By Katherine Tinsley
3:09am PDT, May 29, 2025
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60 Minutes star
Scott Pelley recently incited the MAGA movement's wrath when he took a stance against
Donald Trump and his administration while delivering the Wake Forest University commencement speech.
Keep reading for the details…
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Donald Trump is currently in a
legal battle against CBS: The president accused the network of committing election interference by editing a 2024
60 Minutes interview with
Kamala Harris to make her look better. As Trump continues to attack Scott Pelley's employer, the journalist is taking a stance against the president.
"As a reporter, I've learned to respect opinions," Pelley told Wake Forest students. "Reasonable people differ about the life of our country. And America works well when we listen to those that we disagree with, where we listen to those we disagree with and have common ground and compromise."
"One thing we can all agree on, one thing at least, America is at her best when everyone is included," Pelley continued. "To move forward, we debate, not demonize."
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Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of legacy media organizations, and Scott Pelley hinted at how the current climate has impacted his role.
"To move forward, we debate, not demonize," Pelley said. "We discuss, not destroy. But in this moment, this moment this morning, our sacred rule of law is under attack."
"Journalism is under attack," he continued. "Universities are under attack, freedom of speech is under attack."
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Aside from his stance against "fake news," Donald Trump has been in a battle against Harvard University, NPR and other celebrated institutions. Scott Pelley alluded to Trump's antics creating a culture of fear amongst Americans.
"Insidious fear is reaching through our schools, our businesses, our homes and into our private thoughts," Pelley said. "The fear to speak — in America!"
"If our government is, in Lincoln's phrase, of the people, by the people [and] for the people, then why are we afraid to speak?" he asked.
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Scott Pelley later referenced students studying during the Civil War, World War II and the Civil Rights Movement.
"The Wake Forest class of 1861, they did not choose their time of calling," Pelley said. "The class of 1941 did not choose. The class of 1968 did not choose. History chose. And now history is calling you, the class of 2025."
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Fans of Donald Trump took to X to shut down Scott Pelley's speech.
"This self-important, sermonizing propagandist is what passes for a legacy media 'journalist,'" the Western Lensman
X account wrote.
Curtis Houck, who is the managing editor of
NewsBusters, called Pelley "pompous."
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Countless more MAGA supporters came after Scott Pelley on social media.
"Liberals who once controlled speech and the power to censor are now upset that a majority of Americans reject their lies and deception," Scott Adams
wrote on X. "
60 Minutes' Scott Pelley raged at Trump in an angry, unhinged commencement address at Wake Forest: as he speaks openly and freely in America."
"It is very sad that CBS/
60 Minutes' Scott Pelley chose one of the happiest days for graduates and their families to display his undeniable case of TDS [Trump Derangement Syndrome]," another MAGA supporter
wrote. "Wake Forest University should be ashamed that it allowed this to take place."
