Morning Joe Points Finger at John Bolton For White House’s Major ‘Typo’ on Iran’s Nuke Program
Morning Joe reacted on Tuesday to the White House’s major correction over their statement about Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program.
On Monday, the Trump Administration followed up on the claims from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and issued a statement declaring that Iran “has a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program that it has tried and failed to hide from the world.” However, last night, the White House claimed there was a “clerical error” and that they meant to say that Iran “HAD” a secret nuke program.
Since the new wording carries a major connotative difference regarding policy on Iran, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough wanted to know whether the revised statement indicates a contradiction between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security adviser John Bolton. The discussion ended up gravitating around Bolton, with Scarborough suggesting that he was the one who pushed the White House’s initial statement forward despite how it counters intelligence agency findings.
“Did they pass it by John Bolton? Because if they did, if you read that in a second you would go – it’s past tense, this would actually start a war,” Scarborough said.
Retired admiral James Stavridis pointed out that Bolton is “smart, he’s verbal, he reads, he writes.”
“He’s also controlling, he’s not just going to let a press person put something out without him looking at it,” Scarborough said.
“Absolutely,” Stavridis said.
“I don’t think this was incompetence. I think this was John Bolton – or somebody connected to John Bolton – trying to send a message, a shot across the bow to Iran.”
“It feels like a tell,” Stavridis agreed.
Watch above, via MSNBC.
[Image via screengrab]
— —
