Former President Donald Trump, the current GOP presidential nominee, filed a lawsuit against CBS News on Thursday over its 60 Minutes interview with his Democratic opponent Vice President Kamala Harris which aired earlier this month.
The lawsuit challenges “CBS’ partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive, and mislead the public,” according to Thursday’s filing obtained by Fox News Digital.
Trump’s attorneys argued that Bill Whitaker’s interview with Harris was edited to “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.”
It’s unclear which metrics Trump’s attorneys are using to judge the presidential candidate’s performance in the race thus far. The November 5 election is going to be a tight one with Harris currently leading Trump by just 1.2 points (47.9 to 46.7 percent) in the national polls, according to poll aggregator 538’s numbers from Thursday.
Newsweek reached out to CBS News and Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, via email for comment Thursday evening.
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Harris’ 60 Minutes Controversy Explained
Trump’s lawsuit stems from a part of Harris’ interview with Whitaker in which she was asked about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The interview was aired on October 7, the first anniversary of Israel’s war in Gaza.
The day before the full interview was aired, a preview was shown on CBS News’ Face the Nation. In the clip, Harris gave a wordy answer when Whitaker confronted her about Netanyahu seeming to not listen to the U.S. about how to handle conflict in the Middle East.
When the full interview was aired the next day, Harris’ wordy answer was shortened and her answer to a follow-up question was completely changed.
“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 says.
Before the lawsuit was filed, Trump’s attorneys wrote letters to CBS News requesting that the network release the full interview transcript. CBS News’ declined to do so, citing the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
CBS News Responds To Lawsuit
A CBS News spokesperson told Newsweek via email Thursday evening, “Former President Trump’s repeated claims against 60 Minutes are false.”
The spokesperson said the 60 Minutes interview “was not doctored” and that the program “did not hide any part of the Vice President’s answer to the question at issue.”
The program “fairly presented” Whitaker’s interview with Harris “to inform the viewing audience, and not to mislead it,” the spokesperson said, adding, “The lawsuit Trump has brought today against CBS is completely without merit and we will vigorously defend against it.”
Trump Asks For $10 Billion From CBS News
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, seeks $10 billion in damages for CBS News’ alleged “ongoing false, misleading, and deceptive acts; the attorneys’ fees and costs associated with this action; and such other relief as the court deems just and proper.”
Trump brought on the lawsuit “to redress the immense harm caused to him, to his campaign, and to tens of millions of citizens in Texas and across America by CBS’s deceptive broadcasting conduct,” the lawsuit says.
“Due to CBS’ actions, the public could not distinguish which Kamala they saw in the Interview: the candidate or the actual puppet of a behind-the-scenes editor,” according to the suit.
The suit said that Whitaker’s question “was of the utmost public significance—U.S. foreign policy on the matter of the Israel/Gaza war—at a time of immense importance, mere weeks before the most critical presidential election in American history.”
