British broadcasting corp

Rutger Bregman said his comment that President Trump was the “most openly corrupt president in American history” was removed before his lecture was broadcast on Tuesday.

With board members and executives deadlocked over how to respond, the news organization kept silent for days, allowing a controversy to snowball.

The BBC said it would not rebroadcast a misleadingly edited documentary but added, “We strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.”

The abrupt moves followed furor over claims that a documentary had misleadingly edited footage of President Trump’s speech before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.