Ex-National Security Adviser, John Bolton John Bolton slammed US Democrats for conducting a partisan impeachment, saying they were ‘almost as bad and somewhat equivalent to’ President Trump.
Bolton, a lifelong Republican who has served in the White House for three GOP administrations, is promoting his new memoir, The Room Where It Happened, which tells of his time as Trump’s national security adviser.
Bolton, set to release his bombshell book this week after a court rejected the White House’s plans to ban the book’s publication over sensitive ‘national security’ information, also said he won’t be voting for Trump or Biden in the presidential elections come November .
The House Intelligence Committee wanted to bring Bolton in for testimony during its 2019 impeachment probe into Trump’s conduct toward Ukraine, but he didn’t participate, leading angry Democrats to suggest he was saving material for his new book.
In an interview with ABC News, Bolton defended his decision not to testify before Congress during the impeachment proceedings.
When asked why he didn’t testify, Bolton said the process in the House was too partisan.
‘I was fully prepared [to testify] – if I got a subpoena like everybody else who testified got a subpoena,’ Bolton said in a late Sunday night ABC news interview.
‘I think the way the House advocates of impeachment proceeded was badly wrong.
‘I think it was impeachment malpractice. I think they were determined because of their own political objectives to conduct an impeachment proceeding that was very narrowly focused on Ukraine, and that went very, very quickly.’
Bolton accused Democrats of managing the impeachment so as not to ‘mess up the Democratic presidential nomination.’
‘Now, I find that conduct almost as bad and somewhat equivalent to Trump,’ Bolton said.
‘That they’re torqueing one of the gravest constitutional responsibilities the House of Representatives has, the power of impeachment, around their presidential nomination schedule.’
Bolton added: ‘And they failed utterly to accomplish what they wanted. In fact, they made things worse.
‘Because their strategy fitted with the Trump political strategy.
‘Keep it narrow, and move it fast. So what did they do? The House advocates said, ‘We have proven Trump is impeached forever, and that he’d learn a lesson from it.’
When asked if Trump learned his lesson after impeachment, Bolton said: ‘It’s absolutely 180 degrees the opposite of the truth
‘Because he was acquitted in the Senate. He didn’t learn lessons from it, other than that he could get away with it, which leaves only the last guardrail – is the election this November.
‘I think the House Democrats built a cliff, they threw themselves off of it. And halfway down, they looked up and saw me, and said, ‘Hey, why don’t you come along?”
Bolton, who was fired last year as Trump’s national security adviser, gave a scathing assessment of the president in his new memoir, The Room Where It Happened.
‘I don’t think he’s fit for office,’ Bolton told ABC News on Sunday.
‘I don’t think he has the competence to carry out the job.’
‘I don’t think he’s a conservative Republican. I’m not gonna vote for him in November,’ Bolton said.
‘Certainly not gonna vote for Joe Biden either.
‘I’m gonna figure out a conservative Republican to write in.
‘But this comes back to the point of why I wrote the book.’
