A top BBC presenter has sparked fury today after tweeting that President Joe Biden should have Donald Trump ‘murdered’.
David Aaronovitch, who presents Radio 4’s Briefing Room show, took to X/Twitter shortly after 5 pm and said: “If I was Biden I’d hurry up and have Trump murdered on the basis that he is a threat to America’s security #SCOTUS”.
The hashtag suggests his wild opinion was sparked by the ruling from the Supreme Court today, which ruled that former presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for their official acts.
The post from Mr Aaronovitch sparked instant backlash from those who saw it, with many pointing out an egregious breach of the corporation’s rules around employee impartiality.
Responding to journalist Jack Montgomery who accused him of “Trump derangement syndrome”, Mr Aaronovitch doubled down and lashed out, replying: “Did you see the Supreme Court ruling Jack? Or were you too busy with your head up Nigel Farage‘s derriere?”
The BBC has been approached for comment.
In another follow-up tweet to someone attempting to add a ‘community note’ to his political intervention, Mr Aaronovitch said: “That community note should be interesting. But before you go to the effort of writing it, try reading the arguments, the ruling and the dissent in the Supreme Court’s judgment on presidential immunity delivered today”.
An hour after posting the tweet, he told one critic that the post was “satirical and based on today’s 6-3 ruling on presidential immunity”.
Mr Aaronovitch finally deleted the post after around 90 minutes, tweeting: “There is 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 of the daftest people on this site.
“Note by the way that not one of them has a problem with the ruling itself.”
Spectator columnist Steven Barratt responded to Mr Aaronovitch’s post with the observation: “‘Impartiality’ may not be in the best of health at the BBC…”
Another X user added: “Let’s see what @Ofcom & @BBC say about this!”
GB News commentator Adam Brooks fumed: “The @bbc ok with this yeah? You utter scumbag David.”
In September 2023 the BBC introduced new social media rules in light of a row surrounding Gary Lineker and his political tweets.
The rules increased restrictions on presenters airing party political views.