Bolton: ‘I Can Say Unequivocally There Is No U.S. Government Involvement’ at all in Maduro Assassination Attempt

WALLACE: Kristin Fisher reporting from Columbus, Ohio — Kristin, thanks for that.

Joining me now, the president’s national security adviser, John Bolton.

And, Ambassador, welcome back to “Fox News Sunday.”

JOHN BOLTON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Glad to be with you.

WALLACE: Let’s begin with breaking news. What leftist Venezuelan president is calling an assassination attempt against him yesterday.

Let’s put up this video. Pretty striking. The president, President Maduro, speaking at a military event when drones loaded with explosives exploded. You can see security protecting him with ballistic blankets and military — it was a national guard event at the event in Caracas, begin the stampede.

Question, did the U.S. play any role, and what’s our reaction to what he was calling an assassination attempt?

BOLTON: Well, I can say unequivocally there is no U.S. government involvement in this at all. Just within the past couple of hours, I have spoken with our charge in Caracas, the head diplomatic official down there. He and his staff were up much of the night making sure that Americans in Venezuela were safe. As of now, we think everybody notice to the embassy is in a secure position. They’re going to will evaluate conditions today but they focused on that principle responsibility and as of now feel pretty confident that Americans are accounted for.

Now, with respect to what happened last afternoon, look, it could be a lot of things from a pretext set up by the Maduro regime itself, or something else. He’s made accusations accusing the outgoing president of Columbia responsibility, what he calls the extreme right wing in Venezuela, that means the vast opposition to his authoritarian role and he’s blamed unnamed fancers (ph) in the United States.

These are things he has said before and you have to take them for what they are worth. If the government of Venezuela has hard information that they want to present to us that would show a potential violation of U.S. criminal law, we’ll take a serious look at it. But in the meantime, I think what we really should focus on is the corruption and the oppression of the Maduro regime in Venezuela.