Bolton fears Trump likely has ‘enemies list’ with more people to fire

Former White House national security adviser John Bolton said Wednesday that he fears President Trump likely has “an enemies list” with more people to fire following his loss to President-elect Joe Biden in the 2020 election. 

In an interview with The Washington Post, Bolton sounded off on the recent string of firings in the aftermath of the election, including that of former Defense Secretary Mark Esper. 

Most recently, Trump fired Christopher Krebs after the top cybersecurity official released a statement affirming the security of the 2020 election. 

“What I fear is … that there’s an enemies list in the White House of people still to fire and that there’s more to come,” Bolton said.

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton to @costareports: “What I fear is…that’s there’s an enemies list in the White House of people still to fire and that there’s more to come.” pic.twitter.com/LrstCMbdtT

— CSPAN (@cspan) November 18, 2020

Krebs had served as the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) at the Department of Homeland Security since 2018. 

CISA issued a statement from election officials and stakeholders asserting that the election was the “the most secure in American history” and dispelling assertions that voting systems were in some way compromised. 

Bolton said the statement “is completely contrary to the fantasy world that the president lives in,” under which he repeatedly claims without evidence that he lost due to widespread voter fraud. 

Bolton also said there was no justification to fire Esper, former Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development Bonnie Glick or Lisa Gordon Hagerty, who resigned from her position as head of the National Nuclear Security Administration. 

“There’s no reason to decapitate your national security team with less than ten weeks to go until the transition,” Bolton said. “That will inevitably cause disruptions in the agencies themselves, let alone their ability to hand off smoothly.”