Sen. Tim Kaine questions whether John Bolton can get full security clearance
Incoming National Security Adviser John Bolton may have difficulty obtaining the full security clearance required for his new role, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said Sunday on CNN.
Bolton appeared in a video advocating changes to gun laws "in Russia in 2013 at the request of a Russian oligarch who's very close with [Russian President] Vladimir Putin," Kaine explained. (The senator described Bolton's involvement as a "speech" in his interview, but he tweeted a report about the video.)
"These kinds of contacts with foreign governments ... raise real question in my mind as to whether he can get a full security clearance or not," Kaine argued. "We've already lost one national security adviser, Michael Flynn, because he was lying about foreign contacts," he continued. "Even though the Senate doesn't get a vote to confirm the national security adviser, I have many, many questions."
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Watch an excerpt of Kaine's comments below. Bonnie Kristian
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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