Former National Security Advisor, John Bolton, says about the anti-COVID vaccine sentiment, “I attribute a lot of it to Trump. He was so mixed in his messaging. He was very anti-mask because it made him look like a loser. He played into the antivaccine theme’”
In an interview with Chris Ryan, former UN Ambassador and National Security Advisor, John Bolton discusses the Pentagon decision to require all troops to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, assesses the reasons for COVID vaccine resistance, explains why President Trump has refrained from taking more credit for the development of COVID vaccines and from encouraging people to get vaccinated, predicts what will happen in Afghanistan once the United States pulls out, evaluates the foreign policy of President Biden, and states his own political objectives.
Ambassador Bolton had tweeted that George Washington had ordered that the Continental Army be inoculated for smallpox in 177 and compared that to the COVID pandemic. In addition, John Bolton believes that there is ample precedent to require widespread mandatory COVID vaccinations and even vaccination passports.
When asked why there is so much resistance to COVID vaccination, Ambassador Bolton said, “I attribute a lot of it to Trump. He was so mixed in his messaging. He was very anti-mask because it made him look like a loser. He played into the antivaccine theme even though he was vaccinated.”
Ambassador Bolton believes that Trump fears certain elements of his base which are antivaccine. That is why the former president is reluctant to take credit for the vaccine or to urge people to get vaccinated.
As the former National Security Advisor, John Bolton considers pulling out of Afghanistan to be a big mistake.
“We are not in Afghanistan to benefit the people of Afghanistan. We are in Afghanistan, twenty years after 9/11, to benefit and protect the people of the United States.”
Bolton goes onto say that it is better to fight terrorism there than in the streets and skies of the United States. In addition, he fears that radical Islamist groups could gain control of nearby Pakistan, which has nuclear weapons.
Having a US presence on the ground in Afghanistan gives us a forward defense system for gathering intelligence about terrorist activity.
Ambassador Bolton feels that President Biden has shown a pattern of weakness in dealing with Russia, China, and Latin America.
“A president has to look at America’s interests very broadly on a worldwide basis, and I just don’t see a pattern of thinking that gives me any confidence that he really knows what’s going on internationally.”
John Bolton had been a presidential candidate in 2016, but he has no presidential ambitions for 2024. The Ambassador is currently interested in helping candidates for the Senate and the House who favor a strong foreign policy.