LOS ANGELES.–Embroiled in a $10 billion lawsuit with CBS for doctoring an Oct. 7, 2024 interview with 60-year-old former Vice President Kamala Harris, 78-year-old Donald Trump now says that left-wing Internet outlet “Politico” received $8 million in government funding from United States Agency for International Development [USAID], a agency that doles out cash to various causes around the world. Under a review by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency [DOGE], USAID has spent billions on LGBTQ plus and Diversity Equity and Inclusion [DEI] issues around the globe, against Trump executive order to ban promoting DEI and gender-related issues. “CBS and 60 Minutes defrauded the public by doing something which has never, to this extent, been seen before,” Trump said. Media outlets are defending CBS’s right to edit interviews for whatever reason.
Trump says that CBS deliberately doctored Kamala’s interview to make her look better to voters before the election. Clear proof, that CBS had a dog in the fight, backed the Kamala campaign over Trump. “They 100% removed Kamala’s horrible election changing answers to questions, and replace them with completely different, and far better, answers, taken from another part of the interview,” Trump said. Trump called CBS’s manipulation of the transcript “election interference,” pushing for a Kamala presidency. Trump’s lawsuit lays out clearly the attempt by CBS to influence the election by changing the content to the interview to make Kamala look more favorable to voters. “CBS should lose its license,” Trump said, calling CBS cheaters and ‘disreputable NEWS.’” CBS parent company Paramount Global Chairman Shari Redstone said she wants to settle the Trump lawsuit.
CBS has been encouraged by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to not settle with Trump because of the damage it would do to the news industry. ABC News recently settled with Trump for $15 million and $1 million in attorney’s fees for host George Stephanopoulos calling Trump a rapist, when a New York court found him liable of sexual assault. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, settled with Trump for $25 million for banning him from the platform after the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots. So when it comes with CBS now settling with Trump, it would be a glaring admission that CBS tried to influence the election. CBS has had past problems with newsroom infiltration when in 1984 Democrat John Kerry campaign forged documents shown on Managing New Director Dan Rathers’s Nightly News. After investigating the incident, CBS News fired Rather in 1985.
Fake news can only brand Trump as a conspiracy theorist regarding CBS egregious manipulation of Kamala’s “60 Minutes” transcript. Trump wants to know how the liberal Internet news outlet Politico receive $8 million from USAID to pay for subscriptions to its left-leaning publication. Trump wants to know how many other Democrat-friendly publicans like the New York Times and Washington Post received cash from USAID of some other government funding source. “Was CBS paid for committing FRAUD???” asked Trump, prompting accusations of conspiracy theories. “The fake news media a ‘pay off’ for creating good stories about Democrats. The left wing ‘rag’ known as Politico,’ seem to have received $8 million. Did the New York Times receive money???. Who else did??” Trump asked prompting more denunciations as conspiracy theories.
Whether or not Politico got $8 million from USAID, it received the payment from somewhere. Why would the federal government pay for subscriptions to a liberal publication designed to promote a Democrat agenda? Why would the government pay for subscriptions to any publication unless it had a dog in the fight? When it comes to vaunted government agencies like the Department of Justice and the FBI, why would they take a stand against a Republican presidential candidate? When former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch and former FBI Director James Comey ran the FBI, they concocted a scheme to investigate Trump for the purpose of helping former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton get elected in 2016. What other reason would DOJ and FBI officials approve Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act [FISA] warrants to wiretap Trump campaign officials?
Politico denied all the charges that it took government funding to pay for subscriptions to its publication. “Politico has never been a beneficiary of government programs or subsidies—not one cent, ever, in 18 years,” Political said Feb. 5. Well, if the government paid for $8 million in subscriptions, doesn’t that count as a “beneficiary of government programs or subsidies.” Calling Trump’s observations of left-wing government corruption a “conspiracy theory,” shows that the fake news has been caught red handed. If CBS settles with Trump on the “60 Minutes” debacle, then the record will state clearly that they attempted to gaslight the public with Kamala’s Oct. 7, 2024 interview. Trump called the latest CBS scandal “the biggest scandal of them all, perhaps the biggest in history,” referring to “60 Minutes” doctoring its Kamala interview to help her presidential campaign.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
