Tapper served up an opportunity for
Johnson to characterize Trump as a Russian stooge. He did the exact opposite.
CNN talking head Jake Tapper gave former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson an opportunity this week to help the American media establishment advance its latest Trump-Russia smear.
Johnson,
whose time as prime minister and foreign secretary overlapped Trump's first
four years in the White House, not only proved unwilling to cosign the
narrative but highlighted President Donald Trump's historic efforts to keep
Russia in check — something the Biden-Harris administration has alternatively
had difficulty with.
Johnson went
on CNN to promote his new memoir, "Unleashed." While nominally
interested in discussing the former prime minister's book, Tapper appeared far
more intent on exploring some of the more sensational allegations in Bob
Woodward's forthcoming book, particularly the disputed claim — from yet another
unnamed source — that Trump has spoken to Putin as many as seven times since
leaving the White House.
Democratic
operatives and the liberal media are desperate to make something of this
allegation. Former Obama U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, for instance, gladly
leaped to the conclusion Tuesday that Trump had violated the Logan
Act, thereby committing a crime.
White House
press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has also given the rumor oxygen, claiming,
"If it is true, it is indeed concerning."
Trump
campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told The Hill, "None of ... these made-up stories
by Bob Woodward are true," adding that Woodward "suffers from a
debilitating case of Trump derangement syndrome."
Woodward
might have a chip on his shoulder on account of the president's $50 million lawsuit for releasing audio recordings of
their interviews without consent.
"CNN is
also reporting that in Woodward's book, according to a
Trump aide, there have been multiple phone calls between former President Trump
and Vladimir Putin. Maybe as many as seven since Trump left the White House in
2021," said Tapper. "What's your reaction to that?"
"I don't
know if that's true, and I'm certainly not privy to the contents of those sorts
of conversations," said Johnson.
"What I
can tell our viewers is that when I had dealings with President Trump over
Russia, like when the Russians poisoned people in the U.K., it was actually the
Trump administration that really ... exceeded expectations. They expelled 60
Russian spies. It was the Trump administration that actually gave Ukrainians
lethal weaponry — the Javelin missiles to use against Putin's troops."
After Russian
former double agent Sergei Skripal and his adult daughter were poisoned in
2018, Trump ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats whom his
administration identified as intelligence agents. He also had the Russian
consulate in Seattle closed.
'Had he been
president in 2022, there would have been no Russian invasion of Ukraine.'
As for the
Javelins, Trump approved a plan to send the anti-tank missile systems
to Ukraine in December 2017 — a step that former President Barack Obama had
avoided, even when Russia annexed Crimea under his watch.
There was a
pregnant silence after Johnson concluded his defense of Trump's record on
Russia. Tapper then awkwardly changed the topic to the prime minister's book.
This is not
the first time in recent days that the former prime minister has defended
Trump.
In a recent interview with Britain's Times Radio, Johnson
suggested Putin would not have invaded Ukraine on Trump's watch.
"I
happen to believe that when Donald Trump says that had he been president in
2022, there would have been no Russian invasion of Ukraine, my view is that
that is a credible assertion. I really do think that's credible," said
Johnson.
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