Mitt Romney is very sad about John Bolton's firing. Rand Paul is celebrating.

Mitt Romney.
(Image credit: George Frey/Getty Images)

Nobody can seem to agree on how former National Security Adviser John Bolton found himself out of a job Tuesday — Bolton says he resigned on his own accord, President Trump says the ouster was, in fact, his decision. Whatever the truth may be, the early reactions to Bolton's exit from two prominent Republican senators are similarly disparate.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) called Bolton's departure a "huge loss" for the United States, arguing that it's necessary to have someone at the table who is willing to push back. "His view was not always the same as everybody else in the room," Romney said. "That's why you wanted him there. The fact that he was a contrarian from time to time is an asset not a liability."

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.