Former President Donald Trump is suing CBS News for $10 billion after the network was caught in “deceptive conduct” in its interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.
“This action concerns CBS’s partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to (a) confuse, deceive, and mislead the public, and (b) 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,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
The lawsuit was first obtained by Fox News.
“CBS and its 60 Minutes producers intentionally misled the public by broadcasting and posting a carefully, deceptively edited Interview and transcript while opting to release other portions online. Such manipulative editing aimed to confuse the electorate regarding Kamala’s lack of abilities, intelligence, and appeal,” the lawyers added.
“News organizations such as CBS are responsible for accurately representing the truth of events, not distorting an interview to try and falsely make their preferred candidate appear coherent and decisive, which Kamala most certainly is not,” the lawsuit states. “Due to CBS’s 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.”
Trump is seeking “compensatory damages in an amount to be determined upon the trial of this action but greater than $75,000.00 and approximated at $10,000,000,000.00” for “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.”
In a segment of the interview teased by “60 Minutes” before it aired, Harris discussed the U.S.’s influence over Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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.”
When the interview aired, audiences noticed that Harris’ answer had been edited to: “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.”
