(NewsNation) — John Bolton, a former national security adviser for President Donald Trump, thinks a recent assassination attempt by an Iranian national should “change the game” for how the U.S. deals with Iran, NewsNation’s Leland Vittert said after interviewing Bolton.
Bolton was the target of an alleged murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by an Iranian operative, likely in retaliation for a U.S airstrike that killed powerful Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. Iranian national Shahram Poursafi, aka Mehdi Rezayi, 45, is wanted by the FBI on charges related to the plot.
“The Biden administration did a full 180 on Iran compared to how President Trump approached them,” Vittert said on NewsNation’s “Morning in America.”
Although Trump tried to pursue tougher sanctions against Iran, and pulled out of a nuclear deal with the country, White House officials under Biden are trying to negotiate a return to the 2015 deal.
Vittert said the U.S. is now having to grapple with a “new axis of anti-American powers” with China, Iran and Russia.
“The Biden administration will tell you ‘Oh, we’re dealing with all of them.’ The question is, how does America’s dealing with all of them affect the other one?” Vittert said.
Vittert questioned how certain U.S. actions in other countries will look to world leaders.
“How does not sending all the weapons Ukraine wants to Russia affect how Iran views the United States support, say, of Israel and our other Gulf allies?” he went on. “How does the United States not coming to the aid of Taiwan in the way that we could have during the latest crisis affect how Iran views things? How does us being willing to negotiate with Iran while they continue to build a nuclear weapon affect how Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin view the United States’ resolve in stopping somebody from doing something that we say we’re not going to let them do?”
While Bolton is the most public person Iran has tried to kill, Vittert said he is not the only one.
“They have the blood of hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans on their hands,” Vittert said.
