President Donald Trump on Friday amended his lawsuit against CBS over a “60 Minutes” broadcast which the suit contends altered responses by Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris to improve her chances in the election.
Trump is now asking for $20 billion from the network, double the amount from the initial lawsuit.
The amended lawsuit supersedes the original complaint, which makes CBS’s motion to dismiss the original complaint moot, U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk ruled. CBS has until March 7 to file a motion to throw out the amended suit, which adds new legal arguments.
Trump believes newly released footage, overseen by the Federal Communications Commission, is more damaging and proves that CBS was attempting to interfere with the election.
The lawsuit added CBS News's parent company Paramount Global as a defendant, citing how the "60 Minutes" election special was platformed on its Paramount+ streaming service.
Trump added several more points to his lawsuit, also claiming that CBS engaged in unfair competition, alleging that the deceptively edited Harris interview diverted traffic and viewership away from his own media company, Trump Media and Technology Group, which includes Truth Social.
Posts to X said noted that actions must have consequences and that Trump would like to see nothing less than bankruptcy for the network:
It was straight up election interference by a news organization who had to remain neutral.
I’m glad he’s coming for everyone who tried to take him down. — Valentina Gomez (@ValentinaForUSA) February 9, 2025
🚨 #BREAKING: After CBS was forced to release the unedited version of their Kamala Harris interview, President Trump has DOUBLED the value of his lawsuit against them from $10 billion to $20 billion
CBS is DONE 🤣🔥 pic.twitter.com/MpklmFkkE8 — Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) February 9, 2025
Last week, the FCC released the raw transcript and footage handed over by CBS News.
During the unedited version, Harris gave rambling answers on why she should be president, foreign policy, and on Trump - all which were quietly edited out by CBS.
The transcript showed the network had aired only the first half of Harris's response to a question about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not "listening" to the Biden administration in a preview clip that aired on "Face the Nation," but aired only the second half of her response during the primetime special.
"But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening," CBS's Bill Whitaker said in the October 2024 interview. "The Wall Street Journal said that he — that your administration has repeatedly been blindsided by Netanyahu, and in fact, he has rebuffed just about all of your administration's entreaties."
"Well, 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're 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," Harris responded.
New FCC chair Brendan Carr ordered CBS News to hand over the unedited transcript as part of its investigation into whether the network violated the FCC's "news distortion" policy after a complaint was filed.
In the preview clip that aired on "Face the Nation," Harris was asked why it seemed like Netanyahu wasn’t listening to the U.S.
"Well, 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," Harris responded in the "Face the Nation" clip.
Harris was mocked by conservatives for offering a lengthy "word salad" to Whitaker. But when that same question aired the following night in the primetime election special, a shorter, more focused answer from the vice president followed.
"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," Harris said in the primetime special.
"(CBS News) manipulated not only Harris’s Reply about Prime Minister Netanyahu, but the Interview in its entirety," Trump's lawsuit reads.
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's FCC, which has the authority to halt the multibillion-dollar transaction. Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, is reportedly in favor of settling with the president.
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