Tucker Carlson isn’t shy about expressing the way he feels about America’s endless wars and the people who support them, including hawkish former National Security Adviser John Bolton.
Carlson compared Bolton to a snake that routinely bites its host, referencing imagery from a poem that Donald Trump frequently read at his rallies in 2016. The Fox News prime time host said that Bolton’s betrayal of the president was predictable because he does not support Trump’s foreign policy, adding that “he’s not the only one” in the White House who is working against Trump’s original campaign platform.
The popular Fox personality was responding to the 11th-hour leak of Bolton’s upcoming book to the media, which threw Democrats and liberal talking heads into ecstasies over its mention of a direct link between military aid to Ukraine and Trump’s desire to have Joe Biden investigated.
Carlson compares Bolton to a snake
Bolton is a recurring target for Carlson, who previously labeled him a “bureaucratic tapeworm” that keeps resurfacing and wreaking destruction in various administrations after a stand-off with Iran this summer. Carlson has criticized Bolton especially for his support for regime change in Iran and his unrepentant support of the Iraq War.
Carlson said that it is not a surprise that Bolton turned on Trump, since the foreign policy hawk never supported the president’s desire to end wars in the Middle East. The Fox host cited a poem that Trump often used on the campaign trail in 2016, which uses a metaphorical snake to make a point about the consequences of unvetted immigration.
“Republicans in Washington seem shocked to discover that Bolton has turned and betrayed his former boss, Donald Trump. But they shouldn’t be shocked,” Carlson said. “That’s who John Bolton is. That’s who John Bolton has always been. That’s what John Bolton does. And not to brag, but we called it long ago,” he said.
Carlson said that Bolton only joined the Trump administration because he wanted to start a war with Iran — something he never got — playing a 2017 clip of Bolton declaring that America should overthrow “the mullahs” in Tehran. He also critiqued Bolton’s remarkably consistent support for war with countries all over the globe, from Syria to Russia and Venezuela.
“Maybe because he never served in the military himself, Bolton genuinely, passionately loved war. In the end, of course, he didn’t get it,” Carlson continued. “Trump blocked him at the brink of more than one conflict. Bolton finally left amid well-deserved humiliation. Bolton’s resignation was one of the highlights of the president’s first term.”
Baffling White House tenure
Bolton left the White House in September after a falling out with Trump that followed shortly after America came to the brink of war with Iran. Trump said he fired him, but Bolton maintained that he resigned.
As Trump’s impeachment trial gets down to the wire this week, Trump has been raging at Bolton, dismissing him as a liar who is just trying to sell a book. The president seemed to agree with Carlson’s assessment of Bolton’s love of war, blasting his former adviser Wednesday morning for poor judgment and saying that America would be in “World War Six” by now if Trump listened to his advice.
For a guy who couldn’t get approved for the Ambassador to the U.N. years ago, couldn’t get approved for anything since, “begged” me for a non Senate approved job, which I gave him despite many saying “Don’t do it, sir,” takes the job, mistakenly says “Libyan Model” on T.V., and..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2020
Carlson went on to play clips of liberal talking heads glorifying Bolton as a man of integrity — in Nicole Wallace’s telling, a “conservative’s conservative” — and said that Bolton’s departure made liberals “sad” because the media “loves war. Wars mean they get to move tanks around on a screen and talk about weapons systems.” The Fox host said that the impeachment trial is a “totally stupid sideshow” since Trump will be acquitted, but Bolton’s betrayal raises the question of “how a guy who disagrees so completely” with Trump ever rose to a position of power in his administration.
How’d a guy who disagrees with Trump so completely on everything Trump ran on, and won on, how did that guy wind up in a position of power at the White House? Because he’s not the only one.
Despite the turbulence of the Bolton “bombshell,” Republicans are now confident that they have the votes to block witnesses and bring Donald Trump’s trial to a close, The Hill reported, although it remains unclear exactly what will happen until the vote is taken later this week. The Senate spent Wednesday in a question-and-answer session with Democrat impeachment managers and Trump’s lawyers.
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