Donald Trump is escalating his battle against CBS over its ’60 Minutes’ interview with Kamala Harris, with his lawyer sending a letter demanding the network release a transcript of its interview with his rival.
Days after the interview aired, Trump accuses the program of ‘doctoring’ the interview to excise a word salad answer about Israel.
Now Trump, who has a long history of filing lawsuits against media organizations (a judge early this year ordered him to pay $400,000 in legal fees to the New York Times), now is raising doubts about the printed transcript the network released.
‘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,” wrote Trump lawyer Edward Andrew Paltzik.
‘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,’ he wrote, using a term Trump loyalists sometimes apply to Harris.
The letter accuses the network of engaging in ‘news distortion’ and its producers of having ‘intentionally misled the public by broadcasting a skillfully edited Interview transcript, while opting to release other portions online.’
It hints at possible legal action by saying, ‘Kindly confirm receipt of this letter within 48 hours and further confirm your intention to cooperate with these demands.’
He writes it was aimed at ‘causing confusion among the electorate regarding Vice President Kamala Harris’s abilities, intelligence, and appeal.’
That echoes another one of Trump’s attacks. He called Harris a ‘stupid person’ as recently as Monday.
Trump blasted out the letter on his Truth Social account to turn up the heat. And he barked at a local CBS reporter on his visit to a suburban Philadelphia area McDonald’s when she identified herself as an employee.
That came on a day he attacked the ‘fake news’ media in a side comment from within the McDonald’s drive-thru window. He also blasted the ‘fake news’ media Monday and demanded reporters interview Kamala Harris’s 86-year old father.
The network over the weekend hit back at claims the program was ‘deceitfully edited.’
It came after the network first aired a long and disjointed statement from Harris on CBS Face the Nation last Sunday. But she gave a more succinct answer the following night on a prime time special.
Kamala Harris deliver a lengthy and meandering answer in a a CBS interview that got replaced with a more succinct one in the segment that aired on 60 Minutes
Trump has accused the station of fraud and said it should be taken off the air, despite obvious First Amendment issues such a move would implicate.
‘Former President Donald Trump is accusing 60 Minutes of deceitful editing of our Oct 7 interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. That is false,’ CBS said on Sunday.
CBS explained that the interview had to be condensed to fit into a 21-minute program, and it was standard procedure to trim long answers to cover more topics.
’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,’ the network said in its statement.
‘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.’
The network also noted that Trump ‘pulled out of his interview with 60 Minutes and the vice president participated’.
Trump didn’t show after demanding an apology for his contentious 2020 interview with Leslie Stahl.
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