Former British premier Boris Johnson has been slammed as a “coward” and a “liar” by Tucker Carlson after backing out of an appearance on his FNC show.
Describing Johnson as a “famously articulate man” noted for his penchant for humorous classical allusions, Carlson said the Briton’s publicist had informed the FNC team he was backing out despite having previously excoriated “all [the] cowards in Washington” afraid of appearing on it.
“[S]omehow he never mentioned that he is one of them,” Carlson remarked acidly.
“It was remarkable — and remarkably dishonest,” the American said of the incident.
“We knew that Johnson himself was a coward; we watched during COVID as he transitioned into a terrified old woman — but we had no idea he was also a liar,” he continued. “We should have known.”
Carlson, who has expressed misgivings about whether America’s deepening involvement in the Ukraine war serves the American national interest, alleged that Johnson was “did not want to publicly defend his position on Ukraine” and was “afraid to take questions about it.”
Since being ousted as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by his own party amid a deluge of scandals, Johnson has sought to reinvent himself as a particularly hawkish voice for greater Western involvement in Ukraine, recently urging World Economic Forum (WEF) attendees in Davos, Switzerland, to hand the Ukrainians more advanced weapons systems.
“Putin wants to present [the war in Ukraine] as a nuclear stand-off between NATO and Russia. Nonsense. He’s not going to use nuclear weapons, OK?” the Member of Parliament for Uxbridge insisted.
“He’s like the fat boy in Dickens, he wants to make our flesh creep. He wants us to think about it. He’s never going to do it,” he added, with what for some might be slightly worrying overconfidence.
Despite saying the Ukraine war was not a “stand-off between NATO and Russia at Davos”, however, he argued that Ukraine should in fact be admitted to NATO only a few days later.
The Ukrainian government, for its part, has showered Johnson with praise and awards, recently saying the Briton was “worth more than a squadron of tanks” to its war effort.