NEWS BLUES: In a decision that bolsters President Trump’s efforts to discredit and intimidate the news media, Paramount has settled for $16 million the President’s lawsuit against CBS’s “60 Minutes” for their editing of a pre-election interview with then Vice President Kamala Harris.

  The settlement is the same made with ABC News after host George Stephanopoulos called Trump a rapist. The President has now successfully bullied major law firms, multiple universities, and two television news networks.

  Faced with spending possibly hundreds of millions of dollars to defend the suit that was considered baseless while requiring federal approval for a merger with the entertainment company Skydance, Paramount under the leadership of Shari Redstone bowed to the President. 

  The money, minus Trump’s legal fees, would be given to his future presidential library. A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said in a statement that the settlement was “another win for the American people” delivered by the president, who was holding “the fake news media accountable.”

  Trump sued Paramount for $10 billion, claiming that “60 Minutes” deceptively edited their interview with former Harris in order to sway the election. CBS aired different lengths of a Harris answer about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump claimed that amounted to “news distortion” aimed at favoring the Democratic Party.

  The lawsuit and Paramount’s willingness to negotiate caused turmoil within CBS News, leading to the resignations of “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens and news President Wendy McMahon. The drama played out while George Clooney’s play “Good Night and Good Luck” packed in theater-goers on Broadway. The play was about CBS News icon Edward R. Murrow standing up to the anti-communist demagogue Sen. Joe McCarthy.

THE BIG VOTE: With three long-term Republican senators voting “No,” Vice President JD Vance jumped in to cast the deciding vote for passage of Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful” spending and policy bill. 

  After wavering and getting special concessions for her state regarding Medicare, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska had cast a critical “yes,” making the vote 50-50, requiring Vance’s to tip the balance.

  Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina all voted against it.  Collins and Tillis objected to severe Medicaid cuts that would affect their states. 

  President Trump posted on his Truth Social this morning: “Our Country will make a fortune this year, more than any of our competitors, but only if the Big, Beautiful Bill is PASSED! As they say, Trump’s been right about everything, and this is the easiest of them all to predict.”

  Rand Paul had lobbied for “fiscal sanity,” railing against the bill that is estimated to add $3.3 trillion to the national debt. He said: “Republicans now own the debt, and Republicans now own the spending. There is no more blaming — ‘Oh, it’s Biden’s fault.’ The deficit is fully, completely owned by Republicans.”

  The bill goes back to the House for final reconciliation and already some members are expressing doubt about whether they will approve it. But Trump has threatened to support a primary candidate against any Republican member who votes against him.

THE CANDIDATE: Zohran Mamdani, the upstart democratic socialist candidate has been officially declared the winner of  his party’s primary to run for mayor of New York.

  In ranked choice voting, the state assemblyman from Queens won with 56 percent of the vote, crushing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo at 44 percent. New York voters made it clear that they want new political blood.

  The 33-year-old Mamdani now moves on to the general election in which he faces disgraced incumbent Eric Adams, running as an independent, Jim Walden, a lawyer also running on an independent line, and Curtis Sliwa, founder of the  Guardian Angels street patrol running as a Republican.  

THE OBIT PAGE: The Rev Jimmy Swaggart, the television evangelist who became rich on the word of God, preaching about the struggle between good and evil until he was caught consorting with a prostitute, has died at age 90.

  Swaggart rose from being a small town boy to become a fire and brimstone preacher with ministries in 140 countries and his own Bible college taking in millions of dollars a day in donations. Swaggart had a mansion, a private jet, and “his” and “hers” luxury cars for himself and his wife. It was “The Righteous Gemstones” in real life. 

  Photographed entering a fast-turnover motel with a prostitute in 1986, Swaggart famously and tearfully delivered an apology to his worldwide flock saying, “I have sinned against you, my Lord, and I would ask that your precious blood would wash and cleanse every stain.”

  Swaggart was defrocked by the Assemblies of God and never recovered his influence. Caught once again with a prostitute during a traffic stop in 1991, he told a stunned gathering of worshipers, “The Lord told me it’s flat none of your business.”

THE SPIN RACK:  Jurors in the trial of  music mogul Sean Combs sent out a note yesterday saying they had reached a verdict on four out of five counts but were deadlocked on the charge of racketeering conspiracy  “with unpersuadable opinions on both sides.” The judge sent them back to keep deliberating. — Former FBI agent Jared Wise, who was charged with encouraging the crowd in the January 6^thinsurrection, has joined the Justice Department as an advisor to the so-called Weaponization Working Group, which examines what the new administration believes to have been political prosecution under the Biden administration.

 BELOW THE FOLD:  President Trump yesterday visited the new immigrant detention center in Florida nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” because of its location in alligator-invested territory. Asked by a reporter whether the idea is for detainees to be eaten by alligators if they try to escape, Trump replied, “I guess that’s the concept.”

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