Former national security advisor, John Bolton tells @CBS_Herridge that President Biden "overstated the gravity of the situation we're in right now" when he suggested "prospect of Armageddon" is the highest it has been since the Cuban Missile Crisis. https://t.co/bSxdkqiQOP pic.twitter.com/1B5JLGIEc7

— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 7, 2022

Former national security adviser John Bolton thinks President Biden “overstated the gravity of the situation we’re in right now” when he suggested that the “prospect of Armageddon” is the highest it’s been since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Bolton offered his observation in an interview Friday with CBS News senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge. …

“I think any time we contemplate the potential use of nuclear weapons, we’ve got to take it seriously,” Bolton told CBS News. “But I also think we’ve got to be very clear-eyed about it. And I think the president’s comment overstated the gravity of the situation we’re in right now. I was particularly disturbed when he said, ‘you know, I can’t imagine the use of a tactical nuclear weapon that doesn’t lead to Armageddon.’ And it’s that chain of causality from one demonstration use of a tactical nuclear weapon that Vladimir Putin is currently threatening all the way up to an exchange of nuclear salvos between Russia and the United States.”

“It is not inevitable,” he continued. “But Putin would like us to think it’s inevitable. He’d like to see people nervous. He’s trying to deter us. He has done this several times already after his invasion of Ukraine. He’s been bluffing each time. There is a risk here of the use of nuclear weapons. I don’t think we’re in the circumstances where it’s going to happen, although we watch it carefully. But it’s very important for the West not to be deterred by Putin’s use of this nuclear threat.”