Welcome to Pushback. I'm Aaron Mate.

In a recent interview with CNN, John Bolton bragged that he has been personally involved in planning coup d'etas abroad.

I don't know that I agree with you to be fair, with all due respect.

One doesn't have to be brilliant to attempt a coup. I disagree with that.

As somebody who has helped planned coup data, not here, but, you know, other places,

it takes a lot of work. And that's not what he did. I do want to ask a follow-up when we were

talking about what is capable or what you need to do to be able to plan a coup. And you cited your expertise having planned coups.

I'm not going to get into the specifics, but...

Successful coups?

Well, I wrote about Venezuela in the book, and it turned out not to be successful.

Not that we had all that much to do with it, but I saw what it took.

Well, joining me as someone with unique insight into John Bolton's conduct in government

and the U.S. role in the kinds of coups that John Bolton was bragging about.

Fulton Armstrong is the former National Intelligence Officer for Latin America,

the U.S. intelligence community's most senior analyst.

He's also a former senior

staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and he's currently a lecturer at American

University's School of International Service. And Fulton Armstrong has personal experience with

John Bolton because in 2002, John Bolton tried unsuccessfully to have Fulton Armstrong dismissed from his position.

Fulton Armstrong, thank you for joining me.

Happy to be here. Thanks.

What was your reaction when you saw John Bolton's comments on CNN?

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