President Donald Trump isn't satisfied with a $15 million settlement offer from CBS over the network's alleged bias against him and in favor of his rival, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, on a "60 Minutes" broadcast before the election.
Trump rejected the settlement offer from CBS parent Paramount Global during arbitration of his $20 million lawsuit, saying he wanted $25 million and an apology for the bias.
The original lawsuit was for $10 billion, but after a judge said the suit had merit and didn't dismiss it, it went to $20 billion.
Trump's ire was raised after it came out that CBS selectively edited an interview answer by Harris, replacing it with another answer that sounded less like the original "word salad" answer.
Trump and others in the GOP called the action "interfering" in the 2024 election, and the outrage was on full blast.
CBS News still says it didn't do anything wrong, and wants Trump to take the settlement without admitting wrongdoing.
The "60 Minutes" executive editor and the president of CBS News resigned after the widespread backlash over the edits, which certainly belies the assertion that the show and network didn't do anything wrong.
Sure, executive producer Bill Owens is claiming he resigned because he was being denied editorial independence, but that is face-saving at best.
Trump is also threatening to file another suit against CBS over the most recent "60 Minutes" episode, in which Trump was compared to a mob boss.
Complicating matters even more is the ongoing attempt by Paramount Global to merge with Skydance Media.
The price tag of that merger is $8 billion, but Skydance understandably wants nothing to do with a merger until the lawsuit is resolved.
Trump has CBS over a barrel, and he's exactly as much of his pound of flesh as he possibly can while the getting is good.
According to the Daily Beast, Trump's lawyers said "mental anguish" was the reason $15 million wasn't enough, but it's really the apology that he wants even more than the money, it seems.
After so many legal situations where he seemed to be at the mercy of an unfriendly judge and prosecutor, Trump is taking full advantage of this one.
