One of the most powerful media figures in the Republican 2016 presidential primary is former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton.
Bolton, a Fox News personality, is shaping up to be second in influence only to fellow Fox figure Sean Hannity.
But unlike Hannity, Bolton isn’t interested in interviewing the GOP contenders who slowly make their way into the race. He only wants to push Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul toward a more aggressive position on foreign policy. Or push him out of the race entirely.
Bolton regularly uses his status as a Fox contributor and former ambassador to the UN to knock Paul. In early February, he said on Fox News radio that Paul and President Obama share the same view on Islamic terrorism. “The idea which I think is shared by both Barack Obama and Rand Paul, that ISIS really doesn’t represent a threat to the United States — doesn’t today and won’t tomorrow — is a very dangerous way of approaching instability around the world,” he said.
Bolton said the same thing in an interview with a Washington, D.C.-based radio station that same month, saying that Obama and Paul “end up backing the same [foreign] policies.”
He has described Paul’s views as “neo-isolationism” and said it’s a “virus” in the GOP.
Paul was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010. Though Paul has often voiced opposition to foreign intervention similar to the views of his father, former Rep. Ron Paul, he has used a more aggressive tone in addressing the threat of Islamic extremists overseas, in particular the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which controls a large area of Iraq and Syria and commands the allegiance of “provinces” in several other countries.
When Paul announced on April 7 that he was officially running for president. Bolton, who promotes a strong U.S. military presence around the world, immediately pounced, giving interviews to several news outlets.
“On any given day, it’s hard to know where he (Paul) will be,” Bolton told the Associated Press. “I believe in redemption, and I hope he comes all the way over. But I just don’t know what’s at work in his mind.”
“His problem is that his ambitions are in conflict with his actual principles,” he told the Washington Post. “Many people who like Rand Paul on fiscal and economic issues are appalled by his views on national security and his lack of understanding.”
Bolton has said repeatedly that he may run for the GOP presidential nominee. If he showed clear signs that he was serious, Fox would have to decide when to sever ties with him, as the network has a policy against employing candidates for public office.
A spokesman for Bolton declined to comment for this story. Fox News did not return a request for comment.
