Former President Donald Trump recently sued CBS News for $10 billion after “60 Minutes” was accused of “deceptively” editing an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this month. The lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Texas earlier this week claims that the show doctored parts of the interview to intentionally prop up Harris.
The suit claims that “60 Minutes” was an “attempt to tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party as the heated 2024 Presidential Election — which President Trump is leading — approaches its conclusion.” As background, a “60 Minutes” promotion of the interview showed a less coherent word salad answer that varied significantly from what was aired on television. The final clip significantly shortened Harris’ answer to make it more concise and understandable.
In Harris’ full answer in the promotional clip, she said, “The work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region.” However, the edited version of her answer that appeared on the official broadcast, in which she said, “We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”
The lawsuit from Trump argues that the network “crossed the line” with the editing, resulting in untrustworthy coverage of Vice President Harris. “To paper over Kamala’s ‘word salad’ weakness, CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news,” the lawsuit reads.
Lawyers on behalf of the Republican presidential candidate further claim that millions of viewers were “misled” by the doctored comments from Harris, disingenuously altering their view of the vice president. “Millions of Americans, including residents of Texas and this District, were confused and misled by the two doctored Interview versions,” Trump’s legal team said.
Several weeks after CBS News faced immense backlash for the apparent editing of the clip, the network released a statement on the matter. According to the statement, CBS claims that it is a routine practice, regardless of who is being interviewed, to shorten the interviewee’s commentary to fit it in an allotted segment of time.
The network stated, “60 Minutes gave an excerpt of our interview to Face the Nation that used a longer section of her answer than that on 60 Minutes. Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response. When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point. The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment.”
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The American Tribune previously reported on a letter written to CBS by Trump lawyer Edward Andrew Paltzik threatening legal action over the editing. The lawyer claimed, “News organizations such as CBS have a responsibility to accurately represent the truth of events, not distort an interview to try and make their preferred candidate appear coherent and decisive, which Harris most certainly is not. Due to CBS’ actions, the public cannot distinguish which Kamala Harris they are seeing: the candidate or the puppet of a behind-the-scenes editor,” he said.
Watch Harris’ answer which was edited below: