Former President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against CBS News for $10 billion, alleging that the network engaged in "deceptive conduct" by what he claims is editing of an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. The network and "60 Minutes," where the interview was aired, are vehemently rejecting the claim.
Trump attorneys accused CBS of "partisan an unlawful acts of election and vote interference through malicious, deceptive and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive and mislead the public."
Concretely, Trump and high-profile Republicans have been claiming that the network heavily edited answers from Harris during her interview with "60 Minutes" on October 7 to embellish her responses and hide unpalatable ones. Trump rejected the interview after initially accepting to do so, with his campaign denying that was the case.
"Fake News. 60 Minutes begged for an interview, even after they were caught lying about Hunter Biden's laptop back in 2020. There were initial discussions, but nothing was ever scheduled or locked in," said campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung in early October. "They insisted on cutting out of the interview to do fact-checking," he added.
Trump has since been blasting the Harris interview. Trump attorneys have also demanded the network release the full transcript of the interview after airing two answers to the same question about whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was listening to the United States.
"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," reads a passage of the lawsuit.
CBS News rejected, citing the First Amendment, and denied "doctoring" the interview. The program released a statement of its own claiming "the interview was not doctored" and "60 minutes did not hide any part of the vice president's answer to the question at issue."
"60 Minutes fairly presented the interview to inform the viewing audience, and not to mislead it. The lawsuit Trump has brought today against CBS is completely without merit and we will vigorously defend against it.
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