Critical observers noted that what appeared to many like an amateurish or clumsy mistake by Bolton, gives the veteran neoconservative and government operative too little credit:

Meanwhile, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is also running as a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, said Monday night that Bolton has now made clear that the US actions against Venezuela—just like in Iraq and elsewhere—is really about the country’s oil reserves. “It’s about the oil … again,” she said on Twitter.

In a television appearance, Bolton made the case for seizing Venezuela’s oil wealth in his own words:

Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.