White House Threat: ‘We’ll Sue Your Ass Off’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt approached a CBS team after a brief interview with President Trump and delivered a blunt message.
According to recordings and reporting, Leavitt told the crew, “We’ll sue your ass off.”
The interview took place while Trump was in Detroit. He sat for a roughly 13-minute chat with CBS anchor Tony Doukoupil during a visit to a Ford plant and remarks at the Detroit Economic Club.
In the exchange, Trump told Doukoupil, “If she got in, you probably wouldn’t have a job right now,” while discussing his view of the country’s direction under his administration compared with a potential alternative.
After the interview, Leavitt relayed a request from the president. “He said, ‘Make sure you guys don’t cut the tape, make sure the interview is out in full,’” Leavitt told them, the interaction caught on nearby audio recorded by reporters and cited by the New York Times.
Doukoupil answered, “Yeah, we’re doing it, yeah,” and Leavitt replied with the warning, “He said, ‘If it’s not out in full, we’ll sue your ass off,’” which some on the CBS team initially treated as a joke.
Kim Harvey, executive producer of CBS Evening News, reacted, “Oh, great, OK!” Doukoupil added, “He always says that!”
CBS later said in a statement, “The moment we booked this interview, we made the independent decision to air it unedited and in its entirety.”
Leavitt told the New York Times, “The American people deserve to watch President Trump’s full interviews, unedited, no cuts. And guess what? The interview ran in full.”
The episode follows a string of legal actions by Trump and his allies against media outlets in recent years. Reporting notes that he has sued several media organizations since taking office, including litigation tied to a previously edited segment involving Paramount, the former parent of CBS.
Short, sharp interactions like this one are now part of the day-to-day play between the White House and national newsrooms. The CBS interview ran intact, and the public can judge the tape for themselves.