems. He's terrible,” Trump told Miranda Devine on her *Pod Force One* podcast. "Look, Scott Pelley's a stiff and he's afraid and he's part of this, you know, gang of crooked, stupid people that don't care about our country.”

Pelley heard those comments, evidently for the first time, during his emotional first interview after the firing. While sitting down with* T**he New York Times*' Lulu Garcia-Navarro in an interview published Sunday, Pelley appeared surprised to learn that Trump had reacted to his firing at all.

"He went on a podcast and called you a stiff," Garcia-Navarro informed him.

Scott Pelley in 2017.

Gary Miller/Getty

Pelley laughed, replying, "I’m surprised that the president of the United States would bother to notice, but please tell me. I’m not aware of this."

After Garcia-Navarro read off the rest of Trump's remarks, Pelley was considerably less amused.

**"**Stupid? I can take that. Stiff? Yeah, probably. 'Don’t care about the country?'" he repeated, pausing. "I’ve never worn the uniform. But I’ve been in combat for this country, in Afghanistan and Iraq, Kuwait."

He continued, "I’ve been shot at, spent nights in foxholes filling up with water in the desert. I’m not aware that the president of the United States has ever done any of those things for his country. Please correct me if I’m wrong."

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Pelley was holding back tears as he went on. "You become a journalist because you love the First Amendment," he said. "You become a journalist because you love the country. And while all the other descriptions that the president used about me might be applicable, not that one."

He added, "There is no democracy without journalism. It can’t be done. That is why I am a journalist."

Donald Trump in the Oval Office on June 3, 2026.

Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty

A number of shakeups have hit *60 Minutes *since Weiss was appointed to CBS News following Skydance Media's acquisition of Paramount Global and its assets. Executive editor Draggan Mihailovich and executive producer Tanya Simon were both fired, while correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega, and Anderson Cooper have all departed or been fired.

Pelley was the latest to exit after an explosive staff meeting on June 1, during which he lashed out at Bilton during a staff meeting, accusing Weiss of "murdering 60 Minutes," and saying the new executive producer had "slender qualifications for this job." He was subsequently terminated by Bilton.

Asked what he hopes will come of his exit, Pelley pointed to recent editorial changes that have indicated "a thumb on the scale for the president’s version of events," which for him marked "a level of political influence that I had never seen in 37 years at CBS News."

Pelley added, "My hope is that the leadership of Paramount will say to themselves, 'This isn’t working. We have broadcasts that almost don’t get on the air. We have respected journalists saying that there is a thumb on the scale for one political party over another. We have a broadcast that is among the most important in America. The most successful in the history of all television. It was doing great, so why are we making these changes?'"

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He continued, "We need adult supervision, and at the moment, we don’t have it. We have people who’ve been installed in these jobs who — through no fault of their own — have no experience in television. They don’t know what they’re doing. And there’s a subtle political bias that I’ve never seen at *60 Minutes *before, or at CBS News before. So that is my hope: a return to sanity. We can save this. It’s possible to land this plane. But right now, CBS News is on fire."

Watch Pelley's full interview above.

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Source: “EW News”