The White House warned CBS News to air Donald Trump’s latest interview in full — or risk a lawsuit from the president — according to a leaked audio recording.
Moments after Trump, 79, wrapped the interview with CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil in Michigan on Tuesday, Jan. 13, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Dokoupil, 45, and others present that Trump would “sue your ass off” if the segment didn’t run unedited, according to The New York Times.
“He said, ‘Make sure you guys don’t cut the tape. Make sure the interview is out in full.’ … He said, ‘If it’s not out in full, we’ll sue your ass off,’ ” Leavitt, 28, said, on Trump’s behalf, in the audio obtained by the Times.
“Oh, great, okay,” a woman — identified by the Times as CBS Evening News executive producer Kim Harvey — can then be heard saying, as a man identified by multiple outlets as Dokoupil responds, “He always says that.”
CBS News aired the 13-minute interview the same evening it was filmed. In the segment, Trump and Dokoupil discussed topics ranging from the ongoing protests in Iran to the criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
In a statement obtained by the Times and The Washington Post, the network said it had planned to air the conversation in full from the outset.
“The moment we booked this interview we made the independent decision to air it unedited and in its entirety,” a CBS spokesperson said.
Leavitt also defended the message after the recording surfaced. When reached for comment by the Times, she said: “The American people deserve to watch President Trump’s full interviews, unedited, no cuts. And guess what? The interview ran in full.”
Trump has had a turbulent relationship with CBS News for years, frequently criticizing the network.
Paramount — the parent company of CBS — and Skydance merged last year after CBS News settled a lawsuit with the president, who accused 60 Minutes of deceptively editing a campaign-trail interview with then–Vice President Kamala Harris on the program.
That lawsuit initially sought $10 billion in damages, raising concerns about the precedent for media companies facing legal threats from the president. (Paramount eventually agreed to pay $16 million to Trump’s future presidential library.)
The president has continued to target CBS News since then, including criticizing the network in December after it aired an interview with former Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. (Trump and Greene, 51, publicly feuded after a falling out tied to her push to release the Epstein files.)
“THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, who just paid me millions of Dollars for FAKE REPORTING about your favorite President, ME!” the president wrote on Truth Social at the time.
Added Trump: “Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!”
