Boris Johnson defends Donald Trump over 6 January Capitol riots and Ukraine claims

Boris Johnson has mounted a defence of Donald Trump’s role in the Capitol riots, insisting the former president did not intend to “overthrow the constitution”.

The former prime minister claimed what happened was “the peaceful transfer of democratic power from one administration to another”.

And, asked about Mr Trump’s repeated claims that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine had he remained in the White House, Mr Johnson said it is a “credible assertion”.

In an interview with Times Radio to promote his new book Unleashed, Mr Johnson said: “On Ukraine, I think that some of the pessimism is overdone and I think that Donald actually... he gave the javelins to the Ukrainians where the Democrats didn’t, right?

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“When I was foreign secretary, he kicked out those Russian spies. Sixty of them. So he can surprise very much on the upside.

“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.”

Mr Trump has repeatedly touted his “very good relationship” with Vladimir Putin and said he “would never have gone into Ukraine” if he were president.

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And he has implied that, if re-elected, he would cut defence aid to Ukraine in order to force a settlement in the ongoing war.

Mr Trump also described those behind the January 6 2021 Capitol riots as “warriors” and “victims”.

The former president admitted to ordering Secret Service agents to drive him to the US Capitol on the day of the riots, and the January 6 Committee investigation into the disorder found that Mr Trump was the “central cause” of the riots.

And, despite Mr Johnson’s claims, last year, a Colorado judge determined Mr Trump not only “engaged” with insurrection, he also “acted with the specific intent to incite political violence and direct it at the Capitol with the purpose of disrupting the electoral certification”.

Mr Johnson’s defence of the ex-president is not new, having previously defended Mr Trump in the wake of his hush money conviction.

After Mr Trump became the first former president to be convicted of felony crimes, Mr Johnson used his Daily Mail column to dub the trial a “machine-gun mob-style hit-job on Trump”.

“Thank you Boris Johnson!” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform in response.

Elsewhere in his interview with Times Radio’s Stig Abell, Mr Johnson sought to brush off the ‘partygate’ scandal which largely contributed to the end of his time as PM, saying former civil servant Sue Gray was “about as responsible as I was" for "stuff that was happening in the Cabinet Office".

And Mr Johnson, who quit as an MP amid an ongoing investigation into his conduct, teased a “cockroach-like” return to frontline politics.

Asked about a comeback, he said: “The real answer is what Her Maj’ the Queen said, and I say that without breaching any confidence; you should only do things if you think you can be useful.

“For politicians to be effective, they must be like wasps in a jam jar. They’ve got to want continually, cockroach-like to survive and to continue. That’s not necessarily a despicable thing from the point of view of the electorate because we all need people who really, really want to do their best for us.”