{"id":378439,"date":"2026-01-19T13:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/378439\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T13:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:35:10","slug":"white-house-press-secretary-tells-cbs-well-sue-your-ass-off-if-it-edits-trump-interview-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/378439\/","title":{"rendered":"White House press secretary tells CBS \u2018we\u2019ll sue your ass off\u2019 if it edits Trump interview | Trump administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, was recently recorded warning CBS<\/a> News to broadcast a new interview with the president in full and without edits \u2013 or \u201cwe\u2019ll sue your ass off\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump \u201csaid, \u2018Make sure you guys don\u2019t cut the tape, make sure the interview is out in full,\u2019\u201d Leavitt told CBS anchor Tony Dokoupil after he had interviewed the president, according to an audio exchange first reported<\/a> on by the New York Times. The 13-minute exclusive segment aired on Tuesday, months after CBS\u2019s parent company Paramount agreed to pay Trump $16m over its editing of an unrelated interview ahead of the 2024 election that vaulted him to a second presidency.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, we\u2019re doing it, yeah,\u201d Dokoupil assured on the audio. Leavitt could be heard replying: \u201cHe said, \u2018If it\u2019s not out in full, we\u2019ll sue your ass off.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

At that point, the voice of a woman can be heard<\/a> saying to Leavitt, \u201cOh great, OK,\u201d in response to the press secretary\u2019s threat.<\/p>\n

Leavitt\u2019s exchange with Dokoupil unfolded with CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss<\/a> \u2013 his boss \u2013 having come under intense public scrutiny since she took her position in October. She has been routinely accused of favoritism and deference to the Trump administration, calling into question the network\u2019s editorial independence under Weiss, who did not have any previous television experience<\/a>.<\/p>\n

CBS is now controlled by Paramount Skydance, founded by David Ellison, the son of billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison, a friend of Trump. Meanwhile, in October, Paramount Skydance bought Weiss\u2019s Free Press, the conservative opinion media company which she founded after her departure from the New York Times in 2020.<\/p>\n

Weiss\u2019 tenure as CBS editor-in-chief had already been marked by chaos and editorial controversies even before her anchor absorbed the lawsuit barb from Leavitt. One particularly tumultuous episode was Weiss\u2019s decision to pull a segment scheduled to air on 60 Minutes on 21 December about Venezuelan men deported by the administration, which was reported by the network\u2019s veteran correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi.<\/p>\n

Weiss said a lack of response from the Trump administration factored into her decision. Citing sources, CNN<\/a> reported that CBS intended to air the segment in question on Sunday\u2019s 60 Minutes.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, in July, Paramount agreed to a $16m settlement<\/a> with Trump for its editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Trump\u2019s 2024 election rival, Kamala Harris, which aired prior to the race. Trump had sued, saying the editing of the segment was intended to \u201cconfuse, deceive, and mislead the public\u201d. CBS countered that the answers were edited only for time, a customary practice in television journalism, but nonetheless settled what many believed was an exceedingly winnable case.<\/p>\n

In the recent interview<\/a> with CBS on Tuesday, Trump warned that the US \u201cwill take very strong action\u201d if Iran hangs protesters. He also called Jerome Powell<\/a> a \u201clousy\u201d US Federal Reserve chairperson and defended the actions of the ICE agent who fatally shot<\/a> Renee Good in Minneapolis on 7 January.<\/p>\n

CBS aired the full unedited interview later that evening, which they maintained was their intention all along. \u201cThe moment we booked this interview, we made the independent decision to air it unedited and in its entirety,\u201d the company said in a statement on Saturday.<\/p>\n

When reached for comment by the New York Times, Leavitt said<\/a>, \u201cThe American people deserve to watch President Trump\u2019s full interviews, unedited, no cuts.\u201d Leavitt concluded with: \u201cAnd guess what? The interview ran in full.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, was recently recorded warning CBS News to broadcast a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-378439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}