Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton on Friday once again teased a potential run for president and criticized other potential 2024 contenders for not being more critical of the former president.
After Trump suggested last week that the U.S. Constitution should be terminated, Bolton said he will consider joining the presidential race if that is what it takes to stop his former boss.
“I’d like to see Shermanesque statements from all the potential candidates. . . . If I don’t see that, I’m going to seriously consider getting in,” Bolton told Meet the Press Now.
On Friday, Bolton reiterated his comments to Fox News.
“What started the process really on very accelerated basis was Trump’s statement about terminating the Constitution to put him in the presidency or hold a new election and the relative lack of comment by many of the by the potential Republican [presidential candidates],” Bolton said.
“I view it really as roughly equivalent to saying he [Trump] wants to overthrow the government,” he added. “That’s what happens when you terminate the Constitution and for him to say that, as somebody who took an oath when he became president to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution is advance warning that even if he took that oath again, he wouldn’t mean it.”
He went on to say the party must move on from Trump “in a definitive way.”
“And I think part of leadership is being willing to go out front to make the point so that others know that you’re prepared to make hard decisions,” he said. “So as I say, I was disappointed that the field didn’t really do that.”
Bolton said he is not sure that other potential 2024 Republican presidential candidates have been “critical of Trump in a significant way.”
He added: “There’s a lot of nuance in much of what they say, and I know what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to walk what they see is a tightrope between Trump supporters and Trump opponents. . . . You’ve got to be more definitive than that.”
Former vice president Mike Pence, who is seen as a possible 2024 contender, spoke out against Trump’s comments on suspending the constitution, telling WVOC radio: “I must tell you that I think that everyone that serves in public office, everyone that aspires to serve or serve again should make it clear that we will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a former Trump ally who has suggested he is mulling his own presidential run, said on ABC that more Republicans should speak out against Trump’s election fraud rhetoric after the former president’s comments on the Constitution.
“It should not be hard to say that the 2020 election is over,” Christie said, adding that Trump’s 2024 candidacy has been “uninspiring so far.”
Representative Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.), said in a tweet on Sunday that “no honest person can now deny that Trump is an enemy of the Constitution.”
Bolton also told Fox News he understands “how complex a task” it is to run a presidential campaign.
“So I’m going to take the time I need to take, and that’s why I’m having a lot of conversations,” he said, adding that if he does decide to run, he would launch his campaign in the first quarter of next year.
“I would get in to win it, not simply to make a point,” he said.