Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: It's the Lacest this morning.
Speaker 3: Former President Donald Trump expected to announce his pick for
Speaker 3: vice president at the rn C this week. Trump set
Speaker 3: to address the convention on Thursday, with his VP pick
Speaker 3: expected to be announced well before then. Joining us now
Speaker 3: after the tragic events at the weekend, I'm pleased to
Speaker 3: say is Ambassador John Bolton, a former national security advisor
Speaker 3: and former Ambassador to the United Nations. Ambassador John Bolden,
Speaker 3: thank you, sir for being with us once again. It's
Speaker 3: good to catch up with you. So I want to
Speaker 3: lean on your experience. You've been to events with the
Speaker 3: former President Donald Trump. You've seen the degree of security
Speaker 3: this provided. How surprised were you that something like this
Speaker 3: could happen Saturday evening.
Speaker 4: Well, it was obviously very surprising. You know, there's been
Speaker 4: a lot of commentary on what went wrong, what the
Speaker 4: mistakes were made. I think it was right for President
Speaker 4: Biden to say he's going to set up an independent review.
Speaker 2: You know, none.
Speaker 4: Of us are experts just because we watch it on television.
Speaker 2: I've been a protect tee.
Speaker 4: I still am for various reasons, but that doesn't make
Speaker 4: me an expert on peripheral control and things like that,
Speaker 4: So I think we're fortunate that Trump was only wounded.
Speaker 4: It's a tragedy that one of the spectators was killed.
Speaker 4: But we need to do the review of this in
Speaker 4: a calm way. I think do it quickly as well,
Speaker 4: because there are already conspiracy theories about what happened on
Speaker 4: Saturday that I think are loony tunes. But I don't
Speaker 4: think they're going to go away until we have an
Speaker 4: independent objective review.
Speaker 5: Ambassador, we're going to be starting the rn C. It's
Speaker 5: kicking off right after this assassination attempt. What kind of
Speaker 5: message do you think the former president is going to
Speaker 5: bring to the r and C because already in an
Speaker 5: interview with the Washington Examiner, he says he's rewriting his
Speaker 5: entire speech.
Speaker 4: Well, he probably believed that when he said it. Whether
Speaker 4: it turns out to be true is anybody's guests. Certainly,
Speaker 4: the mood of the country, I think is such that
Speaker 4: it would be the right thing to do to try
Speaker 4: and calm partisan tempers down, and that's what he may
Speaker 4: well do. Would also be to his electoral advantage. I
Speaker 4: think he's the image of defiance that he gave when
Speaker 4: he was shot and what he said since then puts
Speaker 4: him in a very good position just to be coldly
Speaker 4: analytical about it, and it would be I think in
Speaker 4: his interest to have a message of conciliation. Now, whether
Speaker 4: he's able to do that or I don't know, but
Speaker 4: if you focus the argument on what's best for Donald Trump,
Speaker 4: I think that is the answer that may be why
Speaker 4: he does.
Speaker 5: You've said in the past you think the highest priority
Speaker 5: for his VP pick is absolute loyalty to him, the man,
Speaker 5: Donald Trump. Do you think following these events and the
Speaker 5: fact that you said, you know, in cold analysis, what's
Speaker 5: best for him is to talk about unity maybe you
Speaker 5: know the party in the country. Would it be to
Speaker 5: pick someone more towards the center.
Speaker 4: Well, Trump doesn't have a philosophy. He doesn't really do policy,
Speaker 4: so for him, there is no left, right or center.
Speaker 4: There's only Donald Trump at the center of the universe.
Speaker 4: I think at this point it is still possible any
Speaker 4: of the names that have been mentioned can be picked.
Speaker 4: I don't think he's settled on a name a week ago.
Speaker 4: I don't think it's changed since Saturday. I think this
Speaker 4: is a constant matter reevaluation for him. Up until the
Speaker 4: last minute. I always used to say that with Trump,
Speaker 4: nothing is final until it's final, and then maybe not
Speaker 4: even there.
Speaker 1: Ambosador one of the historical correlate Larry's. A lot of
Speaker 1: people have used for this as nineteen eighty one, an
Speaker 1: attempted assassination on Ronald Reagan. His daughter wrote an op
Speaker 1: ed in The New York Times over the weekend saying
Speaker 1: that her father had believed that she'd been saved for
Speaker 1: God for a reason, and that was to end the
Speaker 1: Cold War. This feeling of emboldenment of foreign policy. Do
Speaker 1: you think Trump will feel that same sense that he
Speaker 1: now has a mandate for certain policies that he wants
Speaker 1: to push through more forcefully should he end up being
Speaker 1: the president.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't think we can say for sure.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's obviously a shocking event to be at
Speaker 4: a political rally, to be shot at, to be wounded,
Speaker 4: to be in danger for some period of time, that
Speaker 4: it has to have an effect on anybody. But Trump
Speaker 4: has a remarkable gyroscope that although he has a short
Speaker 4: attention span for many things, he has a fixed attention
Speaker 4: span on himself. And I think that using this attempt
Speaker 4: on his life as a way of proving his martyrdom
Speaker 4: and the victim narrative that he has so successfully used politically,
Speaker 4: I think he will use now. Whether that translates into
Speaker 4: specific action if he's elected, I think is harder to say.
Speaker 4: But will he use it politically to maximize his options
Speaker 4: once elected?
Speaker 1: Absolutely that martyrdom, Ambassador Bolton, you're describing something that seems
Speaker 1: like it could fan the flames of division within this country.
Speaker 1: How concerned are you about that that this is a
Speaker 1: start of an era that's been bubbling back in the
Speaker 1: surface for so long that it brings it to a
Speaker 1: boiling point.
Speaker 4: Now, look, we've had boiling points in this country, almost
Speaker 4: called the Civil War.
Speaker 2: We're nowhere close to that rhetoric.
Speaker 4: To the contrary, notwithstanding, I think Trump could cause a
Speaker 4: lot of damage if he's reelected.
Speaker 2: I've been saying that for several years now.
Speaker 4: I do not think he is an existential threat to
Speaker 4: our democracy, and I think it's in fact harmful to
Speaker 4: say that. That's the kind of rhetoric I think we
Speaker 4: could do without. I think Trump focuses on what he
Speaker 4: wants to do, not on grand historical themes, and I
Speaker 4: think his focus at the moment is very much on
Speaker 4: how to use the upcoming convention to maximize the chances
Speaker 4: he'll win in November.
Speaker 3: I'm Bess Saday. You've questioned his fitness for office. You've
Speaker 3: clearly just joined histinction between doing that and questioning whether
Speaker 3: he is an extensional risk to democracy. I want to
Speaker 3: understand his potential to unite this party. You are a Republican,
Speaker 3: You've worked with Donald Trump, you worked with Bush, you
Speaker 3: worked in the rank and presidency as well. What would
Speaker 3: it take on Massada for Donald Trump to get you
Speaker 3: behind him and unite this party? Is that even possible?
Speaker 4: No, because I do think Trump is not fit to
Speaker 4: be president. It's I don't wish ill to anybody, certainly
Speaker 4: not to the innocent spectators who were killed and gravely wounded,
Speaker 4: were to Donald Trump for what he was put through.
Speaker 4: But that episode doesn't change my fundamental view of him.
Speaker 4: Maybe he'll have a damascene conversion.
Speaker 2: That's always possible. To redemption is a reality.
Speaker 4: It can happen, but as of now, I don't see
Speaker 4: that that's going to change anything.
Speaker 2: I do think this event, I mean, I'm just being
Speaker 2: cold blooded here.
Speaker 4: This event will politically benefit Donald Trump, and we may
Speaker 4: look back at the eight the presidential debate and now
Speaker 4: the events of Saturday, and say this was the moment
Speaker 4: when Biden's campaign trajectory went into a nosedive from which
Speaker 4: it never escaped.
Speaker 5: If you don't think he's fit to be president, is
Speaker 5: there a VP pick that would assuage your concerns?
Speaker 4: No, because we might still get four years of Donald Trump.
Speaker 4: And I worry and I don't believe. I don't believe
Speaker 4: the facts have changed about the concern that personal loyalty
Speaker 4: to Trump, not loyalty to the country, not loyalty to
Speaker 4: the constitution, loyalty to a man who told Mike Pence
Speaker 4: to violate his oath of office on January the sixth,
Speaker 4: twenty twenty one. That will remain Trump's primary objective. So
Speaker 4: we'll see who it is. But I worry that whoever
Speaker 4: that person turns out to be, they'll have given the
Speaker 4: wrong answer to that question.
Speaker 3: Bassiday, you have a deep understanding of foreign policy and
Speaker 3: international security, a long, long amount of experience on those issues.
Speaker 3: Can we finish on that, Ambassador? How do you think
Speaker 3: the adversaries, the enemies of this country will be viewing
Speaker 3: the developments of the last couple of weeks, not just
Speaker 3: the last weekend, but for the issues the sitting president
Speaker 3: is facing as well. Ambassida, how are you thinking about
Speaker 3: that at the moment?
Speaker 4: Well, divisions within the American body politic are are a
Speaker 4: tonic for foreign adversaries, and I think they're watching this
Speaker 4: whole process very closely.
Speaker 2: They know that the United.
Speaker 4: States has a fixed amount of bandwidth at any given time.
Speaker 4: We've got a war in Ukraine, We've got war in
Speaker 4: the Middle East, We've got a very divisive political season underway,
Speaker 4: and adversaries like Russia, China, Iran, North Korea are undoubtedly
Speaker 4: thinking themselves, are there things we can do right now
Speaker 4: to take advantage of this disarray. They'll follow it through
Speaker 4: the campaign season, and I think that could be a
Speaker 4: very vulnerable time, not necessarily for the United States directly,
Speaker 4: but for friends and allies around the world.
Speaker 3: Is there a part of the world you're more concerned,
Speaker 3: perhaps an area and you're more concerned than others.
Speaker 4: Well, I think the one area that we don't have
Speaker 4: an actual conflict at the moment is the Indo Pacific
Speaker 4: periphery around China. We've been concerned about Taiwan, the South
Speaker 4: China Sea, China's.
Speaker 2: Land borders with Vietnam India.
Speaker 4: I think if you're looking for a place where a
Speaker 4: conflict could break out before November, it would be along
Speaker 4: that periphery.
Speaker 3: Ambassador, I appreciate your time this morning. Hopefully we can
Speaker 3: do this again soon. Ambassador John Bolton Net on the
Speaker 3: future of this particular presidency, looking back to the lost
Speaker 3: presidency and talking about some of the issues on the horizon.