President Bush said Thursday that John Bolton’s “blunt” style would be an asset in pushing for reform at the United Nations and defended his embattled choice for ambassador to the world body.
“John Bolton’s a blunt guy,” he said at a White House news conference. “Sometimes people say I’m a little too blunt.”
But Bush added; “If we expect the United Nations to be effective, it needs to clean up its problems. And I think it makes sense to have somebody representing the United States who will be straightforward about the issues.”
Bush described Bolton as someone who will not be “afraid to speak his mind at the United Nations.”
Bush and his top aides have been scrambling to put Bolton’s nomination on track after Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee were forced to postpone his confirmation vote because of a defection in their ranks.
The committee was in the process of interviewing some 20 people including former intelligence officials and Bolton’s subordinates on whether he tried to pressure analysts to write reports to conform with his hard-line views and whether he showed a pattern of abusive behavior.
