President Donald Trump has again called for CBS to lose its license and warned the network will “pay a big price” for its latest 60 Minutes broadcast.
The president took aim at the long-running program in two consecutive Truth Social posts Sunday evening after it aired an episode dedicated to his administration’s involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war and its annexation threats against Greenland.
Trump began his tirade by resurfacing allegations that the program used “deceitful editing” to doctor some of former Vice President Kamala Harris’ answers in her 60 Minutes interview in October, less than a month before her defeat at the ballot box. Trump has an ongoing $20 billion lawsuit against the show over the claims, which the program denies.
“Almost every week, 60 Minutes, which is being sued for Billions of Dollars for the fraud they committed in the 2024 Presidential Election with their Interview of Failed Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris, mentions the name ‘TRUMP’ in a derogatory and defamatory way, but this Weekend’s ‘BROADCAST’ tops them all,” he wrote.
Sunday evening’s episode featured an interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who addressed the explosive row with Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office in February.
“It seems to me that the vice president is somehow justifying Putin’s action,” Zelensky said of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who declared war on Ukraine in February 2022. Zelensky said that the U.S. was still a strategic, strong partner of Ukraine despite its shift in “tone” and “reality” and invited Trump to visit his country to witness the devastation firsthand.
The Greenland segment of the program included interviews between correspondent Jon Wertheim and locals who rebuked Trump for his desire to take over the autonomous Danish-dependent territory.
“I am so honored to be suing 60 Minutes, CBS Fake News, and Paramount, over their fraudulent, beyond recognition, reporting. They did everything possible to illegally elect Kamala, including completely and corruptly changing major answers to Interview questions, but it just didn’t work for them,” Trump added.
Trump rekindled calls for CBS News to lose its license after telling Fox News’s MediaBuzz in October he would “subpoena their records” and called for the Federal Communications Commission to take action.
“They should lose their license! Hopefully, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as headed by its Highly Respected Chairman, Brendan Carr, will impose the maximum fines and punishment, which is substantial, for their unlawful and illegal behavior,” he wrote. “CBS is out of control, at levels never seen before, and they should pay a big price for this.”
The president did not explicitly make clear how CBS News violated the law with their coverage.
The FCC—an independent federal agency—issues eight-year licenses to individual broadcast stations, not networks.
In January, Carr launched a parallel investigation of CBS News about the same case, one of several that it has undergone. The others involve ABC News and how it moderated the pre-election TV debate between Trump and former President Joe Biden before he stepped off the Democratic ticket in July.
The agency also reinstated a complaint against NBC over Harris’ Saturday Night Live appearance just days before November’s election. PBS, NPR, and the Walt Disney Company are among other networks being investigated.
Last month, Trump fumed over George Clooney’s 60 Minutes interview and claimed that the “failed political pundit” dumped Biden “like a dog.”
“Why would the now highly discredited 60 Minutes be doing a total ‘puff piece’ on George Clooney, a second-rate movie ‘star,’ and failed political pundit,” he added.
He again turned to Harris, noting: “60 Minutes even fraudulently inserted Fake answers into her disastrous interview, aired just before Election Day, in one of the most embarrassing and dishonest events in broadcast history.”
The Independent has contacted the White House and CBS News for more information.
