Washington (March 22, 2018) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement after President Donald Trump announced the resignation of Lt. General H. R. McMaster as his National Security Advisor and the appointment of former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton.

John Bolton has stated that to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, “only military action…can accomplish what is required.” He believes that it is “perfectly legitimate for the United States to respond to...North Korea’s nuclear weapons by striking first.” And before he was clamoring for war in those countries, he was “confident that Saddam Hussein has hidden weapons of mass destruction and production facilities in Iraq.”

“Appointing John Bolton to be National Security Advisor is a grave danger to the American people and a clear message from President Trump that he is gearing up for military conflict,” said Senator Markey. “John Bolton played an instrumental role in politicizing the intelligence that misled Congress and the American people into going to war in Iraq. He supports proactively bombing Iran, conducting a first strike on North Korea without provocation, and has said, ‘There is no such thing as the United Nations.’ Mr. Bolton has never seen a military conflict he didn’t like. President Trump is endangering the American public by appointing this extreme war hawk as his chief advisor on national security matters.

“With the nomination of CIA Director Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State and now the appointment of Mr. Bolton as National Security Advisor, President Trump is assembling a war cabinet full of ‘yes men’ who will fan his worst impulses. John Bolton has already blundered the United States into one terrible conflict; we cannot let him do it again.”

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