{"id":20874,"date":"2025-02-08T18:00:30","date_gmt":"2025-02-08T18:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=20874"},"modified":"2025-02-08T18:00:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-08T18:00:30","slug":"trumps-lawsuit-against-cbs-expands-after-release-of-60-minutes-transcript-adds-paramount-as-defendant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=20874","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s lawsuit against CBS expands after release of \u201860 Minutes\u2019 transcript, adds Paramount as defendant"},"content":{"rendered":"

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President Donald Trump\u2019s lawsuit against\u00a0CBS News was expanded<\/a>\u00a0following the release of the unedited transcript and raw footage of its \u201c60 Minutes\u201d interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n

According to a late-Friday filing from Trump\u2019s legal team reviewed by\u00a0Fox News Digital,\u00a0the lawsuit is adding CBS News\u2019 parent company\u00a0Paramount Global as a defendant,<\/a>\u00a0citing how the \u201c60 Minutes\u201d election special was platformed on its Paramount+ streaming service.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the lawsuit is adding Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, as a plaintiff.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepresentative Jackson is a consumer of broadcast and digital news media content in this State, District, and Division, including the broadcast and digital news media content from Defendants at issue in this action, and he has thus been injured by Defendants\u2019 conduct alleged herein,\u201d the amended complaint states.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s attorneys amended its lawsuit to include multiple excerpts from the unedited transcript in hopes of bolstering their case that CBS News withheld unflattering exchanges in order to help the Democratic nominee.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce Defendants finally released the unedited version of the Interview, it became apparent that they had engaged in gross broadcast distortion cover-up and manipulated not only Harris\u2019s Reply about Prime Minister Netanyahu, but the Interview in its entirety,\u201d the filing states.<\/p>\n

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\"Former5<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
Former Vice President Kamala Harris answers a question during an interview with CBS\u2019 \u201c60 Minutes\u201d in October 2024 before the presidential election.60 Minutes \/ CBS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For example, in one of the exchanges highlighted from the unedited transcript, \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent Bill Whitaker pressed Harris on how the number of border crossings had \u201cquadrupled\u201d in the first three years of the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

Harris provided another \u201cword salad answer,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Trump\u2019s attorneys argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a variety of factors that relate to what we have seen globally, and what we are not immune from at our own border in terms of what we have seen in terms of the surge of immigration and irregular migration,\u201d Harris told Whitaker. \u201cAnd there are solutions at hand, but we\u2019ve got to have leaders who are solution-oriented, which we\u2019ve been and are, and I am going forward, instead of leaders who want to make it a problem they can run on.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"President5<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
President Donald Trump speaks to Republican Senators during a dinner at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida on Feb. 7, 2025.AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\"Bill5<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
Bill Whitaker interview Harris from her home during the \u201c60 Minutes\u201d coverage.60 Minutes \/ CBS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Trump\u2019s attorneys also have filed a FOIA request to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to obtain all records pertaining to his lawsuit against CBS News, including from Biden-era FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel.<\/p>\n

Neither CBS News nor Paramount Global immediately responded to Fox News Digital\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the FCC released the raw transcript and footage handed over by CBS News, which showed CBS News had aired only the first half of Harris\u2019 response to Whitaker\u2019s question about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not \u201clistening\u201d to the Biden administration in a preview clip that aired on \u201cFace the Nation,\u201d but aired only the second half of her response during the primetime special.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening,\u201d Whitaker said in the October 2024 interview. \u201cThe Wall Street Journal said that he\u2014 that your administration has repeatedly been blindsided by Netanyahu, and in fact, he has rebuffed just about all of your administration\u2019s entreaties.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWell, Bill, 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. And we\u2019re not going to stop doing that. 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,\u201d Harris responded.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s FCC chair\u00a0Brendan Carr\u00a0ordered CBS News to hand over<\/a>\u00a0the unedited transcript as part of its investigation into whether the network violated the FCC\u2019s \u201cnews distortion\u201d policy after a complaint was filed.<\/p>\n

In the preview clip that aired on \u201cFace the Nation,\u201d Harris was asked why it seemed like Netanyahu wasn\u2019t listening to the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, Bill, 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,\u201d Harris responded in the \u201cFace the Nation\u201d clip.<\/p>\n

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\"Texas5<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson is recognized during Trump\u2019s executive order signing in the East Room of the White House on Feb. 5, 2025.Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Harris was mocked by conservatives for\u00a0offering a lengthy \u201cword salad\u201d\u00a0to Whitaker. But when that same question aired the following night in the primetime election special,\u00a0a shorter, more focused answer\u00a0from the vice president followed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d Harris said in the primetime special.<\/p>\n

Critics accused CBS News of editing\u00a0Harris\u2019 \u201cword salad\u201d answer\u00a0to shield the vice president from further backlash, and there were calls for the network to release the full transcript after it only shared transcripts of what had aired. CBS News refused to release the raw transcript at the time.<\/p>\n

Carr said it\u2019s \u201chard to explain\u201d CBS News\u2019 conduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the one hand, CBS immediately released the unredacted transcript of a recent interview with Vice President Vance.\u00a0Yet for months they refused to release the one with Vice President Harris,\u201d Carr told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n

Carr referred to CBS News\u00a0releasing the transcript\u00a0of \u201cFace the Nation\u201d anchor Margaret Brennan\u2019s interview with Vice President JD Vance last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FCC has now opened up a proceeding and is seeking public comment on the News Distortion complaint.\u00a0Transparency here is important. The FCC\u2019s review will continue, and we look forward to the public\u2019s feedback,\u201d Carr added.<\/p>\n

In October, Trump filed a\u00a0$10 billion lawsuit against CBS News<\/a>\u00a0alleging election interference over its handling of the \u201c60 Minutes\u201d interview, accusing the network of aiding his Democratic rival through deceptive editing just days before the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo paper over Kamala\u2019s \u2018word salad\u2019 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,\u201d the lawsuit stated.<\/p>\n

Trump attorneys argued the edits were done in an effort to \u201cattempt to tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party as the heated 2024 Presidential Election \u2014\u00a0which President Trump is leading<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 approaches its conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"FCC5<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr testifies to the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on March 31, 2022.Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\u201cCBS\u2019 partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive, and mislead the public,\u201d the lawsuit read.<\/p>\n

CBS parent company Paramount Global is reportedly considering settling the suit ahead of a planned merger with Skydance Media in hopes of preventing potential retribution by Trump\u2019s FCC, which has the authority to halt the multibillion-dollar transaction. Shari Redstone, Paramount\u2019s controlling shareholder, is reportedly in favor of settling with the president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    President Donald Trump\u2019s lawsuit against\u00a0CBS News was expanded\u00a0following the release of the unedited transcript and raw footage of its \u201c60 Minutes\u201d interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. According … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20876,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20874\/revisions\/20876"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}