What did Trump’s BBC edit say? Network to apologize to President over editing January 6 speech

British news broadcaster BBC is coming under fire for an edited speech in which President Donald Trump seemed to be encouraging the January 6 riot on the U.S. Capitol in 2021.

The Telegraph published a side-by-side comparison of a speech given by Trump on January 6.

In an edited clip, featured on BBC’s Panorama programme, the President seemed to be telling his supporters,

“We're going to walk down to the Capitol...and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”

However, according to a clip from the President’s original speech provided by The Telegraph, 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.”

NEW: BBC to apologize for deceptively editing President Trump’s January 6 speech in an effort to make it look like he encouraged violence at the Capitol.

The apology letter is reportedly expected to come early next week.

“Samir Shah, the BBC’s chairman, will write to the… pic.twitter.com/cJixU8mSDD

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 9, 2025

In 2021, Trump’s supporters charged onto the U.S. Capitol, leading to chaos which had lawmakers scrambling for help and 140 law enforcement officers being injured, as per NPR.

Trump’s supporters at the time were attempting to stop the Congress from validating Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

About the fallout from BBC’s edited clip of President Donald Trump

On November 3, The Telegraph published excerpts from an internal BBC memo which made a reference to the ‘misleading’ of viewers through edited footage of Donald Trump appearing in Panorama’s Trump: A Second Chance?, which was aired in October 2024.

The whistleblowing memo, as per The Telegraph, shed light on the edited portion of the broadcast which “completely misled” the public, stated:

“The spliced together version of Trump's comments aired by Panorama made it seem that he said: “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.”

As per the news publication, the memo alleged that the broadcast showed Trump “‘say’ things [he] never actually said,” in a “distortion of the day’s events.”

Now, Deadline reports that BBC’s chair, Samir Shah will be apologizing about the edit in a letter addressed to UK Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

The apology, which is expected on November 10, will likely admit that BBC should not have edited the speech to make it look like Trump encouraged rioters.

However, as per Deadline, Shah is set to explain that the network did not intend to deceive its audience.

Meanwhile, BBC’s director general Tim Davie and its CEO of BBC News Deborah Turness resigned amid the fallout, and other allegations facing the network which accused it of bias in its reportage of transgender matters and the Israel-Hamas war, as per CNBC.

BREAKING: Both the BBC Director General Tim Davie & News CEO Deborah Turness have been forced to resign after the Telegraph exposed them for doctoring Trump's January 6th speech to make him look like he incited the crowd. pic.twitter.com/nhkTxOZ085

— George (@BehizyTweets) November 9, 2025

While announcing his departure from the news organization, Davies, as per BBC, stated,

“Like all public organisations, the BBC is not perfect, and we must always be open, transparent and accountable. While not being the only reason, the current debate around BBC News has understandably contributed to my decision. Overall the BBC is delivering well, but there have been some mistakes made and as director general I have to take ultimate responsibility.”

Turness also referred to the recent controversies in her statement, and as per BBC, said,

“In public life leaders need to be fully accountable, and that is why I am stepping down. While mistakes have been made, I want to be absolutely clear recent allegations that BBC News is institutionally biased are wrong.”

Donald Trump also responded to the resignations and thanked The Telegraph for reporting on the edited footage in a post on Truth Social.