President Donald Trump has railed against his former national security adviser John Bolton, whose book, The Room Where It Happened, reveals salacious details about his time working in the White House. Naturally, the president has dismissed all of Bolton’s claims and dismissed him as a liar during interviews and in posts to his official Twitter account.
But during a roundtable discussion, CBS reporter Paula Reid asked the two questions many are wondering: “If the White House had Bolton’s book for six months prior to publication, why didn’t he try to block publication sooner?” and “Why do you keep hiring people that you believe are wackos and liars?”
Trump did not answer Reid’s questions, according to ABC News correspondent Karen Travers, who was present.
Why do you keep hiring people you say are wackos or liars? – @PaulaReidCBS to President Trump just now during his meeting with governors on small business reopening.
The President did not answer Paula’s Q.
— Karen Travers (@karentravers) June 18, 2020
The president ignored Reid’s question. A clip of the incident soon circulated online.
A sour-looking Trump ignored a shouted question from a reporter about "why do you keep hiring people that you believe are wackos and liars?" as the event ended pic.twitter.com/oypjPJDfpU
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 18, 2020
Reid’s questions were in response to at least one prior Trump tweet, including one where he denigrated “Wacko” Bolton as “A disgruntled boring fool who only wanted to go to war.”
The president added that Bolton “Never had a clue, was ostracized & happily dumped.”
Wacko John Bolton’s “exceedingly tedious”(New York Times) book is made up of lies & fake stories. Said all good about me, in print, until the day I fired him. A disgruntled boring fool who only wanted to go to war. Never had a clue, was ostracized & happily dumped. What a dope!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2020
Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.