Rubio slams NY Times for ‘absurd criticism’ of Bolton over Iran

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) slammed The New York Times on Monday for what he called its “absurd criticism” of John Bolton after the paper warned the national security adviser could “precipitate a conflict with Iran.”

“This is an absurd criticism of Amb. Bolton,” Rubio wrote his more than 3.6 million followers on Twitter. 

“Shia militias in #Iraq are proxies of & controlled by #Iran,” he added. “They want to use them to kill our troops but have deniability. Any attack by Shia militias against U.S. should be treated as an attack from Iran.”

This is an absurd criticism of Amb. Bolton.

Shia militias in #Iraq are proxies of & controlled by #Iran. They want to use them to kill our troops but have deniability.

Any attack by Shia militias against U.S. should be treated as an attack from Iran.
https://t.co/3YP3vUPvnM

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) January 14, 2019

{mosads}The pushback from Rubio comes after The New York Times reported on Sunday that Bolton asked the Pentagon to “provide the White House with military options to strike Iran” after Shia militants fired mortars or rockets into an empty lot of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad four months ago.

The report, which cited Defense Department and senior American officials, went on to say the request “alarmed” former Defense Secretary James Mattis, who ultimately rejected strikes for what he deemed a minor incident.

“Since Mr. Bolton took over from H.R. McMaster in April, he has intensified the administration’s policy of isolating and pressuring Iran — reflecting an animus against Iran’s leaders that dates back to his days as an official in the George W. Bush administration,” reads the report. “As a private citizen, he later called for military strikes on Iran, as well as regime change.”

“Such a strike could have caused an armed conflict and could have prompted Iraq to order the United States to leave the country,” an unidentified senior official told the Times. 

Bolton, a former Fox News contributor, was named by President Trump as national security adviser in March 2018, replacing H.R. McMaster.