Nick Robinson defends Radio 4's Today interview with right wing US commentator Ann Coulter

Radio 4's Nick Robinson has defended the decision to invite Ann Coulter on the Today programme to discuss Donald Trump's retweet of posts sent by Britain First's deputy leader.

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The BBC faced criticism for giving the right-wing political commentator airtime – but Robinson argued that they had done so "to reveal & explain & scrutinise the source of the Trump tweet".

https://twitter.com/bbcnickrobinson/status/936156821580079104

https://twitter.com/bbcnickrobinson/status/936157978884898823

Coulter appeared on Today on Thursday morning to discuss a series of tweets sent out by Jadya Fransen, the deputy leader of the far-right group Britain First, which purported to show Muslims carrying out crimes. The tweets had gained widespread publicity after US President Donald Trump retweeted them to his 43.7m followers.

Many listeners then took to Twitter to lambast the Radio 4 programme for giving Coulter a platform from which to air her views, including Scottish National Party MP Joanna Cherry and author/broadcaster Stephanie Merrit:

https://twitter.com/joannaccherry/status/936149094279663616

https://twitter.com/BarristerSecret/status/936148628435013632

https://twitter.com/thestephmerritt/status/936148261500538880

https://twitter.com/kingprawn1/status/936167670793334785

https://twitter.com/Dorianlynskey/status/936148833834291200

Coulter – who had also retweeted the videos – used the platform to defend Donald Trump, arguing that he was "only giving as good as he gets".

"This is what Brexit was about, this is what Donald Trump is about," she said. "The native countries are blowing up at the constant importation of people who do not share our Western values. That’s the point at issue.”