During his first week back in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump revoked security protection for his former National Security Adviser John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Pompeo’s former deputy, Brian Hook.
All three men had faced death threats from Iran “for taking hardline stances against the Islamic Republic” during Trump’s first administration.
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), chair of the Senate Republican Conference and chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that after reviewing recent intelligence, all three officials remain targets of Iran. Cotton is “encouraging the President to revisit the decision for those people who are targeted by Iran.”
On Fox News Sunday, Cotton said: “The threat to anyone involved in President Trump’s strike on Qasem Soleimani is persistent. It’s real. Iran is committed to vengeance against all of these people.”
Cotton said: “It’s better to be safe than sorry, because it’s not just about these men who helped President Trump carry out his policy in his first term. It’s about their family and friends, innocent bystanders every time they’re in public.
“It’s also about the president being able to get good people and to get good advice…People, say, going to work for the president now on Iran or China or North Korea or the Mexican drug cartels, they might hesitate to do so. They might hesitate to do so if they’re in office to give him the advice he needs or carrying out the policies that he decides upon.”
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}