Rand Paul rejects John Bolton to replace Michael Flynn: 'He still believes regime change was a good idea'

published 19 February 2017

In an interview on ABC's This Week Sunday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) strongly opposed former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton as a potential replacement for Michael Flynn, who recently resigned from his post as national security adviser.

"I think the problem with John Bolton is he disagrees with President Trump's foreign policy," Paul said. "He would be closer to John McCain's foreign policy. John Bolton still believes the Iraq War was a good idea. He still believes regime change was a good idea. He still believes that nation building is a good idea," the senator continued. "My fear is that secret wars would be developing around the globe, and so I think he'd be a bad choice." McCain, Paul said in the same interview, was likewise wrong on Iraq and would lead the U.S. into "perpetual war" were he in charge.

Bolton's name was previously floated for secretary of state or deputy secretary of state, possibilities Paul rejected in equally vehement terms, casting a Bolton hire as a regressive betrayal of Trump voters. One of Trump's best attributes is "his opposition to the Iraq war and regime change," Paul wrote in a November op-ed, while "Bolton was one of the loudest advocates of overthrowing Saddam Hussein and still stupefyingly insists it was the right call 13 years later." Watch his comments on ABC below. Bonnie Kristian