Overview
- An audio recording obtained by the New York Times captures press secretary Karoline Leavitt telling CBS staff the president would "sue your ass off" if the segment were edited.
- The exchange followed a roughly 13-minute interview with Tony Dokoupil at a Ford plant in Michigan that CBS aired in full on CBS Evening News.
- CBS said it had independently decided in advance to run the interview unedited and that Leavitt’s comments did not influence its plans.
- No lawsuit has been filed over the segment as of Saturday.
- The episode renews scrutiny of CBS’s editorial direction after a $16 million settlement of Trump’s 2024 suit over a 60 Minutes edit and after policy and programming changes under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.