White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has confirmed that Donald Trump's lawsuit against the BBC "is expected to continue" whether the broadcaster apologises or not.
Speaking to GB News presenter Bev Turner, Ms Leavitt branded the BBC's doctoring of the US President's January 6 speech a "classic example of fake news".
Handing Bev first question in her press conference from the White House, the GB News star asked Ms Leavitt: "The clock is ticking on the Friday deadline by which the BBC must retract and apologise for their malicious edits of the President in the documentary shown last year.
"The recently resigned Director-General of the BBC yesterday described the organisation as the very best of society and blamed the enemies of the BBC for this outcome.
Karoline Leavitt tells GB News Donald Trump's lawsuit against BBC 'will continue' despite apology
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"Also yesterday, a senior Government minister launched a fierce defence of the channel in the House of Commons, saying that the broadcaster remains a light on the hill for people all over the world. So does the President feel that the network is taking the situation seriously?
"Does he believe that they've shown sufficient regret? Does this strain the relationship between the President and the Prime Minister? And given that the organisation is publicly funded, is the President prepared to bankrupt the BBC in his pursuit of truth and justice?"
Ms Leavitt responded: "I will say, I know the President has a very good relationship with Prime Minister Starmer. You have been there, you've seen them in their interactions, you've questioned both leaders in your time joining us when we've gone to the United Kingdom a few different times now.
"However, he has always been very frank when he disagrees with leaders, even whom he has a good relationship with, and the BBC being a fair news organisation is definitely an outlet I think these two leaders would disagree."
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Karoline Leavitt spoke to GB News presenter Bev Turner about Donald Trump's plans to sue the BBC
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Highlighting Mr Trump's view of the BBC, Ms Leavitt said: "The President has made it very clear that this is a Leftist propaganda machine that is unfortunately subsidised by British taxpayers, and he thinks that's extremely unfortunate for the great people of the United Kingdom and Great Britain.
"And I think that the President was deeply concerned by the editing, the purposeful and dishonest editing of his speech that was so clearly fake news, and he rightfully dubbed that term many years ago. And this is a classic example of that."
Suggesting that the lawsuit against the BBC "will continue" despite the President's ultimatum deadline of Friday, she added: "We see it in the United States all the time, we see it now in the United Kingdom.
"As you know, the President's external legal counsel has filed a lawsuit against the BBC. We expect that to continue, and whether they apologise or not is up to them."
Mrs Leavitt said the BBC's doctoring is a 'classic example' of 'fake news'
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Donald Trump has said it is his "obligation" to sue the BBC for defamation after the broadcaster allegedly doctored footage of him in a speech.
"Well, I think I have an obligation to do it... You can't allow people to do that," Mr Trump told Fox News on Wednesday morning, UK time.
"I guess I have to," he said, and accused the BBC of "defrauding the public [and] admitting it".
"This is one of our great allies... the BBC - the Government has a big chunk of that one, I guess," Mr Trump continued.