Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against the CBS TV network, asking for damages of $10 billion in damages, citing the latter's "deceptive" editing of an interview he had with Vice President Kamala Harris as a form of election interference.
It, filed Thursday in a Texas federal court, alleges the edits CBS made "tipped the scales in favor of the Democratic Party as the heated 2024 Presidential Election — which President Trump is leading approaches its conclusion."
To mask Kamala's 'word salad' weakness, the national platform of CBS decided to cross the line drawn in reporting from the exercise of judgment to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news, stated the legal team of Trump.
According to CBS, the case is denied as the interview conducted with Harris was not manipulated, and it will continue fighting the case vigorously, it said in a statement.
The dispute is over comments Harris made about Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an interview with correspondent Bill Whitaker.
In a preview of the show 'Face the Nation,' she said that "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.".
But when the interview was broadcast the next day in an election special on the 60 Minutes programme, which had been originally taped after she had been mocked for the lengthy remark that critics said had no substance, she was shown as saying, tersely, "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."
Trump and his supporters claim that a new interview segment was prepared for that portion of the interview and was added.
He asked for a full, unedited transcript of the interview, but CBS declined, saying it was constitutionally protected under the First Amendment that protects the rights of the media.
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