CBS In Settlement Talks With Trump After He Filed Lawsuit Over Deceptive ’60 Minutes’ Interview

Paramount, the company that owns CBS, is reportedly in talks with representatives of President Donald Trump to settle a $10 billion lawsuit that he brought against the company late last year over a deceptively edited interview that “60 Minutes” did with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

The New York Times reported that the company believes that settling the lawsuit, which it previously dismissed as a stretch, would “increase the odds that the Trump administration does not block or delay their planned multibillion-dollar merger with another company.”

Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, reportedly “strongly supports” the push to settle the lawsuit.

The report said that if the company settles, the staff that works on left-wing “60 Minutes” may be furious because they would consider it caving to Trump.

“Real accountability for CBS and Paramount will ensure that the president is compensated for the harm done to him, and will deter the Fake News from further distorting the facts to advance a partisan agenda,” a lawyer for Trump said. “President Trump looks forward to seeing this case through to a just conclusion.”

News of Paramount’s efforts to settle the lawsuit comes after ABC News paid Trump $15 million to settle a lawsuit last month and Meta agreed this week to settle a lawsuit for $25 million.

Trump called for an investigation into “60 Minutes” in October after the news program was caught deceptively editing an answer that Harris gave regarding relations between the U.S. and Israel.

“I’ve never seen this before, but the producers of 60 Minutes sliced and diced (‘cut and pasted’) Lyin’ Kamala’s answers to questions, which were virtually incoherent, over and over again,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Trump said that he believes “60 Minutes” did so as part of an illegal effort to boost Harris in the race, adding that it also could be a campaign finance violation.

“This is a stain on the reputation of 60 Minutes that is not recoverable – It will always remain with this once storied brand,” he said. “I have never heard of such a thing being done in ‘News.’ It is the very definition of FAKE NEWS! The public is owed a MAJOR AND IMMEDIATE APOLOGY! This is an open and shut case, and must be investigated, starting today!”

Trump’s post came after the show released two contradictory answers from Harris in response to remarks made by host Bill Whitaker.

The moment happened when Whitaker was discussing with Harris the United States’ financial support for Israel in its war against genocidal Islamic terrorists in the region.

“But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening,” Whitaker said to Harris.

In a promotional clip that was posted by CBS News, Harris responded to that statement from Whitaker by saying: “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.”

However, when the full interview was published later by the network, that statement from Harris was nowhere to be found. Those words were not included anywhere in the television broadcast nor did they appear in the interview when it was posted on YouTube, the interview’s transcript, or the show’s “Overtime” segment.

Instead, on television and in the interview posted online, Whitaker’s identical statement that “it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening,” is followed by Harris saying: “We are not gonna stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”

Remember Kamala’s word salad answer about Israel on 60 Minutes? It’s gone.

This is what many Americans will now see. pic.twitter.com/H4w7btDv6x

— MAZE (@mazemoore) October 8, 2024