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On February 6, 2025, President Trump took to Truth Social to comment on the CBS show after 60 Minutes released full and unedited footage of Kamala Harris' interview shot in October 2024, given the president and CBS are engaged in a lawsuit over the former's claims of the Harris interview being edited.
In his Truth Social post, the sitting president mentioned:
"CBS and 60 Minutes defrauded the public by doing something which has never, to this extent, been seen before. They 100% removed Kamala’s horrible election changing answers to questions, and replaced them with completely different, and far better, answers, taken from another part of the interview."
The sitting president of the U.S. added that the alleged edits made by CBS contributed to changing the election and dubbed them "election interference" and "election fraud" at a level that wasn't seen before. Commenting on the repercussions of the American television and radio broadcaster being found guilty, Trump suggested:
"CBS should lose its license, and the cheaters at 60 Minutes should all be thrown out, and this disreputable “NEWS” show should be immediately terminated."
Pointing at another one of his claims, the president compared his allegations against CBS' 60 Minutes to the "new Democrat scandal" wherein USAID reportedly paid large sums of money to Politico and other media outlets illegally. Donald Trump said that it was important to ask if CBS was paid for committing the alleged fraud. He ended his statement by mentioning:
"Many other questions to come! This will go down as the biggest Broadcasting SCANDAL in History!!!"
Elon Musk seemingly backs Donald Trump's remarks against CBS' 60 Minutes
Elon Musk took to X on February 7, 2025, to indirectly back President Trump's comments on the CBS News show 60 Minutes. In his tweet, Musk shared a post by an X user @wildbarestepf who tweeted a creative of "69 Minutes" and questioned the Tesla CEO about its cost and when people could buy it, seemingly referring to it as a subscription-based show.
Resharing the post, Elon Musk tweeted:
"Anyone want to create a hard-hitting show on 𝕏 called 69 Minutes? I will actually fund it!"
Musk's tweet garnered 26.9 million views since it was posted, as his statement was taken as an indirect way for him to support Donald Trump's statement on CBS' 60 Minutes.
Donald Trump's lawsuit against CBS over Kamala Harris' 60 Minutes interview: Details explored
According to a report by Variety dated February 7, 2025, the sitting President sued CBS in October 2024 claiming that the 60 Minutes interview featuring Kamala Harris violated the consumer fraud statute of Texas by editing Harris' response about the war in Gaza. The American television and radio broadcaster sought to dismiss the suit by stating that its editorial decisions are protected under the First Amendment.
In a recent development in the case, on February 7, 2025, Trump amended his complaint by filing a new claim for "unfair competition" under the federal Lanham Act wherein he alleged that he was harmed by the broadcaster's conduct through his role as the owner of Truth Social.
The President's complaint read:
“President Trump was harmed as a competitor in the news media industry and suffered actual damages in an amount to be determined upon trial of this action,”
Additionally, the sitting president of the U.S. claimed that he suffered $10 billion in damages on the Lanham Act claim along with $10 billion on the original Texas consumer fraud claim.
As per Variety's report, CBS' parent company Paramount Global is reportedly considering a potential settlement with the president as reported by sources familiar with the ongoing lawsuit.
