STUART VARNEY (HOST): Ambassador, this is something rather new in politics, a presidential candidate who answers questions rapid fire, directly, off the cuff, no notes, no prompter. How do foreign leaders react to this new kind of leader in America?
JOHN BOLTON: Well, I think it's something that they've never seen before, and I'm sure that it will take some getting used to. I think it's important that a candidate for the office of presidency know that every word he or she says is very carefully scrutinized by foreign leaders, and since our president has enormous military capability at his or her disposal, these words mean a lot more than they mean in conversations with -- if I may say so, with all due respect, the American press.
VARNEY: Well, are you saying then, ambassador, that he should tighten up his words? Be more careful with his words? Be scripted, in fact? Is that what you're saying?
BOLTON: No, I wouldn't say he has to be scripted and I'm certainly not going to hold anybody to a higher standard than I'm able to hold myself to. This issue, like other issues that have international ramifications can cause foreign governments to make conclusions that may not be warranted by the sort of thing you say in casual conversation among Americans. Particularly, bantering with a hostile press such as he faces almost all the time.
But that said, I think this subject of whether, and to what extent, the Russians were involved in this leak of these e-mails, is something the Democrats have already tried to make political hay out of, and I think he's responding to it. The people who looked at the evidence in the DNC computer, may be experts in computer forensics, but it doesn't mean they're counter intelligence experts. Let me give you an alternative hypothesis. Somebody who wanted to cast blame on the Russians could put in those indications of other Russian hacking efforts. If I were a Bernie Sanders supporter, and I wanted this out, and I were good at computers, maybe I'd do that. There's word for that, it's called disinformation, “dezinformatsiya” in Russian. And that would be at work here, too. A computer forensics expert can't tell you the answer to that.
