PBS joins NPR and sues Trump Administration

The publicly-funded network is claiming the President violated the First Amendment.

Transcript

00:00PBS is officially filing a First Amendment lawsuit against President Donald Trump.

00:04The suit alleges that Trump violated the Constitution when he signed an executive order seeking

00:08to end federal funding to the network.

00:10Now the network is asking the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. to prevent the president

00:14from following through.

00:16When Trump signed the order at the beginning of May, PBS CEO Paula Kerger said,

00:19"...the president's blatantly unlawful executive order issued in the middle of the night threatens

00:24our ability to serve the American public with educational programming, as we have for the

00:28past 50-plus years."

00:30The lawsuit alleges that the president's order makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is

00:33cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of

00:38a desire to alter the content of speech.

00:40However, PBS isn't alone in its battle.

00:43Trump also called out federally funded NPR, and the radio network filed a lawsuit of its

00:47own.

00:48That'll do it for your Daily Briefing.

00:49From New York City, I'm Kelsey Barbario with The Street.