CNN anchor Jake Tapper's attempt to get United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson to lament about the near death of democracy in the United States did not go as planned in an interview that aired on Sunday.
Tapper told Johnson, who is meeting with world leaders during the G7 Summit, he has friends in Canada, Europe, and Australia who tell him they are worried about the United States' ability to be a democratic country in the aftermath of Donald Trump's presidency and the Capitol riot on January 6.
"They worry democracy is on life support in the United States," said Tapper. "Are you worried at all?"
"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. I think that reports of the death of democracy in the United States are grossly, grossly exaggerated," Johnson replied.
"America is a shining city on a hill. For me, and it will continue to be so. 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. Yeah, there were some weird and kind of unattractive scenes back in the..." he continued.
"People died. I mean, it was pretty serious," Tapper said about the Capitol riot.
"It was pretty weird. Looking from the outside it was pretty weird. But I don’t believe that American democracy is under serious threat," Johnson reiterated. "Far from it. I continue to believe that America is the greatest global guarantor of democracy and freedom."