Boris Johnson says deadly January 6 Capitol riots were ‘pretty weird’

Prime minister Boris Johnson has referred to the fatal assault on the United States Capitol mounted by violent supporters of Donald Trump as “pretty weird.”

Following Trump’s false claims the November 2021 presidential election had been “stolen” as a result of “mass voter fraud”, a mob stormed the legistlative centre of the US government to prevent the Senate from certifying Joe Biden’s win.

Mr Johnson’s comments comes as the House select committee investigating the attack is continuing to reveal the findings of a year-long probe into the 6 January events.

More than 18 months after the horrifying offensive, Mr Johnson also inisted claims of the death of democracy in the US are “grossly exaggerated”.

In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper at the G7 summit in Germany, the prime minister said: “America is a shining city on a hill.

“For me, it will continue to be so and 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.

“And, yeah, look, I mean, there were some weird and kind of unattractive scenes,” he continued.

“Looking from the outside, it was pretty weird. 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.”

Reflecting on the overturning of Roe v Wade, which has drawn vehement criticism from around the world, Mr Johnson continued to praise the US as a bastion of democracy and freedom.

Asked if he thought the judgment hurt the country’s reputation as “a representative of rights and freedom”, said: “No, I want to be very clear about that.

“The United States is, for me, it remains, you know, a shining city on a hill and it’s an incredible guarantor of values, democracy, freedom around the world.

“If you look at what Joe Biden is doing to stick up for people’s rights in Ukraine, it’s quite extraordinary. So I don’t see it that way at all, but just on a woman’s right to choose, which I’ve always backed and which we back very much in the UK, it seems to me to be a step backwards.”

He said the US came in twice in the last century “as the arsenal of democracy” and President Biden’s current investment in helping Ukraine is “a price worth paying”.

“All I’m saying to people is sometimes America is asked by the world to step up. And getting back to your first question, I think America is still the last, best hope of peace and freedom,” he said.