What did the BBC do to anger Donald Trump? And what has he said about the resignations?
It didn’t take long for the White House to react – and that’s unsurprising given that the resignations were driven, on the face of it at least, by the BBC’s splicing together of that Trump speech from January 2021.
It was clear on Friday that the White House was keen to weigh into the BBC row, with the White House press secretary using an interview with The Daily Telegraph to slam the BBC.
“This purposefully dishonest, selectively edited clip by the BBC is further evidence that they are total, 100% fake news that should no longer be worth the time on the television screens of the great people of the United Kingdom,” Karoline Leavitt told the newspaper.
After last night’s resignations, Mr Trump posted a lengthy statement on Truth Social.
“The TOP people in the BBC, including TIM DAVIE, the BOSS, are all quitting/FIRED, because they were caught “doctoring” my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th,” he wrote.
“Thank you to The Telegraph for exposing these Corrupt ‘Journalists.’ 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!”
It was the Telegraph that leaked the internal memo last week in which it was revealed that a BBC Panorama report – aired just before the election last year – had spliced together two parts of a long Trump speech which he made on 6 January 2021.
That was the day of the storming of the Capitol building in Washington by Trump supporters who believed the 2020 election had been stolen by Joe Biden.
Mr Trump gave a speech that day. In a Panorama report broadcast just before the US election last year, the BBC aired a clip from the speech.
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The following is the transcript of that clip.
“We’re gonna walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be with you and we fight. We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.”
The clip was presented as one sentence – one thought. However, it was actually two distinct parts of the speech spliced together, reordered and covered with pictures of the crowd to hide the join – known as the edit point or cut.
Had the Panorama production team not edited the clip ,this is what viewers would have heard. The sections used by Panorama are in bold for clarity.
“After this, we’re going to walk down – and I’ll be there with you – we’re gonna walk down, we’re gonna walk down anyone you want, but I think right here, we’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave congressmen and women, and we probably not gonna be cheering so much for some of them. Because you’re never going to take back our country with weakness you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing, and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated. I know that everyone will soon be marching down to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
The “fight like hell” line came about an hour later – right at the end of the speech. Here it is in full. Again, the section used by Panorama are in bold for clarity.
“And again, most people would stand there at 9 o’clock in the evening and say I want to thank you very much, and they go off to some other life. But I said something’s wrong here, something is really wrong, can’t have happened. And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore. Our exciting adventures and boldest endeavours have not yet begun. My fellow Americans, for our movement, for our children, and for our beloved country. And I say this despite all that’s happened. The best is yet to come. So we’re going to, we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Pennsylvania Avenue. And we’re going to the Capitol. The Democrats are hopeless, they never vote for anything. Not even one vote. But we’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones because the strong ones don’t need any of our help. We’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I want to thank you all. God bless you and God Bless America.”
The riot at the Capitol building unfolded that afternoon.
Read more:
‘Teflon Tim’ has finally come unstuck
In full: The BBC resignation letters
Past controversies faced by Tim Davie
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The president and his team have always claimed the “fight like hell” comment was purely rhetorical, and they have dismissed accusations that Mr Trump encouraged the unrest.
Trump’s alleged role in the unrest and his broader efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election were the subject of a federal criminal case. The president was indicted on four felony counts.
The case was dismissed by federal prosecutors following his 2024 election victory because of a long-standing policy that prohibits the prosecution of sitting presidents.
But in a final report released last January, federal prosecutor Jack Smith said he believed there was enough evidence to convict Mr Trump in a trial had it happened.
There is a legitimate and enduring debate over Mr Trump’s role in the events of January 6th. But that does not in any way explain or excuse BBC’s decision to splice together and reorder two distinct parts of the president’s speech.
