ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel announced himself on Thursday as not be a fan of President Trump’s lawsuit against 60 Minutes, but whatever one thinks of the suit’s legal merits, Kimmel’s claim that the network did not deceptively edit the interview with Kamala Harris to make her look better fell flat.
Kimmel began by dreaming about using Trump’s legal arguments against him, “Trump right now is reportedly one step closer to settling the lawsuit he filed against 60 Minutes. Trump's suing CBS for $20 billion because an interview they aired with Kamala Harris caused him ‘mental anguish.’ He can sue them for mental anguish; imagine how much we could sue him for. We're going to be rich.
Moving on to the actual controversy, Kimmel recalled, “Paramount, which is CBS's parent company, reportedly offered Trump $15 million to settle the case. He said no. His lawyers want at least $25 million, and even worse, they want an apology for not doing anything wrong. If you haven't been following this, during the election, 60 Minutes did a segment with Kamala Harris, and because 60 Minutes is only 60 minutes, they edited the interview, just like they always do.”
Kimmel further explained, “But Trump, who never misses an opportunity to, A, whine and, B, abuse the legal system, claimed, based on no evidence, that 60 Minutes edited the interview deceptively to make his opponent look better.”
That’s just not true. In the original video, Harris was pressed from the left by Bill Whitaker on why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not appear to be listening to the Biden administration. She gave a typical Harris word salad of an answer, “Well Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of, many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region.”
Remember Kamala’s word salad answer about Israel on 60 Minutes? It’s gone.
— MAZE (@mazemoore) October 8, 2024
This is what many Americans will now see. pic.twitter.com/H4w7btDv6x
In the version that aired on 60 Minutes, Harris came across as more competently, “We are not gonna stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”
As for Kimmel, he concluded, “He sued them for $10 billion. And then, even though he won the election, he raised it to $20 billion. Which, the whole company isn't even worth $20 billion. They're selling it for 8 right now. It's a plainly frivolous lawsuit, but Shari Redstone, who inherited Paramount from her horrible father, is trying to sell her company, and she knows Trump will vindictively use his power as president to block that from happening through the FCC. Now she's trying to pay him off, and she's going to pay him off. This is how it works now. It's just like the Mafia but with cheeseburgers instead of gabagool.”
Harris’s actual answer took about 20 seconds, so Kimmel’s argument that 60 Minutes just needed to edit it down for time doesn’t pass the laugh test.
Here is a transcript for the May 29 show:
ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live!
5/29/2025
11:39 PM ET
JIMMY KIMMEL: Trump right now is reportedly one step closer to settling the lawsuit he filed against 60 Minutes. Trump's suing CBS for $20 billion because an interview they aired with Kamala Harris caused him "mental anguish."
He can sue them for mental anguish; imagine how much we could sue him for. We're going to be rich. Paramount, which is CBS's parent company, reportedly offered Trump $15 million to settle the case. He said no. His lawyers want at least $25 million, and even worse, they want an apology for not doing anything wrong. If you haven't been following this, during the election, 60 Minutes did a segment with Kamala Harris, and because 60 Minutes is only 60 minutes, they edited the interview, just like they always do.
But Trump, who never misses an opportunity to, A, whine and, B, abuse the legal system, claimed, based on no evidence, that 60 Minutes edited the interview deceptively to make his opponent look better. He sued them for $10 billion. And then, even though he won the election, he raised it to $20 billion. Which, the whole company isn't even worth $20 billion. They're selling it for 8 right now.
It's a plainly frivolous lawsuit, but Shari Redstone, who inherited Paramount from her horrible father, is trying to sell her company, and she knows Trump will vindictively use his power as president to block that from happening through the FCC. Now she's trying to pay him off, and she's going to pay him off. This is how it works now. It's just like the Mafia but with cheeseburgers instead of gabagool.