Former National Security Advisor John Bolton believes Secretary of War Pete Hegseth needs “an attitude adjustment.”
Bolton was in the middle of a segment with CNN News Central‘s Kate Bolduan when Jake Tapper called in with a bombshell from his interview with President Donald Trump. During the course of their nine-minute interview, Trump revealed that “the big one” is still on the way, referring to a future military operation in Iran. Bolton responded to this with a criticism of the Pentagon and specifically of Hegseth.
Watch:
“The president said, ‘we’re knocking the crap out of them, I think it’s going very well. It’s very powerful. We’ve got the greatest military in the world and we’re using it.’ I also asked the president how long he thought this military operation or war might last,” Tapper explained to the anchor. “He said, ‘I don’t want to see it go on too long. I always thought it would be four weeks, but we’re a little ahead of schedule.’ I also asked if the U.S. was doing more than these military strikes to help the Iranian people gain control of Iran against the regime, to seize the country from the Iranian regime. And he said, ‘yes,’ the president says. ‘We are indeed.’”
“And then the president said, ‘It’s about to get even less safe. We haven’t even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn’t even happened, the big one is coming soon.’”
“The big wave hasn’t even happened yet, Jake says is what the president told him. It’s gonna last about a month. What do you hear in that? Does that sound short-term? Does that sound like Donald Trump has a true end goal here?” Bolduan asked Bolton.
“I think it could be months, not four weeks. I think it’s important that the president, when Jake said, ‘Are you helping the opposition?’ he said, ‘Yes.’ So, again, Pete Hegseth needs to check with his boss on what the objective is,” the former Trump official said. “And by the way, if the big one is still to come, how does Hegseth explain that we’ve already changed the regime, which wasn’t our objective? I think the Pentagon’s top leadership, civilian top leadership, needs some attitude adjustment. I think the military’s doing fine, but I wonder about the civilian leadership.”
Earlier Monday, Hegseth had indicated that the Trump administration would stop at nothing to achieve victory in the Middle East.
“But going forward, why in the world would we tell you, you, the enemy, anybody what we will or will not do in pursuit of an objective? We fight to win. We fight to achieve the objectives the president of the United States has laid out. And we will do so unapologetically,” he said.
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Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
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