A caller on BBC Radio 5 Live called President Donald Trump a pedophile on live air during a discussion about Greenland, forcing the host to scramble into damage control mode.
WHAT’S GOING ON: The incident happened when a man named Riley from Peterborough, England, called in to criticize UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s continued cooperation with Trump amid his ongoing push to take Greenland from Denmark. Host Nicky Campbell introduced Riley as someone with “something of a different view” that would be “interesting to hear.”
What Campbell did not expect was an accusation of pedophilia.
“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin is probably looking at Trump and thinking, ‘even I wouldn’t do this,'” Riley said of the Greenland situation. “The whole thing is just an absolute mess, and I cannot believe it.”
Then came the bomb: “He is, and I don’t use this word lightly, he is a pedophile, he is a narcissist…”
Campbell cut in immediately. “Oh, no, no, no, hang on, we can’t have accusations like that,” he said, before disconnecting the caller and moving on.
THE DETAILS: Trump was once a close associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein before ending their friendship in the mid-2000s. The president has denied any criminal wrongdoing and has not been accused by any Epstein survivors. That said, Trump’s resistance to releasing the Epstein files has sparked outrage even among his own MAGA supporters and raised persistent questions about his relationship with the disgraced financier, who died in jail in 2019.
A BBC spokesperson told the Daily Beast: “During a live discussion on BBC Radio 5 Live today about Greenland and the proposed tariffs, a caller made an unsubstantiated and inappropriate allegation that was immediately challenged by the presenter. It was made clear that such language is unacceptable and the call was ended.”
OF COURSE: The timing here is particularly awkward for the BBC. Trump is currently suing the British broadcaster for $5 billion over how it edited his January 6, 2021 speech in a documentary by its investigative show, Panorama.
During his speech before the Capitol riot, Trump told a crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.” Nearly an hour later, he added, “And we fight. We fight like hell.”
The Panorama program edited these together to make it sound like: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”
The BBC has acknowledged the edit gave “the mistaken impression” Trump had “made a direct call for violent action,” but disputes there’s a basis for a defamation claim. Last week, BBC News reported that network bosses will file a motion to dismiss Trump’s lawsuit.
BOTTOM LINE: Live radio is unpredictable, and screening systems occasionally fail. But with a $5 billion lawsuit already hanging over their heads from the very same president, you can bet BBC executives are having a particularly bad day.