On this week’s episode of “The Day by day Present,” host Jon Stewart was joined by journalist Steve Kroft to talk about Paramount’s $16 million settlement with Donald Trump, a deal the former “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 inner attitudes. Kroft agreed that “devastating” was a “good phrase” for the state of affairs.

“I believe there’s quite a lot of worry,” Kroft stated. “Worry of shedding their job, worry of what’s taking place to the nation, worry of shedding 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 stated that many in 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 stated. “It’s just about each reporter that’s checked out this case and stated, ‘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 swimsuit.”

When requested how the media ought to reply to such a historic improvement, Kroft took the alternative to say that Trump didn’t get every part he needed 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 laborious,” he stated. “He was demanding an apology and needed CBS to admit that it had made a mistake, so he might use that towards [them] and erode the credibility of the program and the community. However he didn’t get it, and that’s vital.”

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 legislation 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 greatest Broadcasting SCANDAL in Historical past!!!”

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

Watch Stewart’s complete interview with Kroft beneath.