US President Donald Trump has said he has an “obligation” to sue the BBC over the way a section of his speech was edited in a Panorama documentary.
Speaking to Fox News, he said his 6 January 2021 speech had been “butchered” and the way it was presented had “defrauded” viewers.
It is the first time Trump has spoken publicly about the matter since his lawyers wrote to the BBC and said he would sue for $1bn (£759m) in damages unless the corporation issues a retraction, apologises and compensates him.
A spokesperson for the BBC said: “We are reviewing the letter and will respond directly in due course.”
BBC chair Samir Shah has previously apologised for an “error of judgement” over the edit.
Appearing Tuesday evening on Fox News’s The Ingraham Angle, the president was asked if he would go ahead with the lawsuit, responding “well I guess I have to, you know, why not, because they defrauded the public, and they’ve admitted it”.
Trump continued: “They actually changed my January 6 speech, which was a beautiful speech, which was a very calming speech, and they made it sound radical.
“And they actually changed it. What they did was rather incredible.”
Asked again if he would proceed with the legal action, he said: “Well I think I have an obligation to do it, because you can’t get people, you can’t allow people to do that.”
The Fox News interview was recorded on Monday, though the section concerning the BBC was not published by Fox News until late on Tuesday evening in the US.
The BBC received the letter from Trump’s lawyers on Sunday. It demands a “full and fair retraction” of the documentary, an apology, and that the BBC “appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused”.
It sets a deadline of 22:00 GMT (17:00 EST) on Friday for the corporation to respond.
The BBC has said it will respond in due course.
BBC News has contacted the BBC for comment on the president’s latest remarks.
If Trump sues in Florida, he would also need to establish the BBC Panorama documentary was available there. There is no evidence so far to suggest that it has been shown in the US.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has made legal threats against other media outlets over their coverage of him. He settled with both CBS News and ABC News after receiving large payouts, and has sought to take legal action against the New York Times.
The BBC edit appeared in a Panorama documentary which aired days before the US presidential election in November 2024, but only generated significant public scrutiny after a leaked internal BBC memo was published by the Daily Telegraph newspaper last week.
In the memo, a former independent external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee raised concerns that a section of the speech had been edited in a way which suggested the president explicitly encouraged the Capitol riot of January 2021.
Trump actually said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”
However, in the Panorama edit two sections of the speech more than 50 minutes apart were spliced together.
He was shown saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
The fallout has led to the BBC’s director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness resigning.
Both outgoing senior leaders have pushed back against critics who have said the episode raises wider questions about impartiality at the BBC.
Speaking during an internal all-staff meeting on Tuesday, Davie said: “We have made some mistakes that have cost us, but we need to fight”, adding that “this narrative will not just be given by our enemies, it’s our narrative”.
He said the BBC went through “difficult times… but it just does good work, and that speaks louder than any newspaper, any weaponisation”.
Neither Davie nor the BBC chair mentioned Trump’s legal threat during their address to staff on Tuesday.
Downing Street has said this was a “matter for the BBC”.
“It is clearly not for the government to comment on any ongoing legal matters,” the prime minister’s official spokesperson said.
The row comes at a sensitive time for the BBC, with its royal charter – the agreement which underpins its governance and funding arrangements – due to expire at the end of 2027.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy will oversee talks on the terms of its renewal. She told the Commons on Tuesday those negotiations would “renew its mission for the modern age” and ensure a “genuinely accountable” organisation.
Nandy continued: “There is a fundamental difference between raising serious concerns over editorial failings and members of this House launching a sustained attack on the institution itself, because the BBC is not just a broadcaster, it is a national institution that belongs to us all.”
The culture select committee is expected to hear evidence from senior BBC figures in the coming weeks, including Shah and board members Sir Robbie Gibb and Caroline Thomson.
Former editorial standards adviser Michael Prescott, who authored the leaked memo which appeared in the Telegraph, will also be invited to give evidence.
Elsewhere, an internal Reform UK email seen by BBC News confirmed the party is ending its co-operation with a documentary commissioned by the broadcaster about its rise.
The email says the production team had been given “unprecedented access” to senior figures in the party, but that they should now withdraw consent for any footage to be used over the Trump row.
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