John. Fucking. Bolton.

On a recent segment about Donald Trump’s controversial phone call with Vladimir Putin, Maddow expressed concern for the way the White House’s mustachioed Thanos wannabe has been unable to push back against Russian interests in Venezuela with sufficient aggression. She discussed Trump’s nonsensical claim that Russia isn’t active in the affairs of its ally Venezuela (which propaganda mouthpieces like Maddow are calling “interfering” now), then went on a rambling tirade about how this impedes Bolton’s bloodthirsty instincts as though that’s a bad thing.

“Hey, John Bolton, hey, Mike Pompeo, are you guys enjoying your jobs right now?” Maddow asked. “You each thought your job this week was to name and shame and threaten and counter Russian government involvement in Venezuela while sabre-rattling about how everyone better get out of the way because the US is really mad about it. Guys, turns out your actual job is figuring out why you work for a president who says whatever Vladimir Putin tells him. I mean, just to be clear here, how do you come to work anymore if you’re John Bolton?”

“Regardless of what you thought of John Bolton before this, and his whole career and his track record,” Maddow continued, waving her hand dismissively as if to suggest that John Bolton’s murderous track record is somehow irrelevant or unimportant. “Just think of John Bolton as a human being. This is what John Bolton, human being, thought his job was this week.”

(I should interrupt my transcribing here to note that under no circumstances should anyone ever think of John “We know where your kids live” Bolton as a human being. No good can come of it.)

“I mean John Bolton, God bless you,” Maddow continued after running a clip of Bolton’s previous hawkish rhetoric toward Russia and Venezuela. “Good luck delicately and carefully shaving around that impressive mustache when you have to look at yourself in the mirror in coming days, Mister National Security Advisor. I mean, this is who you’re working for. You thought your job was to push Russia back because of what they’re doing in Venezuela. The president spent an hour on the phone with Vladimir Putin today; Putin told him he’s not in Venezuela, so now the new position of the US government is that Putin’s not in Venezuela. What’s your job?”