Romney Adviser Says Obama's Reaction to Libya Was 'Limp Wristed'

Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton uses homophobic term to describe President Obama's foreign policy.

BY Michelle Garcia

September 30 2012 12:56 PM ET

(l-r) Romney, South Carlina Gov. Nikki Haley, and Bolton

Mitt Romney's foreign policy adviser John Bolton said that the U.S. is viewed as "weak" to the rest of the world under President Barack Obama, and that Obama had a "limp wristed reaction to the assassination of four American diplomats."

Bolton, who was an ambassador to the United Nations under president George W. Bush, was speaking to Fox News last week in a clip acquired by Think Progress. He was referring to the deaths of Chris Stevens, the American ambassador to Libya, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty, and the subsequent riots that broke out at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

When Bolton endorsed Romney earlier this year, the Republican presidential nominee said Bolton was a "staunch defender of U.S. interests and values, both while he was in and out of government."

According to CBS News, Bolton has used this terminology when criticizing the Bush Administration in 2007, the year after he left the ambassador post.