‘He Likes War’: Chris Matthews Unloads On Trump For Picking ‘Awful’ John Bolton As NSA

Chris Matthews unloaded on Donald Trump for choosing “the biggest neo-con in the world,” John Bolton, to be his new National Security Adviser after H.R. McMaster resigned from the post on Thursday.

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The MSNBC host blasted the president for betraying the vast majority of Americans who “voted against stupid wars” in 2016 by picking an NSA who supports military intervention in just about any country you can think of – from Syria to North Korea to Iran.

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Matthews tore into Trump’s move in an epic smackdown:

They are bringing the biggest neo-con in the world. The one who so many millions of voters voted against in 2016, who voted against stupid wars, and bring in the biggest hawk there’s ever been and put him as head of national security is awful and I don’t know anybody who disagrees with that who thinks. … He likes war. He wanted war with Iraq. He pushed and pushed and pushed.  He wanted to go to war with Syria. Name a country in the Middle East he didn’t want to go to war with. And he wants war now with Iran. … So that he can do what he wants to do, which is bomb. … He has said, “I want to bomb.”

John Bolton was central to the Iraq War disaster

It’s particularly troubling that Trump picked Bolton to shape U.S national security when he was one of the central figures in helping the Bush administration lie the United States into war with Iraq. As Vox noted on Thursday, “[Bolton] was credibly accused of manipulating US intelligence on weapons of mass destruction prior to the Iraq war and of abusive treatment of his subordinates.”

Vox added: [H]is new appointment to be the most important national security official in the White House has significant — and frightening — implications for Trump’s approach to the world.”

If his Iraq history isn’t enough to concern you, then his current foreign policy philosophy should do the trick. Not only is Bolton in favor of tearing up the Iran nuclear deal – which prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon – but he has said that he favors military intervention in both North Korea and Iran. As Chris Matthews said on Thursday, there is not a war this man opposes.

The exit of moderate H.R. McMaster and the appointment of John Bolton as Trump’s National Security Adviser represents a terrifying shift in American foreign policy – one that should send a chill throughout the rest of the world.

Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.