FROM RUSSIA WITH SPUDS

Ex-Trump Adviser: Putin Swigging Vodka to Celebrate Gabbard Confirmation

“It was one of his worst nominations, beyond a doubt,” John Bolton said of Trump’s new director of national intelligence.

The Kremlin will be hailing Wednesday’s confirmation of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard with a hearty toast, former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton said. Gabbard, a former Hawaii Democratic congresswoman turned Republican surrogate, was confirmed by the Senate despite her history of taking positions seen as friendly to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I think Putin couldn’t be happier,” Bolton told CNN’s The Source. “They’re drinking vodka straight out of the bottle in the Kremlin tonight.” Former staffers who worked for Gabbard when she was a congresswoman told ABC News last year that she regularly consumed and shared news from Kremlin propaganda outlet RT, including after she was advised it was not a credible source of information. Gabbard also bemoaned America’s “hostility” toward the authoritarian Putin in a campaign memo, condemned sanctions on Russia, and once secretly met with Bashar al-Assad, the Kremlin-aligned former Syrian dictator who, like Putin, is accused of war crimes. “I think many allies are now going to think twice before they share intelligence with us,” added Bolton. “It was one of [Trump’s] worst nominations, beyond a doubt.” Bolton, who was Trump’s national security adviser from 2018 to 2019 and held roles at the State Department and in former President George W. Bush’s administration, was accused by former State Department colleagues of skewing and suppressing intelligence in order to support his own frequently wrong views.

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