John Bolton’s dishy tell-all has Democrats begrudgingly walking a fine line between torching the Trump administration official and highlighting his most scurrilous claims.
Bolton and his publisher Simon & Schuster this week pushed out advanced copies of President Trump’s former national security adviser’s highly anticipated book, The Room Where It Happened. In its pages, set for public release on Tuesday, Bolton paints an unflattering picture of the White House in which he worked for a year and a half until last September.
But Democrats are seething over one anecdote in particular. And their anger is inflamed by Bolton’s decision to snub House lawmakers’ request last October to testify as part of their impeachment investigation.
Bolton, the former United Nations ambassador turned Fox News commentator, alleges in his memoir that Trump pleaded with Chinese President Xi Jinping last June to help ensure he won the 2020 election by buying soybeans and wheat from U.S. farmers struggling under his tariffs.
“I don’t think he’s fit for office,” Bolton told ABC News in an interview clip teased Thursday. “I don’t think he has the competence to carry out the job. There really isn’t any guiding principle that I was able to discern other than what’s good for Donald Trump’s reelection.”
In response, Trump trashed Bolton on Fox News and to the Wall Street Journal, and he went on multiple Twitter tirades too.
“Bolton’s book, which is getting terrible reviews, is a compilation of lies and made up stories, all intended to make me look bad. Many of the ridiculous statements he attributes to me were never made, pure fiction. Just trying to get even for firing him like the sick puppy he is!” the president tweeted Thursday.
The Brookings Institution’s Thomas Wright, director of the think tank’s Center on the United States and Europe, warned Democrats that their fury at Bolton for not going on the record during Trump’s impeachment threatened to overshadow the ex-diplomat’s accusations.
“My view is that he should have testified, but he deserves some credit for speaking out during the election instead of after,” Wright told the Washington Examiner.
Other than the risk of more congressional investigations, Bolton’s memoir hurts Trump by undermining his efforts to portray himself as tough on China compared to Joe Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, according to Wright.
For example, Bolton recounts Trump’s open attitude toward meddling in Justice Department inquiries into foreign companies to “give personal favors to dictators he liked.” Those companies included ZTE, the Chinese telecommunications juggernaut that skirted Iranian and North Korean sanctions.
“I think it will give some senior Republicans pause about what a second Trump term could look like on NATO, China, and other foreign policy issues,” Wright said.
Former Democratic Missouri state senator Jeff Smith didn’t anticipate Bolton’s book affecting the fall fight, given it was still five months away. But he advised Democrats to steer clear of ripping Bolton, the man. Instead, they should concentrate on contextualizing his claims, he recommended.
“First, there is no American principle he won’t sacrifice in service of his ego and/or his re-election,” Smith wrote in an email of Trump.
Referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Smith added: “He showed that when he took Putin’s word on election interference over our intel agencies. He showed it in Ukraine when he shitcanned committed career civil servants and leveraged foreign aid to a besieged ally in a futile quest for Biden dirt. He showed it again by encouraging Xi to subjugate Uighurs as a prelude to requesting more ag purchases he thought would benefit him in swing states.”
For Smith, Democrats should also underscore how Trump’s carousal of staff, from former White House chief of staff John Kelly to former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is evidence he can’t manage people or the nation.
The Trump administration delayed the publication of Bolton’s book for months as national security officials combed through it, looking for classified information. The Justice Department then launched legal action to prevent Bolton’s memoir, worth in excess of $2 million, being sold. The DOJ sought a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, arguing it breached Bolton’s nondisclosure agreement and contained sensitive details.
As excerpts and interview snippets continue to circulate, it’s obvious why the Trump White House would prefer not to have Bolton’s work on bookshelves around the country next week.
In the memoir, Bolton alleges he was privy to conversations with Trump about Ukraine as well, which could’ve been pivotal to the House impeachment inquiry. Specifically, he recalls Trump saying “he wasn’t in favor” of sending Ukraine military funding to protect itself from the Kremlin “until all the Russia-investigation materials” related to Biden and Hillary Clinton “had been turned over.”
House Democrats never subpoenaed Bolton for their inquiry, a move which would’ve likely ended in protracted litigation. Bolton did offer to testify during the Senate trial but was blocked by Republican members of the chamber. The Senate eventually acquitted Trump on both the abuse of power and obstruction of Congress articles. The vote was scheduled, despite reports suggesting Bolton could confirm the Ukraine quid pro quo.
But House Democrats may dredge up the issue.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of California this week foreshadowed possible future investigations.
“I think equally disturbing was him telling President Xi that he should go forward with these concentration camps for the Uighurs and that it was the right thing to do,” Schiff said of Trump. “That is such a betrayal of everything our country stands for, such a betrayal on a massive scale of our support for human rights. I don’t know which is more disturbing, frankly. But both prove his unfitness for office.”
