White House press secretary tells CBS ‘we’ll sue your ass off’ if it edits Trump interview

Donald Trump’s White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, was recently recorded warning CBS News to broadcast a new interview with the president in full and without edits – or “we’ll sue your ass off”.

Trump “said, ‘Make sure you guys don’t cut the tape, make sure the interview is out in full,’” Leavitt told CBS anchor Tony Dokoupil after he had interviewed the president, according to an audio exchange first reported on by the New York Times. The 13-minute exclusive segment aired on Tuesday, months after CBS’ 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.

“Yeah, we’re doing it, yeah,” Dokoupil assured on the audio. Leavitt could be heard replying: “He said, ‘If it’s not out in full, we’ll sue your ass off.’”

At that point, the voice of a woman can be heard saying to Leavitt, “Oh great, OK,” in response to the press secretary’s threat.

Leavitt’s exchange with Dokoupil unfolded with CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss – his boss – 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’s editorial independence under Weiss, who did not have any previous television experience.

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’s Free Press, the conservative opinion media company which she founded after her departure from the New York Times in 2020.

Weiss’ 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’s 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’s veteran correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi. Weiss said a lack of response from the Trump administration drove her decision.

Furthermore, in July, Paramount agreed to a $16m settlement with Trump for its editing of a CBS 60 Minutes interview with Trump’s 2024 election rival, Kamala Harris, which aired prior to the race. Trump had sued, saying the editing of the segment was intended to “confuse, deceive, and mislead the public”. 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.

In the recent interview with CBS on Tuesday, Trump warned that the US “will take very strong action” if Iran hangs protesters. He also called Jerome Powell a “lousy” US Federal Reserve chairperson and defended the actions of the ICE agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis on 7 January.

CBS aired the full unedited interview later that evening, which they maintained was their intention all along. “The moment we booked this interview, we made the independent decision to air it unedited and in its entirety,” the company said in a statement on Saturday.

When reached for comment by the New York Times, Leavitt said, “The American people deserve to watch President Trump’s full interviews, unedited, no cuts.” Leavitt concluded with, “And guess what? The interview ran in full.”