During an appearance on “CNN This Morning,” former Donald Trump national security adviser John Bolton warned Republicans that they need to rid themselves of his former boss after his comments about “terminating” the Constitution or they will pay a price for it later.
Speaking with co-hosts Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, Bolton also reiterated his plans to run for the Republican party nomination in 2024 if only to disrupt the former president’s plans.
As Bolton explained, Trump’s comment last Saturday on Truth Social that “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great “Founders” did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!” is nothing less than a “time bomb” waiting to go off during the next election.
Asked, “Do you think it should be disqualifying for a presidential candidate if they made comments like this?” Bolton shot back, “Well, of course it is disqualifying!”
“You know, the president takes an oath of office prescribed by the constitution itself that says he will to the best of his ability preserve, protect and defend the constitution,” he continued. “Trump himself took that oath. and effectively he’s now saying he didn’t mean it. and if God, forbid, he were ever elected and took the oath again, we couldn’t trust he would abide by those words.”
“I think this is existential,” he elaborated. “And even beyond being a matter of high principle, which i think it is, as a matter of practical politics, that statement even as he failed to try and correct it over the weekend, that statement is a time bomb sitting on the desk of every Republican member of the House and the Senate, every Republican candidate around the country.”
He then warned, “If we don’t very clearly, very soon, unequivocally reject it, naming Trump by name, this will come back to haunt us in November of 2024 in ways we can only imagine.”