Overthrowing governments takes a lot of work, the former US National Security Advisor John Bolton said on Tuesday, claiming he played a role in regime change efforts abroad and taking credit for attempting to oust foreign leaders.
Bolton, who spoke to CNN’s Jake Tapper following the Jan 6 Capitol riot congressional hearing on Tuesday, insisted, however, that ex-President Donald Trump could not have pulled off a carefully planned coup d’etat at home, suggesting he lacked the foresight for that.
The former senior White House official insisted that it’s not the way the former commander-in-chief Donald Trump does things.
Commenting on the host’s remarks that one doesn’t have to be brilliant to attempt a coup, Bolton stressed that such projects require significant planning, noting he had personally participated in the ouster of foreign governments.
Though holding his ground, Bolton refused to elaborate on specifics, mentioning only the unsuccessful efforts in Venezuela, where US-backed opposition figures failed to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro in 2019 and inspire mass defections from the security forces.
Adding that the US had all that much to do with it, Bolton said that despite the failure of the attempts, he saw what it takes for the opposition to try and overturn an illegally elected president.
In his comments to reporters at the time, from his position as Trump’s national security advisor, however, Bolton argued that the situation in Venezuela was clearly not a coup since the opposition leader Juan Guaido he publicly supported during the coup attempt, was Venezuela’s legitimate leader.
At the time, Bolton even urged senior Venezuelan officials to join the effort, addressing them through social media posts.
Despite the further attempts of the CNN anchor to press Bolton into additional comments on the coups, saying that he feels there’s other stuff Bolton’s not telling, the former national security advisor offered no other details.
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