Trump says Kamala Harris' ‘60 Minutes’ interview caused him ‘mental anguish’ as he snubs $15M settlement
WASHINGTON, DC: Lawyers of Donald Trump have now reportedly claimed that the president suffered from “mental anguish” due to a CBS News '60 Minutes' interview with ex-Vice President Kamala Harris in October 2024, ahead of last year’s presidential election.
In court documents filed on Wednesday, May 28, Trump’s legal team made the allegation after Paramount Global’s request to dismiss his October lawsuit against CBS over the alleged deceitful editing of the interview, as reported by HuffPost.
Paramount Global owns CBS.
Donald Trump alleges Kamala Harris’ interview caused ‘widespread confusion and mental anguish’
In his earlier lawsuit, the Republican leader had accused CBS of “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion.”
Now, the new suit alleged that Harris’ interview was slyly edited, which resulted in “widespread confusion and mental anguish of consumers, including Plaintiffs, regarding a household name of the legacy media apparently deceptively distorting its broadcasts, and then resisting attempts to clear the public record.”
The legal team further mentioned that Paramount and CBS “seek to wield the First Amendment as a sword, arguing that they cannot be held responsible for illegal conduct, intended to mislead the masses and undertaken in the pursuit of profit, because such conduct was the result of ‘editorial judgment.'”
“No matter how many times they claim the conduct at issue was editorial speech, that ipse dixit does not make it so,” the motion added, as per The Independent.
Donald Trump declines settlement worth $15 million
This came as another report stated that Donald Trump refused to take a $15 million offer to settle his lawsuit against CBS News, Huffpost reported, citing The Wall Street Journal.
He, instead, has demanded more than $25 million along with an apology from the network.
Besides, the commander-in-chief has threatened to file another legal suit against the television broadcaster.
CBS insists Kamala Harris' '60 Minutes' interview was not wrongfully edited
Meanwhile, earlier this year, CBS issued a statement, asserting that the interview was not wrongfully edited.
It said in February, “In reporting the news, journalists regularly edit interviews – for time, space or clarity. In making these edits, 60 Minutes is always guided by the truth and what we believe will be most informative to the viewing public – all while working within the constraints of broadcast television.”
“As the full transcript shows, we edited the interview to ensure that as much of the vice president's answers to 60 Minutes' many questions were included in our original broadcast while fairly representing those answers. 60 Minutes' hard-hitting questions of the vice president speak for themselves,” the network added.
