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Trump Teases a Lawsuit Over That '60 Minutes' Transcript

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  October 21, 2024 10:45 PM

CBS News continues to find themselves embroiled in scandal after refusing to release the transcript of their edited "60 Minutes" interview with Vice President Kamala Harris from earlier this month. While the network put out a statement on Sunday, that's hardly the end of the story. As Fox News reported on Monday night, the Trump-Vance campaign is still looking for answers, and may even turn to a lawsuit as a result.

The Fox News report mentioned key sections of the letter from Edward Andrew Paltzik, legal counsel for Donald Trump:

In a copy of the letter obtained by Fox News Digital, Trump's legal counsel Edward Andrew Paltzik, writing on behalf of Trump, said that CBS News "intentionally misled the public by broadcasting a skillfully edited interview transcript… aimed at causing confusion among the electorate regarding Vice President Kamala Harris’s abilities, intelligence, and appeal." 

"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," the attorney wrote. "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."

...

"President Trump is rightly alleging that CBS’s ‘doctoring’ of Harris’s answers on 60 Minutes was deceptive. The allegation is not simply that CBS was dishonest; it is that CBS deceived viewers into thinking Harris’ answer was, at the very least—as CBS put it—more ‘succinct’ than the word salad it actually was," Paltzik wrote. "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. Responsible news sources must be held accountable to the highest standards."

Paltzik didn't merely send a strongly worded letter, though.

"We therefore demand that you immediately provide and publicly release the full, unedited transcript of the 60 Minutes Interview with Kamala Harris. Additionally, in contemplation of possible litigation, we demand that you preserve all communications and documents relating to this Interview, together with any edits of the Interview’s content, and that you refrain from destroying any relevant communications or documents. Kindly confirm receipt of this letter within 48 hours and further confirm your intention to cooperate with these demands," he also wrote, with added emphasis. 

Trump shared the letter over his Truth Social account later on Monday night. 

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The Fox News report noted that "CBS News did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment." The "60 Minutes" X account has also not referenced the letter, though it took weeks for them to answer for editing the transcript and the clip.

As the statement read [Emphasis added]:

Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceitful editing of our Oct. 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false.

60 Minutes gave an excerpt of our interview to Face the Nation that used a longer section of her answer than that on 60 Minutes. Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response. When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point. 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.

Remember, Mr. Trump pulled out of his interview with 60 Minutes and the vice president participated.

Our long-standing invitation to former President Trump remains open. If he would like to discuss the issues facing the nation and the Harris interview, we would be happy to have him on 60 Minutes.

Their nondenial, which spent a considerable amount of time hitting Trump for righteous indignation about the interview, was in response to Harris' response to questions about Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Democratic nominee came off as sounding so inarticulate that the clip and transcript were edited, with her response coming off as sounding better. Harris also threw Netanyahu under the bus in a particularly shameful nonanswer about whether or not she saw him as a "real close ally."

The post from "60 Minutes" with such a statement has been thoroughly ratioed with thousands of quoted reposts and ten thousand replies of users calling on them to release the transcript. Still others posted screenshots, including Bonchie from our sister site of RedState, who called on Republicans to stop going on CBS News.