“Absolute disaster”: that’s how Joe Scarborough described the prospect of John Bolton serving as Deputy Secretary of State on today’s Morning Joe.
Scarborough blamed “neo-cons” for boosting Bolton, singling out Sheldon Adelson. Said Scarborough: “he needs to tell Sheldon Adelson, sorry, I love you buddy, and I’ll play blackjack out at your casino, but I can’t let you destroy US foreign policy because you like this guy.”
Scarborough’s beef with Bolton focused on his hawkish approach to foreign policy, noting that he was one of the few in the foreign-policy community still saying that the invasion of Iraq was a good idea. Scarborough suggested that Bolton’s stance would put him at odds with Trump, who made his opposition to the Iraq war a key element of his campaign.
Scarborough and company also sharply criticized Bolton for having recently suggested that the hacking into the election might have been a “false flag” operation. Asked whether he was suggesting that a US agency might have been involved, Bolton said “we just don’t know.” Bolton later said it was a misrepresentation of his position to say that he was accusing the Obama administration of involvement in the hacking.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: I think Donald Trump’s getting pressured –MIKA BRZEZINSKI: By who?JOE: By neo-cons, the people that are opposite of him. Sheldon Adelson especially loves this guy Bolton. So this is a Sheldon Adelson thing. It would be an absolute disaster for the State Department, it would be a disaster for the incoming Secretary of State whoever it was, and it would be a disaster for the Trump administration and for America. But other than that, Willie, I don’t really have an opinion and so I’m just going to sit back and see how it goes. But “disaster” actually fits John Bolton in this position.WILLIE GEIST: Well let’s hope. We’ve all said that Donald Trump is the last guy in the room, right? He trusts himself above all. Let’s hope he trusts himself not to put this guy in. I invite our viewers to go back and read John Bolton’s comments, recent comments about the Iraq war and see they think he might do with Iran or another country like that. He believes despite everything we know about Iraq, that it was still a good idea to go in, that the world was better because Saddam Hussein is not in it, and that’s enough for him.NICK CONFESSORE: And Trump campaigned against that. He campaigned against it constantly. It was the core of his foreign policy message. Stupid war.JOE: [imitating Trump] I was against the Iraq war. So if he puts one of his most important selections, a guy who still thinks — one of the few people that still thinks invading Iraq and losing thousands and thousands of lives and trillions and trillions of dollars, he still thinks that’s a good idea? When he had eviscerated Jeb Bush for hesitating on this during the campaign? The all Donald Trump’s doing is playing right into his critics’ hands. I think he needs to tell Sheldon Adelson, sorry, listen, I love you buddy, and I’ll play blackjack out at your casino, but I can’t let you destroy US foreign policy because you like this guy.
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