Donald Trump appeared to praise David Ellison, the CEO of Skydance Media, as it seeks the administration’s approval on a merger with Paramount Global.“Ellison’s great,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “He’ll do a great job with it.”Trump then went on to his $20 billion lawsuit against Paramount and CBS over the way that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris. The lawsuit claims the network violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the federal Lanham Act because Harris was shown giving different answers to the same question, first one shown on a Face the Nation preview and then on the 60 Minutes broadcast itself.The network claims there was no deception, and that Harris merely was shown giving the first part of her answer on Face the Nation and the second part on 60 Minutes. A number of legal experts say that the lawsuit is meritless, given First Amendment protections for editorial decisions.But with the merger pending, Paramount Global has been in settlement talks with Trump. The president on Thursday did not say at what stage the settlement talks are at, but both legal teams last week confirmed in a court filing that a mediator has been brought in.Trump told reporters that the 60 Minutes edits were “election threatening.” The lawsuit was filed in October, before Trump won a return to the White House. His legal team filed a revised lawsuit in February, this time claiming that Trump was harmed because the show unfairly diverted audience traffic from Truth Social and the president’s other media properties.The FCC is still reviewing the transaction, having reached the end of a 120-day informal “shot clock” for merger considerations.To reporters, Trump claimed that 60 Minutes “took the entire, every word, threw it out, put another answer in. You think they would do that for me?” The show, though, released an unedited transcript and video backing up its claim that the edit was just two parts of the same answer to the question.As Trump made the case to reporters that the 60 Minutes edits were unusual, one reporter said, “I think it happens daily.”“Well, I have never seen it. I thought I had seen everything. That I have never seen. It’s very embarrassing,” Trump said.Ellison was spotted with Trump in April at a UFC fight. Ellison’s father, Larry Ellison, supported Trump in last year’s election and appeared in the Oval Office in February. Trump called him “one of the most serious players anywhere in the world.”
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