-Boris Johnson is unconventional.
He's an avid cyclist, and while mayor of London,
was known to ride his bike to work.
-Boris -- Boris Johnson, yeah.
The bicycle guy.
-He also embraced his untraditional image
while serving as foreign secretary.
-It's gonna be a tremendous success.
Tremendous success.
-There's a lot of people who perhaps aren't big fans of Boris
who would use the word "buffoon" to describe him.
And I think in a weird way that's something
he would actually acknowledge.
He seems to use that sort of buffoonish persona
to belie the fact that he is
in fact a very ambitious and very driven person.
-Johnson has a history of making controversial
and sometimes offensive comments.
-Not only is the member racist,
he is stoking division in communities
and has a record of dishonesty.
-Before ever taking public office,
Johnson was a journalist with a reputation for being outspoken
and taking liberties with the truth.
-His first job was actually at "The Times" of London,
although he ended up getting fired for making up a quote
that was actually from his godfather,
so, kind of a strange one to get fired for.
He then subsequently became the Brussels correspondent for
"The Daily Telegraph" which is one of the sort
of major right-wing newspapers in the UK.
And while he was there, he sort of, you know,
he looked at it sort of stereotypically dull,
sort of bureaucratic EU life.
And he managed to make it interesting.
What really made him sort of become
a really prominent political figure
was that he became mayor of London.
-After serving two terms as London mayor,
Johnson returned to Parliament in 2015,
winning a seat as MP just as the Brexit campaign
was starting to gain ground.
-I don't think anybody could realistically claim
that this is fundamental reform of the EU
or of Britain's relationships with the EU.
And it's my view that after 30 years of writing about this,
we have a chance actually to do something --
I have a chance actually do something.
I would like to see a new relationship.
-Johnson's critics have drawn comparisons
between him and President Trump,
but he has strong support among Britain's conservative base.
-There is a Trump dementation syndrome,
which is what's the latest thing that he's said,
what's the latest Tweet that he's put out?
The voters don't care about whether or not he's consistent
between what he said today and what he said yesterday.
What they care about is whether or not he's delivering for them,
whether he's fighting for them and delivering for them.
And I think that's gonna be a lesson
in dealing with Boris Johnson
because there will be no shortage of contradictions,
but he's gonna laugh them off.
The question's whether or not he's helping the country
or damaging the country.
-While Johnson is a unique figure in British politics,
in many ways his background fits the traditional mold
of a British prime minister.
-So he isn't sort of a what people call Little Englander,
he's actually a very sort of globally-minded person.
At the same time, he is very, very much part
of the British elite.
He went to Eton College and he also went to Oxford,
where his contemporaries were David Cameron,
British prime minister, who he broke with to support "leave,"
Michael Gove, who is his fellow Brexiteer,
but because Gove didn't support him
in the first post-Brexit leadership contest,
he had a little bit of a falling out with,
and Jeremy Hunt, who is now his rival
to become leader of the Conservative Party.
-Being prime minister is a tough job right now.
For two years, Theresa May tried to figure out a way
for the UK to leave the EU.
-We may not leave the EU for many months.
We may leave without the protections
that the deal provides.
We may never leave at all.
-There's a lot of skepticism about the level of attention
he would give his job.
At the same time, you know, he is incredibly smart,
he is incredibly driven.
He has made no doubt left in anyone's mind
that he wants to be considered
the 21st century's Winston Churchill.
So, I mean, if he thinks this is his battle to win,
I guess he'll try to win it.