Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs trashed his former Fox colleague John Bolton on Monday night, claiming the famously hawkish conservative has become a “tool” for radical Democrats and the “deep state.”
The New York Times first reported on Sunday evening that Bolton—who worked as a Fox News contributor for 11 years before joining the Trump administration—will allege in his upcoming book that the president told him he was freezing military aid to Ukraine to force officials there to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. Bolton’s assertion contradicts Team Trump’s defense that Trump wasn’t seeking a quid pro quo.
Despite Bolton’s longtime association with Fox and Republican politics, the fervently pro-Trump Dobbs went on a full-scale attack during his show Monday night. Labeling Bolton a “RINO,” Dobbs showed off a chart that showed Bolton’s ties with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT)—who has now expressed a willingness to have Bolton called as a witness in the impeachment trial—and other “deep state” operatives, including former FBI Director James Comey.
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“Mitt Romney’s call for John Bolton’s testimony comes as no surprise,” Dobbs, who serves as an informal adviser to Trump, said. “Romney has been, let’s say, wobbly throughout. He’s long had connections with foreign policy RINOs and they with him. Bolton one of them.”
“He served as Romney’s foreign policy adviser during Romney’s failed 2012 presidential run,” the Fox host continued. “And current National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien also served as a foreign policy adviser to Romney.”
Dobbs went on to note that the three top donors to Bolton’s super PAC were supposed anti-Trump conservatives who supported Romney in 2012 but opposed Trump. One name on that list, however, was billionaire Robert Mercer, a major funder for pro-Trump news site Breitbart who donated $15.5 million to a super PAC that supported Trump in the 2016 election.
“See how it works?” Dobbs said. “You bet. Not so complicated, is it? John Bolton himself has been reduced to a tool for the radical Dems and the deep state with his, well, with his allegation that the president once told him the aid to the Ukraine was entirely dependent on whether or not Mr. Zelensky carried out investigations of his political opponents.”
Reacting to Dobbs' charts linking Bolton with Comey and other “Never-Trumpers” due to their mutual use of literary agency Javelin, Matt Latimer—a partner at the firm—took to Twitter to fire back at Dobbs, pointing out other notable Javelin clients are Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Dobbs himself.
“Are you part of the conspiracy?” Lattimer concluded.
