President Donald Trump took time to kick a man while he is down by calling former â60 Minutesâ correspondent Scott Pelley âstiffâ and âafraid.â
Trump was critical of Pelley for pushing back on company leadership.
âI think Scott Pelleyâs got his own problems, heâs terrible,â Trump told The New York Postâs Miranda Devine on âPod Force One.â
âLook, Scott Pelleyâs a stiff and heâs afraid, and heâs part of this, you know, gang of crooked, stupid people that donât care about our country,â the president added, per Mediaite.
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CBS fired Pelley after he gave rebuked leadership at the network in a Monday staff meeting.
Pelley called the â60 Minutesâ head Nick Bilton unqualified to lead it and alleged CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss was trying to âmurderâ the show.
Bilton, a journalist, was recently hired as the executive producer of â60 Minutes. Bilton told employees about Pelleyâs firing late Tuesday, saying he âmade repeated attempts to have direct conversations with over the weekend, and this afternoon I tried to find common ground.â
âThat was not the path Scott chose,â Bilton wrote in a memo. âWhat I regret most is that this situation interfered with the conversation I had hoped to have with you about Season 59 and the future of this show. I realize this is a great deal of change in a very short time, and I wouldnât pretend otherwise.â
CBSâs parent company, Paramount Skydance, is trying to implement expansive changes throughout the network.
Pelley said Bilton had âslenderâ qualifications to lead the show and that Weiss âdoes not love this place.â
âShe was brought in to kill it, and sheâs been doing exactly that,â he said.
