POLITICUSUSA
In an interview with NPR that aired today, President Donald Trump‘s former national security adviser John Bolton urged Republicans to “acknowledge the reality” that President Donald Trump lost the general election and that Joe Biden is the president-elect.
Donald Trump may or may not be attempting a coup to reverse the American election results. At times the threat seems to be a complete joke like Rudy Giuliani‘s Four Seasons press conference.
At other times, Trump‘s election interference seems deadly serious. Following his firing, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that he prayed he wouldn’t be replaced by a yes-man.
John Bolton had a special insight to how Donald Trump’s presidency and how he operates. He was more than willing to spill secrets about the 45th president in his book, The Room Where it Happened.
Speaking to CNBC, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton blamed the Trump administration for souring relations between the United States and North Korea,
“The fact is that we wasted a lot of time with Trump’s failed diplomacy with North Korea,” Bolton said. “Rogue states need time to perfect their nuclear capabilities, their ballistic missile capabilities. That’s what Kim Jong Un was doing. So, I do think it’s more dangerous now because of the progress that North Korea has made.”
As the coronavirus sweeps through the White House, infecting Donald Trump, advisor Hope Hicks, Kellyanne Conway, three Republican senators, and more, the bombshell report on Trump’s tax returns The New York Times dropped in late September already seems to be receding from the news cycle.
There were many issues with Donald Trump’s debate performance on Tuesday night. The president spent much of the event desperately interrupting his opponent. He also worked as hard as possible to work Hunter Biden into the conversation.
But the biggest takeway for most people was the fact that Trump refused to condemn white supremacist groups. Not just that, he seemed to send a message to the Proud Boys, an extremist hate group that supports Trump.
The White House attempted to spin the words as an accident and inconsequential. But John Bolton, a former insider in the Trump White House said the president was trying to send a clear message.
Blitzer asked the former National Security Adviser, “What did he mean when he said stand back and stand by?”
Bolton answered, “I took that to mean, to put it another way, keep your powder dry. I thought it was a real threat and I thought he knew exactly what he was doing and what he meant.”
Blitzer followed, “is it stand back for now, but stand by if he needs them (in the case of a contested election.
Bolton continued, “That’s what I heard him say and I believe, again, if you listen to the way he said that line in the debate, it was practiced and thought out in advance.”
Watch a clip of the comments below:
President Donald Trump attacked his former national security adviser John Bolton, referring to him as a “Wacko” over Bolton’s claims about Trump’s relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
“Just heard that Wacko John Bolton was talking of the fact that I discussed ‘love letters from Kim Jong Un’ as though I viewed them as just that,” the president wrote. “Obviously, was just being sarcastic. Bolton was such a jerk!”
Just heard that Wacko John Bolton was talking of the fact that I discussed “love letters from Kim Jong Un” as though I viewed them as just that. Obviously, was just being sarcastic. Bolton was such a jerk!
Two people who once worked closely with Donald Trump have weighed in on reports that he mocked dead troops and those missing in action. John Bolton and Michael Cohen both made remarks on Friday.
Bolton, the former National Security Advisor, gave an interview Friday morning. He claimed he hadn’t heard the President saying the exact comments reported, but suggested he probably had.
“
These comments are despicable. If he made them, they are despicable,” Bolton told Bloomberg Radio.
John Bolton has blamed Democrats for botching the impeachment process despite his own refusal to testify. The former National Security Advisor branded the inquiry “partisan.”
Bolton spoke to PBS about his new book, The Room Where It Happened. He responded to Democrats saying his testimony would have been vital.
“I think they know that the impeachment effort was a massive failure, and I think they’re looking for excuses,” Bolton said.
“The fact is, we have a model in this country of how to conduct a successful impeachment process. And it’s obviously what happened at Watergate. Nixon wasn’t convicted by the Senate, to be sure, but he did resign.”
Bolton pointed to Richard Nixon’s impeachment and argued Democrats should have built a “bipartisan base.” He did not acknowledge that politics has changed in any way since 1974.
“You know, when you run a partisan process, which is what the House Democrats did, it has consequences,” he said.
“And in this case, it was to push Republicans into a partisan corner in the House. They literally pushed away Republicans who might have been sympathetic to a truly nonpartisan approach.”
Bolton said he would not testify and House Democrats decided not to issue a subpoena because they believed he would fight it in court. Nonetheless, Bolton put the blame squarely on the Democrats.
“So, I think it’s — when the Democrats jump off a cliff and they’re halfway down, they look up and say to me and others they could have said it to, why don’t you join us, it rings hollow.”
John Bolton believes this year’s presidential election will be a “coin toss” between Donald Trump and Joe Biden – but he won’t be voting for either of them.
The former National Security Advisor gave an interview to Australia’s ABC News and warned that just because the former Vice President was ahead in the polls, it didn’t mean he would win.
“I think it’s a coin toss who will win in November,” Bolton said.
“The polls show Biden with a substantial lead. Hillary Clinton had a substantial lead in 2016. We saw how that turned out.”
Polls currently show Biden with a commanding lead over President Trump nationally. More detailed polling released on Thursday shows him leading or in close ties with Trump in crucial swing states.
Bolton may believe the election will come down the flip of a coin, but he’s already decided his vote won’t be decisive.
“I’m
not gonna vote for him in November
President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton says he turned “a blind eye” to the coronavirus pandemic, which is currently intensifying in certain areas across the United States.
“I think there is an empty chair in the Oval Office, because the President did not want to hear bad news about Xi Jinping, his friend,” Bolton said during an interview on CNN. “He did not want to hear bad news about the cover-up of the virus in China, or its potential effect on the China trade deal that he wants so much. And he didn’t want to hear about the potential impact of a pandemic on the American economy and its effect on his reelection. Turning a blind eye to all these early signs I think hampered the country’s ability to deal with this, and continues to do so.”
Bolton says he does not have confidence in the president’s coronavirus response.
“I am afraid that the erratic nature of the policies as they’ve evolved since January when the experts really began to sense that this problem might be out there has characterized our response throughout. And I’m worried that it continues to be the pattern that the President follows. It’s not part of a comprehensive strategy. I think in a country the size of the United States, state and local authorities should have a big role, but at the federal level, the response has not been consistent,” he said.
Bolton’s comments come amid a scandal surrounding the release of his book, The Room Where It Happened, which outlines his bumpy tenure in the White House and details a significant amount of the president’s often incendiary behavior.
John Bolton told CNN that Trump ignored the coronavirus because he didn't want to hear any bad news about "his friend Xi Jinping."
John Bolton’s testimony could have fundamentally altered the outcome of President Donald Trump’s impeachment, according to Adam Schiff. Bolton did not testify at the time.
Congressman Schiff is Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and he spoke to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Monday. The Democrat claimed Bolton’s testimony could have been crucial.
The former National Security Advisor to Trump said at the time he would sue if the House subpoena’d him.
“John Bolton’s testimony may have led to other witnesses and an unraveling of the Trump defense,” Schiff said.
Bolton claims in his new book, The Room Where It Happened, that Trump should have been impeached for a number of other offenses. He accused the President of seeking election help from China.
Schiff, who led the Democratic impeachment efforts, has been on something of a media blitz criticizing Bolton for the past few days. This may be part of a push to interview him in the House.
However, Schiff defended the choice not to issue a subpoena during the impeachment hearings.
“Our decision has been vindicated by the fact that we are still in court now over a year later trying to get [Don] McGahn to testify,” he told Meet the Press on Sunday.
“Bolton said he would sue us if we subpoenaed him. We would still be trying to get John Bolton’s testimony today,” Schiff said.
“And given that the president was trying to cheat in the upcoming election, we couldn’t afford to wait another year to get John Bolton to testify.”
John Bolton wants Donald Trump to lose the 2020 election but he won’t be voting for Joe Biden. The former National Security Advisor said the President is “dangerous.”
Bolton spoke to ABC News’ Martha Raddatz on as he promotes his new tell-all book, The Room Where It Happened. He said he wouldn’t be voting for Trump but would vote conservatively.
“I hope [history] will remember him as a one-term president who didn’t plunge the country irretrievably into a downward spiral we can’t recall from,” Bolton said.
“We can get over one term,” he said. “I have absolute confidence, even if it’s not the miracle of a conservative Republican being elected in November. Two terms, I’m more troubled about.”
However, Bolton said he will not be voting for former Vice President Biden, despite initial reports that he said he would back Biden.
“I don’t think he’s fit for office. I don’t think he has the competence to carry out the job,” Bolton said of Trump.
“I don’t think he’s a conservative Republican. I’m not gonna vote for him in November. Certainly not gonna vote for Joe Biden either. I’m gonna figure out a conservative Republican to write in.”
“In 2016 I voted for Trump over Hillary Clinton,” Bolton said.
“Now, having seen this president up close, I cannot do this again. My concern is for the country, and he does not represent the Republican cause that I want to back.”
Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders criticizes President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton in Speaking for Myself, her own memoir about her time working for the Trump administration. Sanders characterizes Bolton, who’s been repeatedly targeted by the president for claims he made in his own book, as “drunk on power.”
“Bolton was a classic case of a senior White House official drunk on power, who had forgotten that nobody elected him to anything,” Sanders wrote, according to an excerpt of her book obtained by Axios.
She says “Bolton apparently felt too important to travel with the rest of us,” a reference to a trip to London when Bolton’s choice to travel in a separate motorcade for the U.S. ambassador’s residence ahead of the rest of White House staff raised ire.
“As we were ready to depart for the Winfield House…[w]e waited and watched as Bolton sped by and left us in the dust. The discussion on the bus quickly moved … to how arrogant and selfish Bolton could be, not just in this moment but on a regular basis,” she wrote, recalling that former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney sparred with Bolton and called him “a f—ing self-righteous, self-centered son of a b—-.”
A spokesperson for Bolton disputed Sanders’s recollection of events.
“All logistical arrangements for travel of this sort were handled by the Secret Service, without any input from Ambassador Bolton,” the spokesperson said. “It is impossible to believe that his assigned Secret Service agents acted other than in a completely professional manner, fully coordinated with the Secret Service details assigned to Messrs. Mnuchin and Mulvaney.”
The excerpt from Sanders’s book was published the same morning President Trump slammed Bolton in a tweet this morning, claiming he gave Bolton “a chance” that had not paid off.
“I gave John Bolton, who was incapable of being Senate confirmed because he was considered a wacko, and was not liked, a chance,” he wrote. “I always like hearing differing points of view. He turned out to be grossly incompetent, and a liar,” he wrote.
President Donald Trump railed against his former national security adviser John Bolton in a tweet this morning, claiming he gave Bolton “a chance” that had not paid off.
“I gave John Bolton, who was incapable of being Senate confirmed because he was considered a wacko, and was not liked, a chance,” he wrote. “I always like hearing differing points of view. He turned out to be grossly incompetent, and a liar,” he wrote.
The president referred his followers to a federal judge’s opinion on Bolton’s decision to publish a book about his time working in the White House.
“Bolton has gambled with the national security of the United States,” wrote Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia. “He has exposed his country to harm and himself to civil (and potentially criminal) liability. But these facts do not control the motion before the court. The government has failed to establish that an injunction will prevent irreparable harm.”
I gave John Bolton, who was incapable of being Senate confirmed because he was considered a wacko, and was not liked, a chance. I always like hearing differing points of view. He turned out to be grossly incompetent, and a liar. See judge’s opinion. CLASSIFIED INFORMATION!!!
Trump responded to losing his attempt to block the publication of John Bolton's book by threatening the life of his former adviser.
Former and current administration officials have claimed Donald Trump just doesn’t care about concentration camps in China. A new report on the President’s attitude comes amid John Bolton’s allegations.
In his upcoming book, the former National Security Advisor claims Trump encouraged Chinese President Xi Jinping to imprison Muslim Uihgurs for “reeducation.”
Now former and current officials in the administration have confirmed Trump’s indifference to China’s systematic human rights abuses.
“He couldn’t give a shit,” one former official told The Daily Beast. This anonymous source was reportedly in the room when the President was discussing the Uighurs.
The official said that “there has never been any indication when the issue comes up that the president cares or is even making any effort to fake it.”
Other administration officials said they weren’t sure if Trump listened in briefings about the camps and claimed he sometimes feigned interest in the subject.
Trump reportedly said on at least one occasion “How is that our problem?” when the topic came up.
“It was clear to most based off my conversations with the national security team that the president couldn’t care less about this,” said one former GOP security official.
The White House is continuing to try and prevent Bolton’s book from being published later this month.
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had harsh words for President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, whose tell-all book, The Room Where It Happened, has caused the president to lash out angrily during interviews and online.
“This is called a con,” Pelosi said, adding: “I’m not paying any money for a book that was a substitute for testifying before Congress,” a reference to Bolton’s refusal to testify during the House’s impeachment proceedings against the president. The Senate ultimately acquitted the president of any wrongdoing in his quid-pro-dealings with Ukraine; Bolton offered to testify before the Senate, a move Pelosi said Bolton knew would result in Republicans not issuing a subpoena or calling him as a witness.
Pelosi remained tight-lipped on whether Bolton’s claims will compel Democrats to issue a subpoena.
“We’ll be discussing how the American people are best served by oversight,” she said. “We’ll make a judgment.”
“I have no regrets. I’m very proud of what we did,” she said of the House’s impeachment proceedings. She added that Bolton “knew the president should be removed from office. That’s clear. He does want to keep his ties to the right wing, so he does that by criticizing us. I place no value on that.”
You can watch a clip of Pelosi’s remarks below.
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.