'It Takes a Lot of Work': Ex-Trump Adviser Bolton Says He's 'Helped Plan Coups D'Etat'

© AP Photo / Mark Humphrey In this Feb. 19, 2020, file photo, former national security adviser John Bolton takes part in a discussion on global leadership at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. An attorney for Bolton said Wednesday, June 10, that President Donald Trump is trying to put on ice publication of the former top administration official’s forthcoming memoir after White House lawyers again this week raised concerns that the book contains classified material that presents a national security threat.
 In this Feb. 19, 2020, file photo, former national security adviser John Bolton takes part in a discussion on global leadership at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. An attorney for Bolton said Wednesday, June 10, that President Donald Trump is trying to put on ice publication of the former top administration official’s forthcoming memoir after White House lawyers again this week raised concerns that the book contains classified material that presents a national security threat. - Sputnik International, 1920, 12.07.2022
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Former US national security adviser under the Trump administration John Bolton said in an interview on Tuesday that he has planned coups in other countries and knows that the process takes "a lot of work."
Speaking to CNN reporter Jake Tapper, Bolton casually admitted to planning a coup d’etat while discussing the latest revelations in the public hearings by the House January 6 committee.
“It’s also a mistake,” Bolton told Tapper, “that somehow this was a carefully planned coup d’etat aimed at the Constitution. That’s not the way Donald Trump does things: it’s rambling from one-half vast idea to another, one plan that falls through and another comes up - that’s what he was doing. As I said, none of it defensible.”
“It’s not an attack on our democracy, it’s Donald Trump looking out for Donald Trump, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence,” he added.
Bolton then spoke in defense of the practice of carrying out coups in other countries and underscored the complexity involved after Tapper argued that it does not require brilliance to attempt a coup d'etat.
“I disagree with that as somebody who has helped plan coups d’etat - not here, but you know, other places - it takes a lot of work,” Bolton said.

Tapper then asked Bolton what he was referring to, and the former White House adviser said he wouldn't "get into the specifics" but let slip that he was referring, at the very least, to the 2019 effort to overthrow democratically-elected Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by backing a no-name opposition politician named Juan Guaidó. However, he then claimed that the US didn't have "all that much to do with it."

"The notion that Donald Trump is half as competent as the Venezuelan opposition is laughable," Bolton added.
Bolton went on, claiming that in launching the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, Trump had “stumbled around” to buy himself more time to send electoral matters back to the US states for review, but said that Trump did not attempt to overthrow the Constitution that day.

The US select committee that is investigating Trump's role in the January 6 events risks overreacting by believing that Trump planned to effect a coup, he added.

Bolton wrote a book - “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir” - following his time working with Trump. The book’s publication was initially blocked by a US Justice Department probe into whether it contained classified information, but lawsuits against Bolton over the material were dropped by the Biden administration.
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