President Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton criticized the administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic amid the Republican National Convention.
Bolton, who served as national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019, said Wednesday on CNN that Trump’s nationwide response to the health crisis has been “one mistake after another.”
“They’ve made a complete mess of it, and it’s been a tragedy for Americans, those who have died and their families, the economic consequences,” Bolton said.
“To this day, the administration does not have a coronavirus strategy,” he continued. “Now, they may yet get the benefit of it. Recent polls apparently show concern with the virus diminishing as a political matter, so they may be able to tough their way through it. But it’s just been one mistake after another.”
In the United States, there have been more than 5.8 million cases of COVID-19 and nearly 180,000 deaths since the pandemic began in China in late 2019.
Since Bolton’s departure from the administration, he has been vocal about his criticisms of Trump. In his memoir published earlier this summer, Bolton, who has served several Republican presidents, accused Trump of asking Chinese President Xi Jinping to help his reelection bid by purchasing agricultural products.
In the 592-page book, titled The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, Bolton also said that the president’s intelligence briefings were a waste of time because “much of the time was spent listening to Trump, rather than Trump listening to the briefers.” Bolton also wrote that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told him that Trump was “full of shit” when it came to his efforts at diplomacy with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
Bolton’s remarks about Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic come on day three of the convention, which is set to run through Thursday.
