Posted on 02/19/2017 6:49:29 PM PST by Colonel Kangaroo
Nearly a week since U.S. President Donald Trump fired national security adviser Michael Flynn, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul advised against appointing former U.N. Ambassador and White House Chief of Staff John Bolton.
Trump’s first choice, retired Navy special forces officer Robert Harward, who served under Defense Secretary John Mattis, turned down the position last week and reports say the White House has ruled out former CIA Director David Petraeus, who was ousted as the nation’s top spy amid a scandal over his sharing confidential documents with his mistress.
Flynn resigned last week amid questions on whether he discussed sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Trump is scheduled to meet Sunday with four possible replacements: Bolton, retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who is acting national security adviser, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster and the superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said other interviews also could be scheduled.
In an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Paul, R-Ky., a Libertarian who lost the 2016 Republican presidential nomination to Trump, said Bolton would push a foreign policy closer to that of Sen. John McCain,” R-Ariz.
“John Bolton still believes the Iraq war was a good idea, he still believes regime change is a good idea, he still believes that nation building is a good idea,” Paul said, adding, “My fear is that s secret wars would be developing around the globe. … I think he would be a bad choice.”
On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said he is “fully aware” of the facts that led up to Flynn’s ouster after less than a month on the job.
Some point after we were first tipped off and got to the point of reviewing whether he was being honest or not, after we got the report back from the White House counsel, that's when we looped in, or that's when the vice president was brought into the conversation more fully in regard to whether or not Michael Flynn was honest,” Priebus said.
Priebus added, however, he didn’t think Flynn’s actions rise to a criminal violation of the Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from engaging in foreign policy.
Former CIA Director Leon Panetta, who served as Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, said Trump needs to recognize that Russia is “an adversary, not a friend.”
“Their main purpose is to destabilize the United States and Western democracies. And they've shown that in everything they've done. So the president, I think ultimately must recognize that his first responsibility is to protect this country. And one of those you have to protect this country from is Russia,” Panetta said on “Meet the Press.”
General Boykin. A patriot, a Christian, a statesman, and a supermultiplier for exploding liberal heads.
John McCain and Linda Graham are Bolton's biggest cheerleaders in the U.S. Senate. That's enough to convince me that the guy has no business on Trump's team.
I agree. Not Bolton. He has uses but not at the top. He needs to be reined in.
Paul adds something to trump’s realpolitick
I wish someone would ask Panetta why the U.S. has been jointly working with this "adversary" to build, staff and operate the International Space Station for years.
In fact, most of the manned missions to the ISS scheduled for this year are going to have NASA astronauts flying to space under Russian commanders.
And a worthy struggle it is.
Not always in agreement with Rand, but I am on this. Bolton is a McCain fan, among other things.
The fact that Bolton is McCain’s man makes me very nervous. It is past time for an America First realism to replace the globalist nation building agenda that Bolton and McCain have championed.
Bolton is a New World Order, Globalist...Everything Trump campaigned against...
Oh GOD!! NOT BOLTON!!! Bolton is a fricken globalist bastard!! Get him away fast. WE WILL NNOT TOLERATE THAT NEO CON BASTARD!!NOOOOOO!!!!@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Iraq went to hell when bush refused to interfere with sharia law being implemented... insisting on freedom of religion and human rights would have saved Iraq and would have turned many mullas around... Jmho
Great post! I agree.
Wait a minute ... isn't that exactly what Iraq had before the U.S. invasion in 2003?
It's amazing how stupid people can be, and still be considered employable in Washington, D.C.
If the government of Iran had set out in 2002 with a plan to grow their power in the region and diminish the influence of the U.S., they couldn't have come up with a better plan than the one the Bush administration executed in Iraq.
He ran AGAINST downsizing the UN and freeing America from being dominated by its dictates? That's odd, I don't recall Trump running on an "I love UN controlled globalism"
Bolton is a big neocon. I wish FOX would can his ass already.
Yeah, he might bring Michael Bolton to sing.
Must agree.
And yet he has never been very anti Trump, obvious to me there is more to him than the McCain’s of the world. It’s not bad for Trump to hearing differing opinions. The problem arises if after given a differing opinion and Trump doesn’t take it so you go rogue or are you still going to be a full supporter
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