US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he has an "obligation" to sue BBC after the British broadcaster was found to have edited and misrepresented his speech on January 6, 2021.
"Well, I think I have an obligation to do it," Trump told Fox News host Laura Ingraham in an interview.
“They defrauded the public, and they've admitted it…this is within one of our great allies, you know. This is supposedly our great ally, BBC. The government has a chunk of that one, I guess. But that's a pretty sad event,” said Trump.
“They actually changed my January 6th speech, which was a beautiful speech, which was a very calming speech. And they made it sound radical. And they actually changed it,” he continued, saying what the network did “was very dishonest”.
The BBC Director-General, Tim Davie, and CEO of News and Current Affairs, Deborah Turness, both resigned on Sunday following a public outcry over the editing of Trump’s January 6, 2021, speech.
Public criticism against the BBC intensified in recent weeks after reports revealed that the edited version of Trump’s speech omitted a key passage in which he called on demonstrators to “act peacefully” and edited together parts that were separated by a substantial period of time to make them seem like they were spoken at the same time.
Critics accused the BBC of intentional manipulation, violating the broadcaster’s explicit obligation to objectivity under its charter.
Trump blasted the British broadcaster in a post on Truth Social on Sunday, writing, “These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election. On top of everything else, they are from a Foreign Country, one that many consider our Number One Ally. What a terrible thing for Democracy!” he added.
On Monday, the BBC confirmed that it had received a letter from Trump threatening legal action over the editing of the video, and stated that it would “respond in due course.”