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Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Liz Truss is backing President Donald Trump’s plan to sue the BBC, saying, “they’ve lied, they’ve cheated, they’ve fiddled with footage” as the network faces fallout from an editing scandal.
The BBC is accused of combining two different parts of Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, speech. They removed his call to march “peacefully and patriotically” and instead inserted the phrase “fight like hell” from nearly an hour later in the address.
“There are lots of people in Britain who are cheering President Trump on and who want him to sue the BBC because they’re a huge problem,” said Truss on “Fox & Friends Weekend” Saturday.
UK Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers her resignation speech outside 10 Downing Street in London, England, on Oct. 20, 2022. (Rob Pinney/Getty Images)
Now, Trump said he feels “obligated” to sue the British broadcaster for tampering with the footage. He’s threatened to sue the BBC for $1 billion in damages.
BBC APOLOGIZES TO TRUMP AMID $1 BILLION LEGAL THREAT
The BBC apologized to Trump and said it has no plans to rebroadcast the Panorama documentary titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” with the edited clips. BBC Director-General Tim Davie and BBC News CEO Deborah Turness both resigned in the wake of the backlash.
A BBC spokesperson said the company’s chair, Samir Shah, has “separately sent a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the president’s speech on 6 January 2021, which featured in the programme.”
The network, however, is rejecting Trump’s calls for compensation.
Despite the apology, Truss believes the president should still move forward with legal action.
BBC ROCKED BY JAN. 6 EDIT SCANDAL AS BRITISH JOURNALIST CALLS OUT NETWORK’S ‘REMARKABLY BRAZEN’ MOVE
“I want to see him progress with this legal suit because I don’t think they’ve been held to account,” Truss said.
“I bet they carry on printing and publishing and broadcasting fake news, not just about the president, but about the MAGA movement, about the changes that are going on in the world, which many of the British public want to see here in Britain.”
President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a “Save America Rally” near the White House in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021. The event took place hours before unrest unfolded at the U.S. Capitol. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Truss accused the BBC of being politically biased against conservatives in both the United Kingdom and the United States. She also called for the network to be “defunded.”
TRUMP ANNOUNCES LAWSUIT OF UP TO $5 BILLION AGAINST BBC OVER EDITED JAN 6 SPEECH DOCUMENTARY
“The BBC used to be the paragon of journalism across the world. It was respected. It’s now become a laughingstock, and it needs to be put out of its misery,” she said.
legal analyst Gregg Jarrett shared Truss’s view, saying an apology is not enough and calling for compensation from the BBC.
“This was clearly defamatory under British law. The BBC knows that, which is why the network apologized, removed the story,” said Jarrett.
President Donald Trump takes a question from a reporter in the Oval Office at the White House on May 5. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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“That does not, however, erase the past damages that Trump sustained, which are considerable.”
Trump said he plans to discuss the matter with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer this weekend before filing his lawsuit.
