U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders is pushing for CBS to “stand tall” as it maneuvers through a legal battle with Donald Trump.
“CBS may be reaching a legal settlement with Trump because he didn’t like how a campaign interview with Kamala was edited. Really? If CBS caves, the belief that we have an independent media protected by the First Amendment is undermined. CBS: stand tall. Support the Constitution,” Sanders wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
On Thursday, October 31, 2024, Trump reportedly filed a lawsuit seeking $10 million in damages from the network. The lawsuit argues the network edited an interview with then-Democratic nominee for President Kamala Harris at the direction of her campaign. In response, Trump called for CBS to “lose its license.”
“To paper over Kamala’s ‘word salad’ weakness, CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news,” the lawsuit reads.
The network has vehemently denied claims made by Trump and says the lawsuit is “completely without merit.”
“The Interview was not doctored; and 60 Minutes did not hide any part of the Vice President’s answer to the question at issue,” a spokesperson for CBS stated at the time the lawsuit was filed. “60 Minutes fairly presented the Interview to inform the viewing audience, and not to mislead it. The lawsuit Trump has brought today against CBS is completely without merit and we will vigorously defend against it.”
More recently, a report from the Wall Street Journal indicated that executives of Paramount, CBS’s parent company, have discussed a potential settlement with Trump. If so, CBS would not be the first network to settle with Trump. In December, ABC and George Stephanopoulos reportedly settled for $15 million after the anchor said Trump was found “liable for rape” in the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit.
