Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton reaffirmed to The Daily Caller that he will make a decision this Labor Day weekend about whether to seek the Republican nomination for president.
“I’m going to make it on Labor Day weekend for sure,” Bolton said. “That, for me, is a matter of logistics if nothing else. With the filing deadlines that you see beginning around November, November 1 really, somebody in my position has got to have a couple of months to implement a decision to run.”
“Other people, maybe [New York Mayor Rudolph] Giuliani, maybe [former Alaskan Gov. Sarah] Palin, have the luxury of more time,” he added, “but I don’t. So whether I want to make a decision this weekend or not, I just think logistically, that’s the point I have to decide.”
Asked whether he had any reaction to former Vice President Dick Cheney’s recently released memoir, Bolton said he had not had a chance to read it, but defended Cheney from the charge that by revealing private conversations, he is being disloyal to the president he served.
“I will say this in response to one criticism that some people have made, that he’s violating President Bush’s trust or the trust of others by discussing things that took place inside the administration,” Bolton said. “You know, I wrote … my own memoir of my time in government and I faced the same criticism … I came to the conclusion that if you’re honored enough to serve in a very senior position, especially for conservatives, that you do have an opportunity, and maybe it even amounts to a responsibility, to tell people what happened inside the government — because I don’t think it’s well understood what life in the bureaucracy is like. I don’t think it’s well understood how decisions are made.”
“I think that helps explain, if people care to read and understand it, why decisions on who you elect as president, and who a person that does get elected president staffs his administration with, are so important,” Bolton added.