Leaked transcript of UNAIRED 60 Minutes interview exposes REAL reason 'callous' CBS star Scott Pelley 'deserved to be fired'

By MATT LONDON, US EXECUTIVE EDITOR, OPINION Published: 17:46, 9 June 2026 | Updated: 17:47, 9 June 2026 Callous. Biased. Tone deaf. Unprofessional. That's how axed 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley describes the leadership of CBS News in his first interview since losing his job at the storied newsmagazine show last week. 'They don't know what they're doing,' Pelley told the New York Times on Sunday. 'And there's a subtle political bias that I've never seen at 60 Minutes before, or at CBS News before… CBS News is on fire.' Now in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, the subject of an alleged 60 Minute's hit piece claims Pelley demonstrated all the qualities that he decries in CBS's leaders – and in spades – when he interviewed her. 'He was callous. He lacked empathy,' claimed Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a conservative group with more than 100,000 members across 48 states that advocates for parental rights in education. Justice and fellow founder Tina Descovich, both former school board members, spoke to the flagship CBS News program in October 2023, as their organization faced fierce criticism over their objections to overtly sexualized content in public school libraries. To support Justice's allegations, Moms for Liberty has, for the first time, released the full unedited transcript of her 60 Minutes appearance, exclusively to the Daily Mail.  Justice claims the transcript reveals the bias, arrogance and amateurism that pervaded Pelly's work. 'When I was reading from the books, the sexually graphic books, which included rape, pedophilia, incest, masturbation and more, he sat there with his glasses between his lips and watched me,' recalled Justice. 'They don't know what they're doing,' Pelley told the New York Times on Sunday. 'And there's a subtle political bias that I've never seen at '60 Minutes' before, or at CBS News before… CBS News is on fire' Tiffany Justice (above, left) and fellow founder Tina Descovich (above, right), both former school board members, spoke to the flagship CBS News program in October 2023 'When I was reading from the books, the sexually graphic books, which included rape, pedophilia, incest, masturbation and more, he sat there with his glasses between his lips and watched me,' recalled Justice 'Afterwards, one of the people that was there with us was like, "I think he liked it,"' she claimed. 'If he had been trying to embarrass me or make me feel uncomfortable, he picked the wrong girl for that.' Moms for Liberty had recently been listed on the Southern Poverty Law Center's 'hate map' (where it remains today) identifying the group as a supposed 'far-right organization that engages in anti-student inclusion activities.' 'I told Pelley that our moms had suffered horribly by the bad portrayal that the media had given Moms for Liberty. They were attacking us constantly,' said Justice. The Biden Justice Department had also reportedly taken interest in the group. 'The FBI had reached out to one of our moms, which was a really scary experience for her,' Justice told the Daily Mail, describing the ordeal of a Moms for Liberty member who had complained to her local school board about prolonged Covid-era closures of her child's school. 'I told Pelly about that and he said that I was lying,' Justice said. That exchange, however, was not included in the 60 Minutes segment that broadcast in March 2024. The Daily Mail has now obtained the transcript of that interview. 'You see a blatant disregard for parental rights and then the FBI calls you,' says Justice, according to the transcript. 'The FBI doesn't call. They visit,' Pelley replies. 'Oh wow,' says Justice. 'You obviously haven't done your research.' 'Oh, I have,' says Pelley. 'This is something I know a lot about.' Undeterred, Justice insists she's telling the truth, informing Pelley she presented evidence to Congress. 'The FBI called a parent on the phone. I testified before Congress in March of this year. I have my testimony here if you'd like to read it,' she told Pelley. 'That didn't happen, that didn't happen. That just strains incredulity,' insists Pelley, appearing to use a garbled phrase to characterize his skepticism. 'Okay, I don't wanna embarrass you so I'll just stop,' says Justice. 'Well, I'm not embarrassed but that didn't happen,' quips Pelley, before Justice moves on to a different topic. The Daily Mail contacted CBS News for a comment on the unedited transcript and allegations of bias and has not received a response.  The Daily Mail has obtained the transcript (above) revealing an unaired portion of the Tiffany Justice's interview with Scott Pelley 'Okay, I don't wanna embarrass you so I'll just stop,' says Justice, according to the transcript The FBI did reportedly call that Moms for Liberty parent and that outreach became a focus of a series of investigations by the Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. 'We were on TV representing a little over 100,000 moms across the United States and Scott really didn't care that any of them had been harmed by false reporting, or that his false reporting would continue to harm them,' Justice told the Daily Mail. What 60 Minutes and Pelley did decide to include in their broadcast were his subjective views on the motives of Moms for Liberty and their focus on exerting greater parental influence over sexualized content in school libraries. 'In a tactic of outrage politics, Moms for Liberty takes a kernal of truth and concludes these examples are not rare mistakes, but a plot to sexualize children,' narrates Pelley over video of Justice reading from books that contained explicit content. '[Pelley] said we were taking a very slim amount of examples of books meant for older children… and mistakenly put into lower school libraries and that was not the case,' Justice told the Daily Mail. 'We had found that the books were all over schools across the United States of America' Pelley also decided to include one pointed question, said to be from Moms for Liberty detractors, which appeared to suggest that the group was motivated by bigotry. 'Critics say you have an anti-gay bias?' he asked, provoking immediate, fiery denials from Justice and Descovich. 'This constant effort to marginalize concerned parents, he was part of that. In fact, he really led the charge,' she reflected. 'In a tactic of outrage politics, Moms for Liberty takes a kernal of truth and concludes these examples are not rare mistakes, but a plot to sexualize children,' narrates Pelley over video of Justice reading from books that contained explicit content And Pelley's strident skepticism of Moms for Liberty did not stand up well to the test of time. In June 2025, the US Supreme Court ruled that a Montgomery County, Maryland Board of Educations had violated the First Amendment rights of parents by not allowing them to opt their children out of classroom instruction that included sexualized content that clashed with their sincerely held beliefs. The damage, however, had already been done to the reputation of Moms for Liberty. The left-wing news website Mother Jones, in an article titled 'Moms for Liberty Had a Chance to Explain Themselves. It Didn't Go Well,' wrote 'When confronted with basic questions on 60 Minutes, the group appeared ill-prepared and stumped and alleged their critics were trying to 'marginalize us.' 'Scott is in his ivory tower in New York and here we are,' Justice told the Daily Mail. 'We're just two moms who happen to serve on school boards for four years and then started a national organization where we were working with other moms to become effective advocates in their own children's lives and education.' 'He sat there thinking he knew more than us, he was an expert, he knew the FBI hadn't called one of our moms, right? He just knew it all,' he recalled derisively. 'I'm happy to see that he was fired. He deserved to be fired.' The comments below have not been moderated. 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