Donald Trump wasn’t moved by the BBC’s apology, as he revealed he still plans to sue the broadcaster.
According to an audio recording provided by the White House, the president shared on Air Force One that he intends to sue the BBC as early as next week — and would seek damages somewhere between “$1 billion and $5 billion.”
“I think I have to,” Trump said. “They cheated. They changed the words coming out of my mouth.”
The president also noted that the U.K. was “very embarrassed” by the controversy. However, he shared that he plans to speak with Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, over the weekend.
Trump’s comments come one day after the BBC issued an apology to the president for editing part of his speech from Jan. 6, 2021 at the Ellipse in Washington D.C. The apology fulfilled one of Trump’s three demands to prevent a $1 billion lawsuit over a pre-election documentary.
The BBC has previously said that the documentary was an “error in judgment” and confirmed that the program in-question — “Trump: A Second Chance?” — would not air on any of its airwaves. A BBC statement also said that while “the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.”
Per the BBC, Chair Samir Shah also sent a letter to the White House “making clear to President Trump that he and the Corporation are sorry for the edit.”
The BBC documentary came under fire last week after an internal memo, leaked to the Telegraph, found the broadcaster “completely misled” viewers with an edited clip that suggested Trump encouraged supporters to riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Rather, Trump had urged his supporters to march “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
Following the memo and the subsequent controversy it sparked, the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, and its head of BBC News, Deborah Turness, resigned.
Trump attorney Alejandro Brito then followed suit with a letter to the BBC, in which they demanded the broadcaster retract the documentary, issue an apology and “appropriately compensate” Trump for allegedly causing “reputational and financial harm.” If the broadcaster did not comply with the demands by 5 p.m. ET on Friday, Trump would sue the outlet for $1 billion.
“These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. “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!”
Representatives for the BBC did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
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