Major network responds defiantly to Trump’s lawsuit: Bring it on!

CBS News’s parent company is turning up the heat on the lawsuit President Donald Trump filed over its “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump alleged that the “60 Minutes” interview—which he declined to participate in—was doctored and deceitful to give an advantage to his Democratic opponent. Editing and cutting down interviews is common practice for broadcasters, but Trump claims that CBS News wanted to favor Harris.

Paramount, CBS’s parent company, filed two motions on Thursday asking a federal judge in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas to dismiss an amended complaint brought by Trump in October. Lawyers for Paramount are asking the judge to dismiss the lawsuit over a lack of jurisdiction and a failure to state a claim.

“This lawsuit is an affront to the First Amendment and is without basis in law or fact. Plaintiffs President Donald J. Trump and Representative Ronny Jackson, public officials at the highest ranks of our government, seek to punish a news organization for constitutionally protected editorial judgments they do not like,” the attorneys wrote.

“They not only ask for $20 billion in damages but also seek an order directing how a news organization may exercise its editorial judgment in the future. The First Amendment stands resolutely against these demands,” they added.

In the motion to dismiss the case over a lack of jurisdiction and an improper venue, the attorneys asked the judge to transfer the case to the Southern District of New York.

Ed Paltzik, an attorney for Trump, told Axios that they will not be backing down.

“President Trump is committed to holding those who traffic in fake news, hoaxes and lies to account. CBS and Paramount committed the worst kind of election interference and fraud in the closing days of the most important presidential election in history. President Trump will pursue this vital matter to its just and rightful conclusion,” he said in the statement.

Trump has repeatedly railed against CBS and called on the broadcaster last month to lose its license.

“CBS and 60 Minutes defrauded the public by doing something which has never, to this extent, been seen before. They 100% removed Kamala’s horrible election changing answers to questions, and replaced them with completely different, and far better, answers, taken from another part of the interview,” he wrote in a February Truth Social post.

“This was Election changing ‘stuff,’ Election Interference and, quite simply, Election Fraud at a level never seen before. CBS should lose its license, and the cheaters at 60 Minutes should all be thrown out, and this disreputable “NEWS” show should be immediately terminated,” he added.

CBS News has continued to deny Trump’s allegations, calling them “false” in a statement last fall.