Retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg called former National Security Adviser John Bolton “an architect of failure” and said he watched him lie to President Donald Trump to nearly start a military conflict in Iran.
Kellogg, the national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, spoke on Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention to endorse Trump for making “the right choices when faced with difficult decisions.”
He took a veiled swipe at Bolton using the title of the former national security adviser’s book, a scathing portrayal of Trump titled “The Room Where It Happened,” saying he was in the room when the decisions were made.
“(Bolton) is actually an architect of failure,” the 76-year-year-old Kellogg said on Fox News Thursday. “He had his own agenda. He pushed his own agenda, and when it didn’t work, he tried to basically stifle the discussion going forward or lie to the president of the United States.
“I was in there when it happened. I saw him when he fabricated information and nearly caused us to commence military operations in Iran because of the loss of a drone that we knew he had incorrect information and he passed that incorrect information to the president. I saw him on several occasions do that.”
He added that Bolton single-handedly “destroyed negotiations” to end the war in Afghanistan.
“So, is John Bolton a liar? Yeah, he is,” Kellogg said.
Kellogg also said he chose to endorse Trump over Democratic nominee Joe Biden because the upcoming election was one of contrasts.
“And I think the contrast in commander-in-chief between President Trump and Joe Biden is significant,” Kellogg said.
He accused the Obama administration, with Biden as vice president, of letting ISIS – or Islamic state – grow to the size of Britain, letting the U.S. military atrophy, and ignoring Syria’s use of chemical weapons against its own citizens after stating it was a “red line” that they wouldn’t allowed to be crossed.
“And you had a secretary of defense in the Obama administration, Secretary Robert Gates, say. in public and in his book, that Joe Biden has been nearly wrong on every major national security decision in the last 40 years,” Kellogg said. “And I think that’s true.”
He compared that with Trump’s decision to launch a missile strike against Syria after using chemical weapons, eliminating the ISIS caliphate, killing its leader Abu al-Baghdadi and growing the military.
“Here’s the one that’s not really mentioned. This one is pretty important,” Kellogg continued. “When one of the most critical decisions made in the Obama administration was to go after the architect of 9/11, Osama Bin Laden, after they found him, the individual in the room that recommended that operation not take place was Joe Biden.”
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.