Boris Johnson lashes out at ‘sloppy’ Emily Maitlis in fiery Donald Trump debate

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is known to have had a rapport with Donald Trump, fiercely criticised journalist Emily Maitlis during a heated exchange this evening. The clash arose over Johnson’s association with the ex-president.

He branded her questioning as “sloppy” and “dangerous”. The tension escalated when Emily questioned former adult film actress Stormy Daniels about her encounters with Trump and the threats she faced after going public.

Stormy disclosed: “Oh a bullet proof vest? I get all kinds of crazy threats all the time but sometimes one will stand out more than the others and it’s not always the most violent or graphic one.”

Observing Johnson’s reaction, Emily remarked: “Mr Johnson you’re kind of shaking your head, but this is coming from a man you’ve described as a friend.”

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To which Johnson quickly responded: “No not at all, I wasn’t shaking my head at all,” Emily corrected herself, suggesting his gesture was one of sorrow and sympathy, while also pointing out Johnson’s advisory role to Trump on foreign policy matters. Johnson conveyed his empathy for Stormy, stating: “Let me first say that I think anyone watching this will have immense sympathy for Stormy.”

“Everything that you feel and have been going through. Nobody should be threatened or feel threatened as part of the democratic process.”

“And I’m afraid I don’t know the ins and outs of much of what’s happened. What I can say, the area in which I can speak with authority is about the foreign policy relationship.”

Not satisfied with Boris’s response, the conversation became a bit heated as they talked over each other, reports the Express. Emily remarked: “We’re gonna put foreign policy aside and talk about character. There’s no reason why you wouldn’t know Stormy Daniels story because it’s been absolutely public for years.”

“She’s described the character of the man and how his fans react to somebody like her.”

However, Boris stood his ground.

“And I understand that, but you see the job in the UK of the Prime Minister is to have a good close relationship, friendship with whoever is in the White House and it has to be operational and it did work,” he asserted. Stormy then interjected, questioning Boris, 60, on whether he would be comfortable with the women in his life being alone with Mr Trump.

She queried: “So if you’re the Prime Minister and you and Donald Trump got into a disagreement as people do with Donald Trump whether you’re right or wrong. Would you have any fear for the ladies in your life? How do you feel about doxxing? ” Boris responded: “Nothing like that came up.”

“You wouldn’t be worried that that would happen to your daughters or sisters?” Stormy continued to probe.

Boris Johnson stood his ground as he recounted his interactions with the former US President, saying: “When you’re talking to the US President, the relationship you have as the Prime Minister, is one of great formality and importance and of course you develop a friendship but actually and I can say this with all sincerity, in my time with him I never was treated with anything other than complete courteous and friendliness. Now you had a very different experience but I can only talk about my experience.”

Emily Maitlis quickly retorted, questioning whether Boris had begun to adopt Trump-esque behaviours during his tenure as Prime Minister, citing “His disregard for institutions, his disregard for the rule of law, his denialism, which I think was mirrored in your response to the privileges committee, your response to the Parliamentary standards committee, your proroguing of Parliament, this is all Trump-like behaviour.”

Unfazed, Boris responded with a dismissive laugh, “Well there I obviously disagree profoundly as I detail in the book Unleashed,” but Emily wasn’t amused by his attempt to plug his new book, pressing further on Trump’s character. Boris found her line of questioning to be “sloppy” and “dangerous”, firmly stating: “Well no because I don’t accept your analogy at all and I think it’s very sloppy and dangerous to make analogies between the US and the UK in that kind of way.”

Channel 4’s lead presenter, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, 54, intervened, asking: “You didn’t model yourself on him at all? “Boris dodged the question, saying: “And I think people compare Brexit with the advent of Donald Trump. Brexit was actually supported by people across the political spectrum.”

Emily, 54, responded, “You’re not answering the question. Just go back to the question.”

Boris claimed, “I’m answering the question directly. I believe in my administration we had complete respect for institutions. We had respect for the decision of the British people to leave the European Union. And unlike many people in the UK establishment who wanted to thwart that, we were determined to go ahead and deliver it. As we promised.”

Krishnan countered, “But you didn’t respect the Parliamentary Committee and misled the Privileges Committee. That’s not respect.”

Boris replied: “17.4 million people voted for us to deliver it and we did.”

In the ongoing battle of wills, Emily shot back, “I don’t know why you’re talking about Brexit because you know exactly what we’re talking about.”

Boris retorted: “Because you’re talking about an analogy which I reject between the US and the UK.”

Emily pressed on: “No, we’re discussing the Owen Patterson affair where he was found to have violated standards law by Kathleen Stone, and you dismissed that. You quoted people calling it a ‘Kangaroo court’.”

“If you read Unleashed, you’ll see I admitted we made a mistake, took the wrong approach, and then corrected it,” he responded. “But when it comes to partygate or the handling of the Covid pandemic, I believe the UK government did an exceptional job.”

Emily reiterated that the conversation was not about that but about Boris’s response to institutions, stating, “It’s about people calling out your lies.”

Boris retorted, “I reject that”, adding, “Here’s Channel 4 News, run by Ian Catts, pulling the same stunt you tried in 2004 with a heavily biased approach to a US election.”

Emily challenged him, “I’m asking you to account for your actions.”

Boris reminded her that he was “not standing for election here”.

Steering the conversation back to Donald’s character, Stormy asked the Conservative: “Do you have children? Would you leave your daughter alone with Donald Trump?”

“Well I don’t see why not.” He replied.

Krishnan queried: “So you would?”

Boris Johnson insisted: “Yes I would. My experience with Donald Trump, I hear what you’re saying, maybe I’m wrong, but he has been courteous, he has been polite.”

However, Emily countered: “He denied an election that he lost. What does it matter if he’s courteous if he can’t accept the results of American democracy and the American voter?”

Boris reiterated his previous criticism of Trump’s actions, calling them a “terrible thing to do”. He then clashed with Krishnan over the suggestion that he had modelled himself on Trump, dismissing it as “nonsense”.

Krishnan shot back: “He called you British Trump, you must be looking at him and thinking, if he can come back given everything he’s done, then so can you because nothing you’ve done is quite as bad as him.”

The debate ended with Boris asserting that he was no pushover for Trump and that Krishnan’s claims were “complete and utter tripe”. He recalled a past disagreement with Trump, saying: “There was a time where he said something rather rude about safety in London and I was mayor of London for eight years and I took exception to that and I said that the only reason I wouldn’t visit parts of New York is the risk of meeting Donald Trump and this was seven or eight years ago, what you’ve just said Krishnan is complete and utter tripe.”

“I haven’t modelled myself on anybody, I speak as a I find and what I am saying to you tonight is this thing could go either way and what matters above all is that the United States is strong and if Kamala gets it then I hope to gods sake that she does not sell out the Ukrainians and I hope that Donald Trump doesn’t either.”

“And I have reason based off what I saw to think that he won’t.”