Biden on Bolton: "It's a virtual disaster."
Full interview out Wednesday pic.twitter.com/urNQSMcE5i
— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) March 23, 2018
Former Vice President Joe Biden unleashed his thoughts on former diplomat and Fox News personality John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s new choice to serve as his national security adviser.
Biden — who once again said this week he would have “beat the hell out of” Trump in high school over his treatment of women — said the appointment of Bolton was “a virtual disaster” in a Friday interview with the podcast Pod Save America.
“I can document for you that Bolton has two modus operandi: When he was at State, what he would do was he would shade intelligence to move it in the direction where he wanted to go,” Biden said. “There’s many instances where him giving a not completely straight forward analysis of what the intelligence said. Secondly, anyone who disagreed with him, he’d try to get rid of them.”
Bolton is known for his hawkish views on foreign policy, including his views on Iran and North Korea, and has recently advocated for a preemptive strike against the North Korean regime in op-eds and appearances on Fox News.
Biden, who served as a prominent voice for international diplomacy in the Senate for decades and was the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Bolton wasn’t appointed by a committee to serve in former President George W. Bush’s administration for those controversial stances in foreign affairs, forcing him to go through a recess appointment instead.
“That’s in the record, and that’s why Republicans joined me and defeated him,” Biden said. “The single worst place in the world to have John Bolton — I mean this sincerely — is at the place where it requires somebody who will not impose their view, will make sure the president knows every perspective in his government… it is not to cut off access, and this guy has a history of cutting off access.”
Watch a clip of the interview above, via Pod Save America.
[image via screengrab]
—
Follow Chris Riotta (@ChrisRiotta) on Twitter
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
