CBS Billed Alito's Warning as About Trump. He Called the Attacks Bipartisan.

CBS News aired Jan Crawford's interview with Justice Samuel Alito on Face the Nation on Sunday, ahead of his new book, "So Ordered." The CBS News Videos description hosted by Yahoo says Alito warned that political attacks on the high court, "most recently by President Trump on his social media platform," "can be quite damaging." The full CBS transcript shows Alito spread the blame wider.

Crawford opened by asking how damaging it is when political leaders on both sides talk about the justices as if they are political actors trying to deliver wins for their team, according to the transcript. Alito said he thinks it is damaging, and can be quite damaging. Crawford then asked whether President Trump changed that. "It's a bipartisan effort," he said of the criticism.

Crawford pressed him, saying the language from President Trump is different, especially on social media, the transcript shows. Alito answered that the President has his own way of saying things. When Crawford pressed him on President Trump's language, Alito added, "I want to be even-handed on this." He then said the criticism of the court and the justices by former President Joe Biden and his administration was very harsh, and that President Trump has been very harsh, according to the transcript.

Crawford also asked whether it bothers him when President Trump describes him and some colleagues as part of his political MAGA movement. Alito said the justices are not part of any political movement and are not trying to advance any political agenda, according to the transcript. He said they are trying to interpret the Constitution as best they can and apply it to the cases before them.

Host Margaret Brennan noted the interview ran the day before the first Monday in October, the start of the Supreme Court's new term. She said more of the interview would air Monday on CBS Mornings and the CBS Evening News, with a written preview on CBSNews.com Sunday afternoon. The Yahoo page carrying the CBS video description was updated Sunday at 5:44 p.m. UTC.

Both pages come from CBS, so this is a comparison of the promotional framing with the justice's own words, not proof that CBS hid his answer. The video description highlighted President Trump by name. The transcript shows Alito put a Democratic president and a Republican president in the same sentence. Read the transcript and judge for yourself.