'Not fit for the job': John Bolton has strong words for Trump after secret-sharing report
Trump Photo: Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock
John Bolton photo by Christopher Halloran
October 06, 2023
Former President Donald Trump's one-time National Security Adviser John Bolton shredded the former president over the latest report about his disclosure of highly classified national defense information, in an interview on CNN Friday.
In addition to Trump's boxes of classified documents stashed at Mar-a-Lago, he is newly accused of having shared nuclear submarine secrets with an Australian billionaire who attended Trump's country club.
"If you, as a former national security adviser with top secret security clearances, if you shared this type of information, what would happen to you?" asked anchor Wolf Blitzer.
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"Well, if it were in a context like speaking to somebody like this Australian businessman with no need to know, no security clearance, no official function, it would be very serious. There's no doubt about it," said Bolton. "I think the president's actions have an unfortunate ripple effect and gives rise to cynicism and carelessness. If he can do that, maybe we can get away with it, too, and why should we be punished if he's not punished."
"Ambassador, if you were advising Trump's 2024 rivals, would you tell them to focus on the threat Trump poses to national security?" Blitzer pressed him.
"Absolutely," said Bolton. "I think the core argument Republicans in particular ought to be making about Trump is that he is not fit for the job. He doesn't understand the full nature of his responsibilities in the national security area. He didn't know much about the government when he was inaugurated in 2017. He learned very little since then, and I think it's a real problem when you have somebody who's more interested in talking about himself, his own self-aggrandizement seeing himself through the prism of whether it benefits Donald Trump. These are the attributes of somebody who shouldn't be sitting in the Oval Office whatever his philosophy."
Watch the video below or at the link.