On this week’s episode of “The Every day Present,” host Jon Stewart was joined by journalist Steve Kroft to debate Paramount’s $16 million settlement with Donald Trump, a deal the previous “60 Minutes” correspondent known as “tribute to the king.”

Stewart opened the interview by asking Kroft what it meant for a information group like “60 Minutes” to pay such a big settlement to the president, providing the phrase “devastating” as a descriptor for inside attitudes. Kroft agreed that “devastating” was a “good phrase” for the scenario.

“I believe there’s lots of worry,” Kroft mentioned. “Worry of dropping their job, worry of what’s occurring to the nation, worry of dropping the First Modification. All of these issues.”

When requested why he thinks Paramount paid the settlement, Kroft cleverly dodged the query, stating that “a few congressmen suppose that it was bribery.” He later let his personal ideas be recognized, calling the deal “a shakedown.”

“That’s what I name it,” he added. “Some individuals name it extortion.”

He later mentioned that many within the journalism neighborhood really feel equally about Paramount’s resolution to pay up.

“It’s not simply me or ’60 Minutes’ otherwise you that suppose it’s a shakedown,” Kroft mentioned. “It’s just about each reporter that’s checked out this case and mentioned, ‘That is ridiculous. It’s going to be thrown out of any court docket that it goes earlier than.’ Besides possibly one in Amarillo, [Texas], and that’s the place they introduced the go well with.”

When requested how the media ought to reply to such a historic growth, Kroft took the chance to say that Trump didn’t get every part he wished from the Paramount camp.

“This lawsuit, the one factor that they didn’t get, Trump didn’t get, he didn’t get an apology, and he had been pushing actually exhausting,” he mentioned. “He was demanding an apology and wished CBS to confess that it had made a mistake, so he might use that towards [them] and erode the credibility of this system and the community. However he didn’t get it, and that’s essential.”

Trump filed a lawsuit towards Paramount and CBS days earlier than the 2024 presidential election. In it, he alleged {that a} “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s former presidential opponent, violated a Texas consumer-protection regulation and misled voters. He initially requested for $10 billion in damages however then upped it to $20 billion in an modification. Trump thought the edited interview made Harris look “extra presidential” and claimed that it was “the most important Broadcasting SCANDAL in Historical past!!!”

All towards the backdrop of Paramount’s $8 billion cope with Skydance, which awaits approval from the Trump-controlled FCC, the studio agreed to pay the president $16 million moderately than battle on towards a lawsuit they’d beforehand slammed as “meritless.”

Watch Stewart’s whole interview with Kroft under.