course that s often the best course of many bad options. and people like brent scowcroft, other national security advisers managed to get every view in front of the president in a balanced and thoughtful way. john bolton was accused when at the state department of cherry-picking intelligence, of running people out of the department that didn t agree with him. and basically shaping things. so we have a national security adviser who may very well start with a key bias and then squeeze the people out of the room that don t agree and squeeze the people into the room that do agree. so you ll have a lot more bandwagoning of decisions. and we know donald trump sometimes needs to be balanced by other people like jim mattis who is the secretary of defense. so i suspect you ll have john bolton affirming many of the things donald trump wants to do in the national security arena. that can be very, very dangerous for the country in my view. is it fair to characterize him as a hawk on russia?
perhaps the biggest blow now comes from one of our country s most revered veterans, bob dole, the man who introduced shinseki at his confirmation hearing. he backed him this week and now admits he s conflicted. i have mixed feelings because i know general shinseki, i ve said i think he should stay and i think particularly he should stay until the white house gets this investigative report they are doing, until we get the facts and see what you can lay at his feet. the scandal is real but how much of the outrage and bandwagoning will produce results? thank you both for being here. sam, we re here on this friday afternoon, the holiday weekend coming up. is there any chance shinseki is fired or leaves office today? i don t think so. the white house seems committed
to letting the investigation go through and see what transpired and making a judgment after that. i think that s basically what former senator dole was saying, you have to figure out what the facts are before moving forward with the judgment. that being said, his standing is very perilous, obviously, there s a growing appetite for him to be fired on capitol hill among senate democrats running for office, it s not like he s in a solid position right now. and robert, speaker boehner and others have correctly said firing shinseki wouldn t be a cure all. amidst the bandwagoning and name calling, do you see an effort to coherently fix this problem? i think they are still making the competency argument against the white house and shinseki right now. they are not focused so much on it s interesting to see democrats come out in a strong way, especially people like grimes. do you think that s a way of distancing herself from the
well, that means that the president my concerns about ambassador bolton, and i try to treat him respectfully. he has served the country, but we have different views. but john bolton is known to try to fire people who disagree with him. not to act as the convener of alternative and contending views. the national security adviser of the united states, that role is to process different agencies, different views, and structure decision making processes to give the president the best information and options possible. if your national security adviser comes loaded and biased with a perspective, and squelches out who disagree with that perspective, then you begin sissy railroads toward dangerous actions. you see bandwagoning in the white house towards dangerous decisions. we already know john bolton s views which may not reflect the president s, but let s take a preemptive strike at north korea, at iran. i remember when he was engaged in, you know, the call for a pre-emptive strike agains