CNN’s Jake Tapper attempted to bait Boris Johnson into criticizing democracy in the United States, but the British Prime Minister instead said concerns were overblown and America remains a “shining city on a hill.”
Tapper brought up the January 6th riot at the Capitol and suggested people in other nations see democracy in America as hanging by a thread.
“When I talk to friends in Canada, the U.K., Australia, and elsewhere, people express concern about the United States in terms of our ability and our institutions to thrive and continue after what happened with the election of 2020,” he prodded.
“They worry that democracy is on life support in the United States,” Tapper said, practically echoing a Democrat talking point. “Are you worried at all?”
Johnson said he’s not worried one bit.
“No, I want to say to the people of the United States, I’m not. Let’s get back to what I’ve been trying to say to you throughout this interview,” Johnson replied.
“I think that reports of the death of democracy in the United States are grossly, grossly exaggerated. America is a shining city on a hill.”
France had the yellow vests. January 6 didn’t even rise to the level of ordinary British soccer hooliganism.
It’s funny to watch Jake Tapper not realize he’s a joke, seen as trifling and hysterical even by Boris Johnson.
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) June 26, 2022
Boris Johnson Says American Democracy is Fine
It’s hilarious to watch Tapper press Boris Johnson on the seriousness of the January 6th riot while the latter dismisses it as little more than a “weird” event.
The prime minister pointed out that in the end there was a transition of power to President Biden.
“I think that the mere fact that Joe Biden has stepped up to the plate in the way that he has shows that the instincts of America are still very much in the right place,” he said. “Yeah, there were some weird and kind of unattractive scenes back in the -”
“People died,” Tapper interjected. “It was pretty serious.”
In fact, the only person who was killed that day was an unarmed Air Force veteran and supporter of President Trump, Ashli Babbitt.
Wonder why Tapper didn’t discuss her a little more in-depth.
Jake Tapper’s interview with Boris Johnson went poorly. pic.twitter.com/5vz3IzuPB6
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) June 26, 2022
“It was pretty weird,” Johnson scoffed. “Looking from the outside it was pretty weird.”
He added, “But I don’t believe that American democracy is under serious threat. Far from it. I continue to believe that America is the greatest global guarantor of democracy and freedom.”
Boris Johnson has been critical of the Capitol riot in the past but refused to refer to it as ‘democracy under attack’ as the media would like.
“I’m a massive fan of America and American democracy. I think America stands for an ideal, and that ideal is that people should be able to choose their government peacefully,” he said during a ‘Today’ show interview this past September, though he acknowledged “some of the scenes at the Capitol didn’t wholly correspond with that.”
“My admiration for American democracy is undimmed.”
Watch @SavannahGuthrie’s full interview with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson ahead of the U.N. General Assembly on Afghanistan, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and more. pic.twitter.com/mu5YKjDgJz
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) September 21, 2021
Even then he wouldn’t take the bait and blame Trump for the riot.
“I have no knowledge of what happened,” he said. “Let me put it this way, my admiration for American democracy is undimmed.”
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