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Former National Security Advisor, John Bolton, says about the Biden summit meeting, “He has not shown himself to be sure footed, internationally. Of course, he benefits from not being Trump, but that’s only good for one trip overseas.”
In an interview with Chris Ryan, former UN Ambassador and National Security Advisor, John Bolton assesses the summit meeting between President Biden and Vladimir Putin; calls for an increase of the cyber warfare capabilities of the United States to counter our enemies; profiles Vladimir Putin; and talks about the DOJ-Department of Justice dropping its lawsuit over his tell all book about the Trump Administration.
Ambassador Bolton felt that the Biden Administration achieved their objective of lowering the bar for expectations from the summit meeting with Putin. The Ambassador felt that neither side gained much from the face-to-face encounter of the two heads of state.
“If I had to pick a winner, I’d take Putin 51-49 because he got his picture taken with the leader of the free world.”
John Bolton supports the comment made by President Biden, in his post-summit press conference, that he had warned Putin that the United States has an offensive cyber warfare capabilities and that we are prepared to use it.
However, Ambassador Bolton recalls that the Obama Administration was quite reticent about engaging in cyber warfare and combines that with President Biden’s decision to lift sanctions on the Nord Stream Pipeline between Russia and Germany.
“The early signals from Biden are that the emphasis is on rhetoric and not on performance.”
Ambassador Bolton calls for our taking an aggressive stance on developing our cyber warfare capabilities by advocating a peace through strength posture.
“If you want peace, you’ve got to be prepared for war.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Ambassador Bolton’s opinion, is more than a Russian nationalist. Putin is a czarist—a right wing authoritarian ruler with imperial goals.
Ambassador Bolton is concerned that President Biden, despite his years of dealing with foreign affairs in the Senate and as Vice President, doesn’t seem to have a clear policy in dealing with Russia or China.
“He has not shown himself to be sure footed, internationally. Of course, he benefits from not being Trump, but that’s only good for one trip overseas.”
President Trump did everything that he could to block the book written by his former National Security Chief, John Bolton, “The Room Where It Happened”. Bolton’s book was very critical of Donald Trump, and the President wanted to prevent its publication before the 2020 election.
Ambassador Bolton discusses how he scrupulously avoided using classified information in his book but was still harassed by the Trump Department of Justice.
“In the case of my book, it was critical of Trump, so it had to be stopped. He did abuse the Department of Justice and some of his top officials at Justice and some of the lawyers at the White House have ethical problems.”