CBS News and "60 Minutes" have come under sustained criticism for allegedly deceptively editing and manipulating video clips of an interview earlier in October with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, for her benefit.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has now sued CBS Broadcasting for having allegedly violated certain laws and misled the public with the "deceitful" edits of Harris' responses during the interview, CBS News reported.

The media outlet and the news program have pushed back against Trump's lawsuit, which they insisted was "completely without merit" and would be "vigorously" defended against.

Trump sues CBS over alleged deceptive edits of Harris interview

On Thursday, former President Trump's attorneys filed the 19-page lawsuit in a federal court in Texas on the claim that CBS had violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Consumer Protection Act, a statute generally used to go after companies and advertisers who mislead the public about the products they sell.

"This action concerns CBS’s partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to (a) confuse, deceive, and mislead the public, and (b) attempt to tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party as the heated 2024 Presidential Election -- which President Trump is leading -- approaches its conclusion."

The suit alleged that ever since VP Harris took over for President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, "CBS and other legacy media organizations have gone into overdrive to get Kamala elected" but have been "unable to conceal embarrassing weaknesses, including her habit of uttering 'word salad,' or "jumbles of exceptionally incoherent speech."

As it relates to the "60 Minutes" interview, it was alleged that an incoherent "word salad" response from Harris to a question about the Middle East crisis was initially aired by the network but was then replaced the following day with a different and more "succinct" response that left "Millions of Americans" feeling "confused and misled by the two doctored Interview versions."

"To paper over Kamala's 'word salad' weakness, CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news," the suit claimed.

In the end, the lawsuit calls for a jury trial, an injunction against CBS to block the edited version of the Harris interview, and an estimated award of $10 billion to Trump for compensatory damages related to the network's deceptive practices and interference in the 2024 election.

CBS, legal experts push back against Trump's "meritless" and "frivolous" lawsuit

In response to the lawsuit, "60 Minutes" said in a statement that "The interview was not doctored" and that "60 Minutes did not hide any part of Vice President Kamala Harris's answer to the question at issue."

"60 Minutes fairly presented the interview to inform the viewing audience, and not to mislead it," the statement added. "The lawsuit Trump has brought today against CBS is completely without merit and we will vigorously defend against it."

CNN reported that legal experts were similarly highly critical of Trump's lawsuit against CBS, which some suggested possibly violated the First Amendment's protections for the media and was both "frivolous and dangerous."

Free speech attorney Charles Tobin, who is representing CNN in multiple ongoing legal issues, said of Trump's lawsuit, "This is a frivolous and dangerous attempt by a politician to control the news media. The Supreme Court has made it crystal clear: the First Amendment leaves it to journalists -- and not the courts, the government, or candidates for office -- to decide how to report the news."

Likewise, free speech attorney Floyd Abrams told CNN, "The First Amendment was drafted to protect the press from just such litigation. Mr. Trump may disagree with this or that coverage of him, but the First Amendment permits the press to decide how to cover elections, not the candidates seeking public office."