A BBC presenter has deleted a post calling for President Joe Biden to have Donald Trump “murdered” after huge backlash over his comments.
BBC radio host David Aaronovitch was accused of breaking the corporation’s impartiality rules, but he defended the comments as “satire”.
Aaronovitch, who presents Radio 4’s Briefing Room show, took to X, formerly Twitter, yesterday saying: “If I was Biden I’d hurry up and have Trump murdered on the basis that he is a threat to America’s security.”
He also added a hashtag “SCOTUS”.
His comments were taken down shortly after sparking fury from critics who said he was in breach of the BBC’s rules for employees.
Within two hours, Aaronovitch penned another post which read: “There’s now a far right pile on suggesting that my tweet about the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity is an incitement to violence when it’s plainly a satire.
“So I’m deleting it. If nothing else though it’s given me a map of some the daftest people on this site.”
Mr Aaronovitch also re-shared another social media post which had the headline: “The President Can Now Assassinate You, Officially.”
The Sun approached the BBC for a comment.
The BBC presenter was reacting to the Supreme Court decision on Monday that ruled former presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for their official acts, but no immunity for unofficial acts.
The court looked at four categories of conduct within Trump’s indictment.
His discussions with officials in the Justice Department after the 2020 election, his alleged pressure on then-Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of the election, his alleged role in assembling fake pro-Trump electors, and his conduct related to January 6.
The court ruled that the former president was absolutely immune for his conversations with Justice Department officials, but the higher court’s historic decision Monday will now pass the responsibility on to the lower courts to determine whether Trump has immunity for the other three categories.
It also sends the case back to the lower courts to decide what constitutes an official act as president, which may still allow Trump’s case in Washington DC to go to trial.
The Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that preisdents have immunity from official acts while in office but not as private citizens.
Now, the question is if former President Donald Trump can be indicted in the lower courts.
Currently, Trump’s case regarding his actions during the January 6, 2021, attacks on the US Capitol was sent back to trial court.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the case, was sent instructions to determine which actions in the indictment constitute official conduct and if they should be dropped from the case.
The highest court ruled that “a former president is entitled to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority.”
“There is no immunity of unofficial acts,” the ruling continued.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith, who brought the case against Trump, will now have to restructure his argument due to the new ruling.
Smith will have to argue whether Trump, who was president on January 6, undertook actions in his official capacity.
