Associated Press/Alex Brandon
Former Vice President Joe Biden pauses while speaking about U.S. relations with the Kremlin at the Council on Foreign Relations, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018, in Washington.
- President Donald Trump appointed John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, as his new national security adviser.
- The news sent tremors through the national security establishment, which is largely critical of Bolton.
- But former Vice President Joe Biden once said that people fear Bolton not because of his views, but because of his effectiveness.
President Donald Trump's decision on Thursday to appoint former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton to the position of national security adviser has alarmed much of the national security establishment.
Bolton is a well-known conservative hawk who in recent years has railed against the US's Iran strategy, advocated for a preemptive strike on North Korea, and repeatedly defended the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq.
Bolton will be replacing Trump's previous national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, who resigned on Thursday after weeks of rumors about his looming departure.
But according to former Vice President Joe Biden, the real reason so many people fear Bolton isn't just his foreign policy goals - it's his ability to achieve them.
In Bolton's 2007 book, "Surrender is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations," he described Biden's reaction to his 2005 confirmation hearing for the UN ambassador post, as noted in Axios on Friday.
Biden, who was then the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, gave Bolton a brutally honest reason why he disliked him but ultimately decided not to block his nomination.
"My problem with you, over the years, has been, you're too competent. I mean, I would rather you be stupid and not very effective," Biden said, according to Bolton.
Biden added that his opposition to Bolton was not about his "competence," and that he thought Bolton was "an honorable man" and "extremely competent."
Bolton clearly took the observations as a compliment - he wrote in his book that Biden's comments were the "high point" of his confirmation hearing.