Former President Donald Trump sued CBS in an Amarillo federal court Thursday for at least $10 billion, accusing the broadcast giant of deceptive trade practices by editing an interview with his Democratic presidential opponent Vice President Kamala Harris.
The lawsuit — filed in front of Trump appointee Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk — alleged CBS News edited the response Harris gave to a question about the war in Gaza during a 60 Minutes interview last month in order to conceal what it calls her tendency to speak “word salad.”
CBS News aired two versions of the interview with journalist Bill Whitaker on the network’s shows Face the Nation and 60 Minutes early last month. In both versions, Whitaker asks Harris a question about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the host remarking, “it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening.”
In the version that aired on Face the Nation, Harris replies: “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.”
In the 60 Minutes version that aired one day later, Harris replies: “We are not gonna [sic] stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”
Trump criticized CBS for the two different versions of the interview on his social media platform Truth Social, calling on CBS to release the full interview and calling Harris “slow, incoherent, and in no way qualified to be the President of the United States.”
CBS News addressed the editing in a statement Oct. 20. 60 Minutes gave a portion of its interview to Face the Nation, according to the statement. Both of Harris’ remarks were different parts of the same response to the same question, but Face the Nation used a longer version than 60 Minutes.
“When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point,” the statement reads. “The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment.”
But Trump again said on Truth Social the editing was an attempt to make Harris look better, hinting at a lawsuit in other interviews. When his lawyers requested the full, unedited transcript of the CBS interview with Harris, the network declined to provide it, according to the lawsuit.
Trump accused CBS of violating the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, a Texas law that prohibits "false, misleading, or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce."
The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of Texas’ Amarillo branch, where Kacsmaryk is the only judge. In addition to being a Trump appointee, Kacsmaryk is a former attorney with religious rights legal organization First Liberty Institute in Plano.
Kacsmaryk’s court has become a destination for conservative challenges to federal law, something that’s been criticized as “judge shopping.” He ruled to put a hold on the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion medication mifepristone last year, more than 20 years after it was initially approved for use.
Kacsmaryk also sided with Texas and Missouri when the states sued to stop President Joe Biden from ending Trump’s 2019 “Remain in Mexico” policy, which required even non-Mexican asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while waiting to have their cases heard.
Trump’s attorneys also make the case that the lawsuit is relevant to Texas because CBS owns television station KTVT in North Texas, and they argued Texas voters have been misled by the CBS interview with Harris.
“The edited broadcast created confusion because that was CBS’s intent: to do whatever it took to portray Kamala as intelligent, well-informed, and confident when, in fact, she is none of the above,” the lawsuit states.
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