• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, Today

Retired “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft lambasted CBS News editor-in-chief in a searing Variety story in which Kroft and other respected veterans of “60 Minutes” were interviewed about the turmoil at the show and CBS News.

Kroft, 80, and the others pulled no punches. “Everything she’s touched has turned to shit,” Kroft said pointedly in perhaps the most candid statement of the interviews.

But other interview subjects also assailed Weiss in no uncertain terms for her “shameless” treatment of “60 Minutes” senior staff when she fired them in the same day for no apparent cause.

One interview subject -- a former staff member who was the only interviewee who was not identified by name -- accused Weiss of giving “60 Minutes” “a facelift with a machete.”

Another interviewee, retired producer Rome Hartman, called Weiss an “arsonist” who is burning down his home.

“I know this place inside and out, and I care about it deeply,” said Hartman, who worked at “60 Minutes” for 25 years and produced an estimated 160 stories.

“This is like watching an arsonist burn down my professional home and not really having the means to do anything about it,” he told Variety.

More than one of the interview subjects accused Weiss of making moves for the express purpose of mollifying the Trump administration and in fact, supporting it.

The Varietystory, written by Marlow Stern, was published on Thursday. It is a great read, but here are the best quotes from the story.

Steve Kroft: “This started as an argument between Trump and the show over the Kamala Harris piece, and the President of the United States made it very clear that he’d like to see this broadcast go away. He wanted to do away with it, and he’s intimated that from that point on. Some of the ruthlessness is coming directly from the President as a way to influence and make sure that Bari and David Ellison fall in line.”

Kroft: “I have a feeling that Bari will not be overseeing ’60 Minutes’ for very much longer. I think once the deal gets done with Warner Bros., people will demand that she be let go or move into another position. Everything she’s touched has turned to shit. Everything she’s touched has gone colossally wrong. And I don't think she’s showed any talent for this position. She’s only fulfilling other people’s agendas.”

Rome Hartman: “Scott [Pelley] wasn’t shouting at [new “60 Minutes” executive producer Nick Bilton] or physically intimidating the guy. He was doing exactly what he should’ve done in the best tradition of the best ‘60 Minutes’ correspondents. And if Nick Bilton is such a snowflake that he can’t possibly tolerate a voice of challenge -- and if Bari Weiss has to hide behind his skirts -- that does not speak well of how he's going to run the place or how she's going to run the place.”

Lowell Bergman, former “60 Minutes” producer: “Trump filed a lawsuit that everybody laughed at -- about editing --and you’d never think he could win that lawsuit in court, but he basically makes your lawyers impotent. He has a habit of filing lawsuits that he can’t win, and now that he’s President of the United States, he has a lever and can win, so it's a form of extortion.”

Betsy West, one-time senior vice president of CBS News: “You have three respected ’60 Minutes’ journalists saying that Bari or her lieutenants have tried to insert misstatements in their stories. She pulled a factual and legally vetted story about the conditions in Venezuela prisons just because the administration wouldn’t give a comment, essentially giving them veto power by not talking. News staff members at morning meetings that are supposed to be a rundown of the news say they often devolve into grievance sessions about Mideast politics or candidates [Weiss] opposes.”