Donald Trump crowed over CBS’s parent company paying him millions to settle a lawsuit in an unaired segment of his “60 Minutes” interview Sunday. (Watch the video below.)
The president told correspondent Norah O’Donnell that Democratic foe Kamala Harris “failed because she couldn’t speak” and was not “very intelligent.” He pointed to the former vice president’s interview with the CBS news show as an example.
“And actually ‘60 Minutes’ paid me a lot of money,” he said to O’Donnell. “And you don’t have to put this on because I don’t want to embarrass you.”
Trump pivoted to praising CBS News’ new editor-in-chief, the conservative journalist Bari Weiss, before resuming his gloating ― which was likely intended to embarrass the network.
“But ‘60 Minutes’ was forced to pay me a lot of money because they took [Harris’] answer out that was so bad,” Trump continued. “It was election-changing two nights before the election and they put a new answer in and they paid me a lot of money for that. You can’t have fake news. You’ve got to have legit news.”
While the exchange didn’t appear in the aired broadcast, it’s in the YouTube version at 1:07:30.
CBS said Trump’s claim that the Harris interview was deceptively edited was “false” but parent company Paramount caved in a $16 million settlement with the president at a sensitive time.
The payout was seen as greasing the skids for Trump’s Federal Communications Commission to approve a merger between Paramount and Skydance media.
O’Donnell noted the settlement “did not include an apology or an admission of wrongdoing.”
Weiss’ hiring was seen as another nod to the president, who is known to be notoriously vengeful against media he feels has wronged him.
“I see good things happening in the news, I really do,” Trump said. “And I think one of the best things that’s happened is this show and new ownership, CBS and new ownership. I think it’s the greatest thing that’s happened in a long time to a free and open and good press.”
