Lesley Stahl: 5 Things To Know About ’60 Minutes’ Star Going Head To Head With Trump
After decades covering the White House, Lesley Stahl isn’t intimidated by Donald Trump. Before her explosive ’60 Minutes’ interview airs, here’s what you should know about the veteran journalist.
Veteran journalist Lesley Stahl is President Donald Trump‘s latest media target after a White House interview for 60 Minutes went off the rails — and not by any fault of her own. Stahl, 78, has shot back by telling Trump and Vice President Mike Pence that they “insulted” her and 60 Minutes by treating the interview like a campaign rally. Before the highly-anticipated interview airs on October 25, here’s what else you should know about Stahl and her career:
1. She has worked as a correspondent for 60 Minutes for nearly 30 years. Stahl has worked for the CBS News program since 1991, consistently scoring major stories and remaining a familiar presence in American households on Sunday nights. She famously interviewed former Vice President Al Gore in 2002, who revealed for the first time that he would not run for president again in 2004 after losing the last election to George W. Bush.
2. She rose to prominence with her Watergate coverage. The Watergate scandal unfurled right after Stahl joined CBS News, and her coverage gained her recognition at the network. “I found an apartment in the Watergate complex, moved all my stuff from Boston, and didn’t miss a day of work. … June 1972,” she wrote in her 1999 memoir, Reporting Live. “Most of the reporters in our bureau were on the road, covering the presidential campaign. Thus, I was sent out to cover the arrest of some men who had broken into one of the buildings in the Watergate complex.
“I was the only television reporter covering the early court appearances,” Stahl recalled. “When the five Watergate burglars asked for a bail reduction, I got my first scoop. Unlike my competitors, I was able to identify them. The next time the cameraman listened when I said, ‘Roll! That’s them!’ And so CBS was the only network to get pictures of the burglars. I was a hero at the bureau.”
3. She sparred with Donald Trump at the White House. President Trump stormed out of their interview on October 20 when Stahl pressed him about the coronavirus pandemic and the faltering economy, calling her line of questioning “unfair.” After days of rallying against Stahl online, Trump posted the full, unedited interview on Facebook prior to the October 25 CBS broadcast. It was seemingly an attempt to make Stahl look bad, but nothing stood out besides the president’s temper tantrum.
4. She has hosted two other prominent CBS News programs. You may recognize Stahl as the former moderator of Face the Nation, a job she held from September 1983 to May 1991. Stahl also hosted 48 Hours Investigates from 2002 to 2004, and served as a correspondent for Years of Living Dangerously, a documentary show about climate change in 2014.
5. She’s the author of two books. Stahl has penned two books over the years: her 1999 memoir, Reporting Live, and Becoming Grandma: The Joys and Science of the New Grandparenting in 2016. The later chronicled her experiences with her own grandchildren, Jordan and Chloe Major.