This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
'It is vital to hold these Liars and Fraudsters accountable!'
President Donald Trump on Wednesday unleashed another scathing attack on deceptive news agencies, saying CBS News, its "60 Minutes" program, and the New York Times "have to pay a price" for "their likely unlawful behavior," as reports emerge that CBS and its parent company Paramount are caving to Trump's legal action against them.
Trump sued CBS, alleging the network deceptively edited its Oct. 7 interview with Kamala Harris to help the vice president sound better during the 2024 race for the White House. Now Paramount executives are reportedly nearing a deal with Trump to settle the claims, according to Mark Steffen at Trending Politics.
Steffen reported: "The offer, set to be discussed Wednesday in the first mediation between both camps, is a tacit acknowledgement of how desperate the entertainment company's upper echelon has become to end Trump's $20 billion lawsuit.
"During an April 18th meeting, Paramount allegedly outlined financial parameters for a potential settlement with the president, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. The exact dollar amount is unclear, but reaching a consensus would pave the way for both sides to seek dismissal of the suit."
Trump said Wednesday on Truth Social: "The case we have against 60 Minutes, CBS, and Paramount is a true WINNER."
"They cheated and defrauded the American People at levels never seen before in the Political Arena. Kamala Harris, during Early Voting and, immediately before Election Day, was asked a question, and gave an answer, that was so bad and incompetent that it would have cost her many of the Votes that she ended up getting.
"It was a disastrous answer! 60 Minutes and its corporate parents, in order that this not have a negative impact on her, removed and deleted Kamala's entire answer, every word of it, and replaced it with a response that she gave later on to an entirely different question.
"The new answer was not good, but it didn't show Gross Incompetence like the one that was removed by 60 Minutes. In other words, 60 Minutes perpetrated a Giant FRAUD against the American People, the Federal Elections Commission, and the Federal Communications System."
Trump continued: "Despite all of the above, and Paramount's/CBS'/60 Minutes' admittance to this crime and, with other similar corrupt removals of answers to questions, the Failing New York Times, which is Fake News both in writing and polling, claims that 'people' said that the case is baseless.
"They don't mean that, they just have a non curable case of TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, possibly to the point where the Times' interjection makes them liable for tortious interference, including in Elections, which we are intently studying. The bottom line is that what 60 Minutes and its corporate owners have committed is one of the most egregious illegalities in Broadcast History.
"Nothing like this, the illegal creation of an answer for a Presidential Candidate, has ever been done before, they have to pay a price for it, and the Times should also be on the hook for their likely unlawful behavior. It is vital to hold these Liars and Fraudsters accountable!"
As WorldNetDaily reported in October, CBS was named in a federal complaint for its decision to make Harris look coherent, as it was accused of "significant and intentional news distortion."
CBS News released a statement at the time, indicating: "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."
Howard Kurtz, the former Washington Post media writer who left CNN to join Fox News in 2013, blasted "60 Minutes" as "blatantly unethical" for its "pathetic response."
"This is a pathetic response by '60 Minutes' after a week of silence," Kurtz told Martha MacCallum of Fox News.
"It basically says, 'Yeah, we did it. So what?' They talk about making Kamala Harris sound more succinct, in other words, making her look better by switching up the answers as you just saw. You can't have a different part of an answer to the same question."
"It's blatantly unethical, and if someone on my staff did that, they'd be looking for a new job," he continued.
Trump himself previously hammered CBS for its deceptive editing, calling it "the single greatest scandal, in my opinion, in broadcast history."
"'60 Minutes' and CBS interviewed Kamala, and she's incompetent. She gave them the dumbest answer anyone's ever heard. So they took that answer out, the whole answer they threw out, and they took another answer that she gave to a totally different question and inserted it. And supposedly, they did this a number of times. And they got caught. '60 Minutes' and CBS should lose their license for that."
