An interesting “60 Minutes” segment that aired Sunday evening was illuminating in more ways than one.

First of all, with the appointment of Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News, she now has pretty direct editorial control of shows like “60 Minutes.” This has led to some fascinating transparency. When Weiss has been asking questions of the CBS News staff, somehow, it just magically appears in other news outlets! Not to mention that she had a pretty direct question for the “60 Minutes” crew that had them indignantly clutching their pearl necklaces and reaching for the smelling salts.

According to a Sunday feature by Michael M. Grynbaum and Benjamin Mullin in The New York Times, Weiss put staffers at 60 Minutes on edge by asking: “Why does the country think you’re biased?”

“The inquiry was met with stunned awkwardness, according to three people who recounted details from the private session in Midtown Manhattan,” Grynbaum and Mullin wrote. “The staff of ’60 Minutes,’ the nation’s most-watched news program, view their coverage as firmly nonpartisan and reject criticism from President [Donald] Trump and his allies who argue that it has a liberal slant.”

Weiss has already rocked the boat quite a bit since taking the top job at CBS News on Oct. 6. Grynbaum and Mullin report that she has been “impressing some” top CBS news executives and talent, and “confounding others.”

She is also said to be displeased by leaks from inside her new shop. The Times report revealed Weiss has been “urging executives to identify the leakers in the newsroom.”

Hmmmm, let’s see… there was the time “60 Minutes” was praising German censorship, and the time Lesley Stahl asked Keith Siegel, a former hostage, if the reason Hamas starved him is because Israel wasn’t letting in food, and the time that they chopped up Kamala Harris’s interview and got sued, and wow, I can’t imagine WHY Bari Weiss would tell them that the country thinks they’re biased!

if indeed the staffers at "60 Minutes" genuinely believe the show is non-partisan and unbiased, then they should be retained as employees solely under the terms of the Americans With Disabilities Act. pic.twitter.com/kPwbB3gfBs

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) October 19, 2025

While the new editor-in-chief has her work clearly cut out for her, “60 Minutes” did score a rather large and illustrative interview with Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff in the wake of the peace deal that has freed the last of the living Israeli hostages from the clutches of Hamas. And this was Lesley Stahl’s second take at attempting to ask questions without making a fool of herself. The extended interview can be seen here:

There were some very interesting things revealed in the interview. First, Kushner and Witkoff said that President Trump insisted that Prime Minister Netanyahu had to call the Qataris to formally apologize for the strike on Hamas leadership in their country.

Early September, Kushner, Witkoff and negotiators from the Middle East were making headway on a ceasefire-hostage deal when suddenly things went up in smoke. Israel fired missiles into Qatar to assassinate Hamas leadership. Six people were killed, including the son of Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’ top negotiator.

Steve Witkoff: We woke up the next morning to find out that there had been this attack. And, of course, I was called by the president.

Lesley Stahl: You had no idea obviously?

Steve Witkoff: None whatsoever. You know I think both Jared and I felt– I just feel we felt– a little bit betrayed.

Lesley Stahl: Now, I had heard that the president h– that he was furious.

Jared Kushner: I think he felt like the Israelis– were getting a little bit out of control in what they were doing, and that it was time to– it was time to be very strong and stop them from doing things that he felt were not in their long-term interests.

Lesley Stahl: But there was something that happened that– brought the Qataris back in. And that was this f– phone call that I think President Trump actually forced Netanyahu to make to the Qataris.

Steve Witkoff: I wouldn’t call it forced.

Lesley Stahl: You wouldn’t?

Steve Witkoff: No. I would– I would say–

Lesley Stahl: It looked that way.

Steve Witkoff: –that– I would–

Jared Kushner: He’s becoming a diplomat now.

Steve Witkoff: Yeah.

Lesley Stahl: Clearly.

Whether the president himself knew of the attack in advance or not, he wanted Netanyahu to apologize to the Qataris.

Steve Witkoff: The apology needed to happen. It just did. We were not moving forward without that apology. And the president said to him, “People apologize.”

Now, the coddling of Qatar, and the influence that they have been busy buying for themselves on both sides of the aisle, is definitely coming for a reckoning. Israel showed Qatar – and Hamas – that they had the ability to take them out, and that was a necessary show of power. President Trump, in having Netanyahu make a formal apology, was offering Qatar a way to save face. And no one can doubt that Qatar responded by then telling Hamas that the peace deal had to be signed.

Kushner and Witkoff also talked about the negotiations for the release of the hostages. Obviously, time was critical because the remaining living hostages had spent two years in hell. Convincing Hamas that they had nothing to gain and everything to lose was essential.

Steve Witkoff: The notion was to convince everybody that those– 20 Israeli hostages who were alive, were no longer assets for Hamas. They were a liability.

Lesley Stahl: How did they become a liability and not their sort of–

Steve Witkoff: Beca– because they weren’t–

Lesley Stahl: –bargaining chip?

Jared Kushner: What did Hamas gain by keeping these hostages? You had tens of thousands of Palestinians who were killed in these wars. You have half of Gaza, or more than half of it, is absolutely destroyed. And so what’s been the gain?

This led to Witkoff and Kushner talking directly with Hamas leadership.

To reassure Hamas, President Trump gave Kushner and Witkoff permission to talk directly with the terrorists, a big break with diplomatic protocol. On October 8, the two landed in Egypt to deliver a message from President Trump to al-Hayya, Hamas’ top negotiator.

Steve Witkoff: The president said “We will stand behind this deal. We will not allow the terms of this deal for any party to be violated.”

Jared Kushner: And– and both sides will be treated fairly.

Steve Witkoff: And both sides will be treated fairly. So we got into the room. The lead negotiator was sitting right next to me.

Once the deal was signed, Hamas had 72 hours to release all the hostages. The living hostages made it out. So far, only a handful of deceased hostages have been returned, with Hamas claiming that they have “lost track” of them. However, they keep “finding” one or two to hand over nearly every day or every other day. Not to mention that Hamas is now busy brutally executing Gazan civilians.

Lesley Stahl: Hamas now is using weapons– to execute people that they perceive as their enemies in Gaza. And they’re also using their weapons to reestablish themselves as– the– the entity that is governing Gaza. They’re moving into the vacuum.

Jared Kushner: Hamas right now is doing exactly what you would expect a terrorist organization to do, which is to try to reconstitute and take back their positions.

Lesley Stahl: Right.

Jared Kushner: The success or failure of this will be if Israel and this international mechanism is able to create a viable alternative. If they are successful, Hamas will fail, and Gaza will not be a threat to Israel in the future.

Unfortunately, this interview aired AFTER Hamas killed two IDF officers, and Israel conducted airstrikes on Rafah in retaliation. After the airstrikes, Israel announced that they were “enforcing the ceasefire” even though Hamas was attacking and killing, and the remaining hostages had not yet been returned.

Hamas broke the ceasefire. Killed two Israeli soldiers. And hours later Israel returned to it.

Israel keeping its word, even when the other side breaks. Are you surprised? https://t.co/Flb3HDArV8

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) October 19, 2025

However, Witkoff and Kushner are pressing on, and are still busy trying to plan for stage two of the peace deal.

LESLEY STAHL: So I understand that you were up at 4:30 in the morning, this morning, working, what on phase two? What were you working on?

JARED KUSHNER: So Steve is a very early riser. And my kids get up early to go to school. So– the time before they get up is usually a great time for us to catch up before the day and go over what’s been happening overseas. So this morning we were talking about a lot of the issues of getting the aid into Gaza and deconflicting some of the misunderstandings that are–

LESLEY STAHL: Deconflicting? Meaning?

JARED KUSHNER: Meaning that you have– a lot of people with good intentions right now. An example is the U.N. is trying very hard to get food into– the people of Gaza. The Turks were offering to send a recovery and rescue team in to help search for some of the– the dead hostages– that– that we’re looking to recover. And– there’s just a lotta miscommunication that stalls and holds up some of these efforts. So– getting all sides’ perspectives and finding a mechanism to get quick adjudications, and the right adjudications– is something that’s very necessary to put in place.

LESLEY STAHL: I heard the president asked you what the chances (LAUGH) were for success.

JARED KUSHNER: Yes.

LESLEY STAHL: And you said?

JARED KUSHNER: 100%. And he said, “Why do you feel so confident?”

LESLEY STAHL: Yeah.

JARED KUSHNER: And I said, “Well, we can’t afford to fail.”

STEVE WITKOFF: We just kept on thinking to ourselves, “This finish line? This finish line is about saving lives.”

Even though Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff obviously worked long and hard on this peace agreement, its permanence depends on others, not them. Hamas has already stated that they have no intention of giving up power, and they are obviously slow-walking the release of bodies in order to wipe out any opposition within Gaza, as well as continue to strike at Israel. President Trump has already warned Hamas that if their campaign of terror and killing continues in Gaza, the deal will be off. Is peace possible with Hamas still armed and in charge? No. Israel will tolerate the violations of the deal just as long as it takes to get all the deceased hostages returned, and not a moment longer. But who among the Arab states is going to use their leverage to force Hamas into surrendering?

And if this is the kind of piece “60 Minutes” is going to put out under Bari Weiss, will the show actually become as “nonpartisan” as they think they are?

Features image: Stopwatch via Flickr, cropped and modified, CC BY-NC 2.0