Former national security adviser John Bolton said in a “Special Report” in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that his resignation from the Trump administration was spurred by the “erratic behavior” of the President, who said it made “more difficult to protect States United and make America safe. “
“I think for many others who also quit or left the White House or the administration, you work as hard as you can to provide the advice that you consider best,” Bolton told host Bret Baier.
BOLTON CALLS TRUMP CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE ‘INCOHERENT’
“It just comes to a point where his political capital has been spent, where it is clear that the president is unwilling to listen.”
Bolton revealed that while “he had a letter of resignation written well in advance,” the “straw in the glass was … the President’s idea of inviting the Taliban to Camp David to sign the so-called Afghan Peace Agreement [in September 2019], which I thought was a bad deal. I thought the president was following the wrong policy, and I thought the decision to take them to Camp David was just, I just couldn’t answer that. “
Bolton also told Baier that President Trump’s Iran policy was “not so different” from Barack Obama’s in the first 14 months of the administration.
“When I joined in April 2018, we were still in the Iran Nuclear Agreement,” Bolton said, adding that the United States’ withdrawal from the agreement in May of that year “was my happiest moment, probably of all time.” in administration.
“I probably should have left the administration then,” he said.
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Bolton went on to claim that Trump was undermining his own hard-line Iran policy, saying to Baier: “We put enormous pressure on Iran, but when my term came to an end, Trump was still looking for that deal, he wanted to meet with the ayatolás, wanted to meet with [Iran Supreme Leader] Khamenei, wanted to meet with the Iranian Foreign Minister [Javad Zarif]”
Bolton said Trump’s “mixed signals” made it “very, very difficult, if not impossible, to really affect the exchange rate that was necessary in Tehran.”
