I saw the clip too. She said nothing of the sort.
I'll post this as an example. It came from some unknown well funded blog. What the blogger said was in that vid was not there. Not one bit. Nothing about defending Bolton's positions. She laughed at Bolton's situation.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/05/07/rachel-maddow-endorses-regime-change-venezuela-push-russia-back-sympathizes-with-bolton-pompeo/
Here is the clip:
The text of the article spent a lot time defending Putin from MSNBC and Maddow. For example an extract from the article:
As I documented in a recent Twitter thread, Maddow has been “leading purveyor of now debunked Trump-Russia conspiracy theories, falsehoods and innuendo of the last 2+ years.” Looking back, I should have mentioned that Maddow has also been a vocal promoter of unhinged propaganda that encourages perilous tensions with Russia, and cultivates pro-war opinion among her base of extremely suggestible liberal viewers.
"now debunked Trump-Russia conspiracy theories". REEEEELLLLLYYYY?
To repeat. This is the core of what Maddow said in that video:
Maddow: “Even though his whole administration spent all week saying that Russia was interfering in Venezuela, and propping up the Venezuelan dictator there, turns out President Trump now says: Putin isn’t doing that at all, because Putin told him so.
…And so, hey John Bolton and hey Mike Pompeo, are you guys enjoying your jobs right now? You each thought your job this week was to name, and shame, and threaten, and counter Russian government involvement in Venezuela while saber-rattling about how everybody else better get out of the way because the US is really mad about it. Guys, turns out your actual job is figuring out how and why you work for a president who says whatever Vladimir Putin tells him.”
By all means, directly quote Maddow where, as you say she
"defend(s) his positions re Venezuela and Iran." The part that really rankled the blogger was this statement by Maddow:
Guys, turns out your actual job is figuring out how and why you work for a president who says whatever Vladimir Putin tells him.” I smell a Russian rat. All you see is barbecue.