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President Donald Trump’s lawyers told CBS News on Monday that he was considering a lawsuit against the network if it does not release the full unedited transcript of its “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump shared a copy of the letter on his Truth Social account after it was sent to CBS.
“Such manipulative editing was aimed at causing confusion among the electorate regarding Vice President Kamala Harris’s abilities, intelligence, and appeal,” Trump lawyer Edward Andrew Paltzik wrote in a letter.
“News organizations such as CBS have a responsibility to accurately represent the truth of events, not distort an interview to try and make their preferred candidate appear coherent and decisive, which Harris most certainly is not. Due to CBS’ actions, the public cannot distinguish which Kamala Harris they are seeing: the candidate or the puppet of a behind-the-scenes editor,” it continued.
Trump demanded the release of the full transcript to the public and called on CBS to preserve all documents and communications about the interview.
“The executives and producers at CBS, and 60 Minutes in particular, are unquestionably aware that the purpose behind editing the Interview was to confuse the electorate and portray the Vice President in a better light than a full, unedited transcript would reveal,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
“Responsible news sources must be held accountable to the highest standards,” the letter added.
The controversy arose after the original response from Harris to a question about Israel was changed.
“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 longer version of her response.
“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 version aired on television.
“When will CBS release their Transcript of the fraudulent Interview with Comrade Kamala Harris? They changed her answer in order to make Kamala look intelligent, rather than ‘dumb as a rock.’ This may be the Biggest Scandal in Broadcast History! CBS MUST GET THE TRANSCRIPT OUT NOW — Litigation has already started,” Trump posted to X on Monday.
“Harris wasn’t able to put two sentences together, so they completely removed her answer, and put in another one. The Public has a right to know what was changed to save this TOTALLY UNFIT Presidential Candidate from our Country’s Voters. SHE IS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY!” Trump stated.