Kentucky Rep. James Comer cheered the raid on former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton’s home Friday morning.
On America’s Newsroom, co-anchor Dana Perino brought in Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee.
“Well, I appreciate Kash Patel’s tweet that no one’s above the law,” Comer said, referring to Trump’s FBI director. “I don’t know what John Bolton did, but obviously he deserves due process.”
It comes after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) swooped in on Bolton’s Bethesda, Maryland, home, as part of a “national security investigation in search of classified records,” a source told NBC News.
Comer, a self-described “Trump man,” told viewers that the investigation was long overdue.
“I do believe that Kash Patel and Pam Bondi and John Ratcliffe and Tulsi Gabbard are serious about holding the deep state accountable for all the mistakes and all the abuses of power that we’ve witnessed over the past decade,” he said. “So I think today is a positive day.”
Bolton, who became one of Trump’s fiercest critics after leaving the White House in 2019, has long drawn Trumpworld’s ire. Comer suggested that Bolton, like other “deep state” figures, was aligned with defense contractors pushing for foreign interventions.
“I’m glad the Trump administration is empowered,” he said. “I’m glad these people are finally being at the very least investigated.”
Perino pressed Comer on whether the raid amounted to retribution. He waved it off.
“That’s what the liberal media’s going to say … I don’t think this is retribution, I think this is accountability,” Comer said. “I have confidence in Kash Patel, and I don’t believe he would do anything without having ample evidence to move forward.”
Trump considered Bolton, a hardline neoconservative known for advocating for military interventions abroad, for several roles in his administration after the 2016 election, including secretary of State. However, Trump initially passed on him, saying he did not like Bolton’s trademark mustache.
Trump appointed Bolton as national security adviser in April 2018, with their relationship souring because of Trump’s summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Bolton had pushed for an aggressive stance against North Korea and Iran while Trump favored negotiations.
In September 2019, Trump announced Bolton had been fired; Bolton insisted he resigned first. Trump later mocked Bolton on Twitter as “crazy” and a “warmonger.”
In June 2020, Bolton published The Room Where It Happened, a scathing memoir about his time with Trump. In it, he alleged Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win reelection, said Finland was “part of Russia,” and that Trump’s decisions were often guided by personal or political interests rather than U.S. strategy.
Trump sued to block the book’s release, calling it “highly classified,” but the effort failed. Trump then publicly trashed Bolton, saying he was “one of the dumbest people in Washington.”
Since then, Bolton has morphed into one of Trump’s fiercest conservative critics.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Bolton for comment on Comer’s remarks.
