While most conservatives were dismayed to hear of National Security Advisor John Bolton’s exit from the White House, Tucker Carlson of Fox News has a different take: He was a “man of the Left” and should have been fired.
“It is great news for America. Especially for the large number of young people who would have been killed in pointless wars if Bolton had stayed on the job,” said Carlson, according to Fox News. “They may not be celebrating tonight, but they should be.”
The Fox News host noted that oil prices apparently dropped upon Bolton’s firing because global investors “knew for certain that Bolton planned on launching another Middle Eastern conflict that would inevitably spike energy prices.”
Carlson then recalled a previous interview he did with Bolton, arguing that he did not understand the consequences of “regime change” in the Middle East. He also noted many Democrats were actually critical of Bolton’s ouster, going on to accuse him of even “promoting Obama loyalists within the National Security Council.”
“If you are wondering why so many progressives are mourning Bolton’s firing tonight, it’s because Bolton himself fundamentally was a man of the Left,” Carlson said. “There was not a human problem John Bolton wasn’t totally convinced could be solved with the brute force of government. That’s an assumption of the Left, not the Right. Don’t let the mustache fool you.”
“In some ways, the story isn’t simply about John Bolton, it’s about the countless John Boltons who currently staff the federal bureaucracy: Deeply mediocre lifers, drunk on hubris, protected by bulletproof job security,” he continued. “They’re more likely to die on the job than be fired and they know it. As a group, these people have done a lot to make this country poorer and sadder and more divided.”
Most conservatives, such as Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, have argued otherwise. In an op-ed on Tuesday, Hammer said the Bolton firing was a capitulation to Iran:
Today, President Donald Trump, in what can only be described as a woefully myopic move straight out of the Barack Obama-John Kerry-Ben Rhodes axis of capitulation playbook, effectively fired longtime Iran hawk John Bolton from his lofty perch of national security advisor. The boneheaded move, which closely follows the fallout of the president’s aborted Camp David dalliance with Taliban jihadist thugs, comes at a time when the Trump administration has been publicly doubling down in its alleged commitment to the goal of “maximum pressure” on the terrorist Iranian regime. Evincing the message discipline of a woebegone high-schooler, though, the president has combined such purported commitment to “maximum pressure” with his ceaseless sycophancy toward and expressed desire to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
Bolton, who is infamously hawkish on the issue of jihadism and radical Islamic terror, strongly opposed the president’s dovish overtures on the Taliban and Rouhani alike. Such opposition, even amidst the purported “maximum pressure” campaign, appears to have cost Bolton his job.
In response to news that Trump fired him, Bolton said in a tweet that the president did not immediately accept his resignation. “I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, ‘Let’s talk about it tomorrow,'” he tweeted.