A BBC presenter has deleted a post calling for President Joe Biden to “assassinate” Donald Trump after huge backlash against his comments.
BBC radio presenter David Aaronovitch was accused of breaking the corporation’s impartiality rules, but defended the comments as “satire”.
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Aaronovitch, who presents Radio 4’s Briefing Room programme, took to X, formerly Twitter, yesterday, saying: “If I were Biden I would rush in and have Trump assassinated on the basis that he is a threat to the security of America.”
He also added a “SCOTUS” hashtag.
His comments were withdrawn shortly after sparking fury from critics who said he broke BBC rules for staff.
Within two hours, Aaronovitch wrote another post that said: “There is now a far-right pile-on suggesting that my tweet about the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity is an incitement to violence when it is clearly satire.
“So I’m deleting it. At the very least, it gave me a map of some of the dumbest people on this site.”
Aaronovitch also shared another post on social media with the headline: “The President Can Now Assassinate You, Officially.”
The Sun has approached the BBC for a comment.
The BBC presenter reacted to the Supreme Court ruling on Monday which ruled that 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 in Trump’s prosecution.
His discussions with Justice Department officials following the 2020 election, his alleged pressure on then-Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of the election, his alleged role in gathering fake pro-Trump voters, and his conduct related to January 6th.
The court ruled that the former president was absolutely immune for his conversations with Justice Department officials, but Monday’s landmark ruling by the high court will now shift the responsibility to 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 could still allow Trump’s Washington D.C. case to go to trial.
What does Trump’s decision mean for his campaign?
The Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that presidents have immunity from official acts while in office, but not as private citizens.
Now the question is whether former President Donald Trump can be indicted in lower courts.
Currently, Trump’s case regarding his actions during the January 6, 2021 attacks on the US Capitol has been sent back to the trial court.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the case, was instructed to determine which actions in the indictment constitute official conduct and whether they should be removed 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 for 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 discuss whether Trump, who became president on January 6, took actions in his official capacity.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
