UK Prime Minster Boris Johnson Speaks Exclusively To Savannah Guthrie

how frustrating has that been for you this withdrawal of afghanistan that was so chaotic my country the the uk owes a big debt to the u.s military for the incredible professionalism and sacrifice they showed at that airport at the hamikaze international airport it was an amazing operation it's never going to be an easy thing to do to pull out of somewhere like afghanistan after 20 years in a clean uh and straightforward way but you can't spend your whole time trying to run another country by proxy it was never going to be easy but it didn't have to be that messy your own diplomats were stranded in kabul we have that mistaken drone strike are you frustrated that the u.s withdrawal was so botched frankly i think that it was a massive logistical success what they did about it but you you heard about it in parliament members of your own party tony blair called it tragic and unnecessary theresa may member of the conservative party went after you should the u.s have been surprised by how quickly this collapse of afghanistan happened what did the intelligence tell you there was a spectrum of advice a spectrum of predictions from the intelligence people amongst which was the possibility that kabul would collapse very fast and that the taliban would would take over very fast of course you're going to look back on it with mixed feelings but i say this savannah all the things we did in in afghanistan 3.6 million uh women and girls were educated who would not otherwise what about those women and girls now sure i agree it's a terrible thing now to listen to some of the threats that we're hearing uh to their potential that their freedom their opportunities but what we've got to do is work together as the as the west to say to the new authorities in in afghanistan in kabul look you want our cash we want to engage with you but you know afghanistan can't be a breeding ground for terror anymore there were reports that as this collapse was happening you tried to reach president biden and didn't receive a call back for some 36 hours is that true don't discuss my calls with other leaders for the best of my recollection we talked very frankly about the whole thing and we didn't feel snubbed or not sufficiently consulted as this was happening no not at all no no do you think the president was too stubborn about this total withdrawal by a certain date from afghanistan america has been there for for 20 years and it's a respectable argument to say that enough is enough you agree with that sounds like you do look i mean could we have done it a bit differently maybe we could i did want to ask you about president trump you spoke out pretty forcefully after january 6th then the riots at the u.s capitol oh yes was that a rift in the relationship between you i'm a massive fan of american of american democracy i think america stands for an ideal and that ideal is that people should be able to choose their governments peacefully one person uh one vote uh by-election i just felt that the some of the scenes at the the capital didn't wholly correspond with that either that's pretty mild former president trump responsible for inciting that riot look i have no knowledge of what what happened but i what i think is that let me put it this way my admiration for american democracy is undimmed by the whole thing did you ever worry in those days after the election before inauguration about the stability of the president or what he might do no there are reports that general milley who's one of our top generals was so concerned about military action the president might take he actually called his chinese counterpart did you ever worry about anything like that in the final waning days of the trump administration it could be frank i didn't know i i i thought that i mean you know the the the poll seemed to to to you know oscillate to and fro but then you know the the people made up their mind people here perceive you as kind of two peas in a pot it is the job of any prime minister of the of the uk to have a as a good relationship with the the president of the united states the u.s uk relationship we are doomed we are fated to get along and that's quite right that applies to to donald trump it applies to joe biden but what i will say about joe biden dealing with with the new american president yes it is a breath of fresh air in the sense that there are some things on which we can really really work together and you knew i was going to bring it up climate change you know he's great on that and he wants to cut co2 he wants to get to to net zero by 2050 and he shares with me a basic view that you can do this without penalizing the economy you have taken a more adversarial approach with china just recently there was an announcement that australia the uk and the u.s have a deal to put nuclear-powered submarines in the australian waters china has told australia you should expect the worst china sees this as incredibly provocative that's ridiculous there's no need whatever for anybody to construe this as adversarial towards them going back to this is about technology transfer let's talk about covid you have 81 of your eligible citizens vaccinated right now we're at 64 percent the president has turned to mandates where he has the legal authority to do so do you think that's the right idea different strokes for different folks okay it's up to different countries to decide how they want to approach this this is very controversial area people feel very strongly about not having the state mandate something in my country where great levels of liberty we've had to do it by sweet reason and persuasion and that's working what do you do when sweet reason and persuasion don't work keep going sweet more sweet reason since you became prime minister you became a father again you have a new baby you're expecting another baby yeah i know i know you have six kids yes what's it like to have little babies and it's fantastic it's fantastic it's you know well you know it's it's uh it's it's a lot of work um it's a lot of work i'll tell you that much but it's it's i love it i absolutely love it and uh i i want you i change a lot of nappies in case anybody do you really i do i do there's a there's a joke there about what he does though in politics too but i'm not gonna make it but it was a really interesting and lively conversation as you can see and he is really in in sales mode he's trying to get the us to double its funding uh to contribute to fighting climate change around the world so we'll see if he is persuasive it was such a well-rounded interview i learned a lot about boris johnson that i didn't know all right hey thanks for watching our youtube channel find your favorite recipes celebrity interviews uplifting stories shop our favorite deals and so much more with the today app download it now

Channel: TODAY

Views: 51,245

Keywords: Hoda Kotb, International News, Savannah Gutherie, Sports, Style, Today, Today Show, breaking news, domestic news, interviews, media, politics, The TODAY Show, TODAY Show, TODAY, NBC, NBC News, Celebrity Interviews, Lifestyle, TODAY Show Interview, Savannah Guthrie, Craig Melvin, Carson Daly, Al Roker, TODAY show news, United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, Boris Johnson interview, Boris Johnson today show, Boris Johnson Savannah Guthrie, UK Prime Minister, climate change, Afghanistan

Id: mFMsIjGas04

Length: 7min 23sec (443 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 21 2021