Bolton resurrects pair of PACs to prop up Congress’ top warmongers

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton has wasted no time relaunching his political action committees and endorsing five Republican congressmen, all of whom appear to love war almost as much as he does.

The John Bolton PAC has endorsed Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Cory Gardner (R-Colorado), and Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), along with Reps Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois) and Lee Zeldin (R-New York), according to its first post-resurrection press release on Friday, which referred to the now-unemployed hawk as “Ambassador John Bolton” despite the fact that he has not held a diplomatic position in years.

"The John Bolton PAC and John Bolton Super PAC seek a strong, clear, and dependable US national security policy, resting on constancy and resolve,” reads the statement from the ex-advisor who advocated bombing Iran, taking “the Libya option” on North Korea, military intervention in Venezuela, and continuing to bomb Afghanistan and Syria for the foreseeable future.

Bolton’s picks are, unsurprisingly, a rather hawkish crew. Cotton has repeatedly called for airstrikes on Iran, while he and Zeldin have advocated encouraging Israel to bomb Iran. Kinzinger, too, wants to see Iran bombed. Gardner sponsored legislation to bribe Venezuelan officials to renounce President Nicolas Maduro and pressure other countries to sanction Venezuela. and tried to derail peace negotiations with North Korea. Tillis, along with the others, was an outspoken opponent of the Iran nuclear deal.

In addition to supporting each of his chosen candidates with a $10,000 contribution, the John Bolton SuperPAC has promised to dump huge piles of cash “in support of national security.” Bolton’s superPAC came under scrutiny while Trump was considering hiring him because it had paid over $1 million to Cambridge Analytica, the political consultancy that used millions of Facebook users’ data without their consent to help Trump get elected. And the PACs’ failure to shut down after Bolton was hired, operating with what appeared to be a massive conflict of interest, raised more than a few eyebrows.

Bolton was ignominiously fired via Twitter from his position on Tuesday after Trump “disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions.” Speculation swirled that he’d end up on mainstream TV (where he was quickly lionized following his departure from the White House as a “stabilizing force” in the administration) or join the NeverTrump #Resistance like his fellow Iraq War apologists Bill Kristol and Max Boot. Instead, he’s reverted to type, giving the revolving door another good shove.

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