Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event on Tuesday.

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This story first appeared on the NPR Network live blog of the 2024 vice presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz. For the latest news about the campaign, go to NPR’s Elections page.

The CBS news program 60 minutes announced Tuesday that former President Donald Trump has withdrawn from an interview he arranged as part of next week’s primetime election special.

‘For over half a century 60 minutes has invited the Democratic and Republican tickets to appear on our broadcast as Americans head to the polls,” the news magazine posted on X. “This year, both the Harris and Trump campaigns agreed to 60 minutes.”

It went on to say that “after initially accepting 60 minutes‘request for an interview’ with Scott Pelley, Trump campaign ‘decided not to participate’.

The election special will air as scheduled Monday at 8:00 PM ET and will include an interview between Vice President Harris and correspondent Bill Whitaker.

“Our original invitation to former President Donald Trump to be interviewed 60 minutes state,” the statement added.

Watch NPR’s analysis of the vice presidential debate, featuring Asma Khalid, Susan Davis, Tamara Keith and Stephen Fowler.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung responded to X shortly afterwards, calling the program’s version of events “fake news.”

He said the show was “begging for an interview,” and despite initial discussions, “nothing was ever planned or locked in.”

“They also insisted on live fact checking, which is unprecedented,” Cheung added.

Trump got into trouble for it 60 minutes previously, notably abandoning a 2020 interview with correspondent Lesley Stahl — and withdrawing from a previously scheduled second interview — after becoming visibly frustrated with her “hard” questions about the COVID-19 pandemic and other topics.

The Harris campaign was quick to criticize Trump on Tuesday evening. Senior advisor David Plouffe posted on X that the former president is “afraid” of the debate stage 60 minutes.

“And his campaign team — after the last three days of increasingly unhinged and volatile tirades at his rallies — is clearly afraid of pushing him beyond comfortable limits,” he wrote.

He appeared to be referring to Trump’s increasingly threatening and insulting rhetoric at rallies last weekend, describing Harris as “mentally retarded” and saying police should be allowed to be “really rough” on criminals for an hour to send a message. to steer.

The primetime special would have been one of the last chances for voters to see Trump and Harris side by side before Election Day. Although the Harris campaign has called for a second debate, Trump’s team has not agreed to it.

Tuesday night’s debate between vice presidential candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance is the last on the schedule.