06/17/20
Former national security adviser John Bolton alleges in his upcoming 592-page memoir that President Trump regularly gives "personal favors to dictators he liked," backed the idea of more concentration camps in China, and asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him in the 2020 election, according to excerpts obtained and published by several media outlets.
Trump also apparently was unaware that Britain is a nuclear power and asked whether Finland is part of Russia, according to Bolton -- who also claimed that during Trump's 2018 visit to North Korea, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo handed Bolton a note saying of Trump, “He is so full of sh--."
The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday published an excerpt of the book, and The New York Times and The Washington Post also published stories based on parts of the manuscript. Fox News has confirmed the quotes in The New York Times' story.
According to these excerpts, Bolton also reserved harsh words for Democrat impeachment managers who demanded he testify as part of their inquiry into Trump's dealings with Ukraine. "Had Democratic impeachment advocates not been so obsessed with their Ukraine blitzkrieg in 2019, had they taken the time to inquire more systematically about Trump’s behavior across his entire foreign policy, the impeachment outcome might well have been different," Bolton wrote.
WSJ: READ AN EXCERPT OF BOLTON'S BOOK
The colorful excerpts come a day after the Department of Justice filed a complaint in federal court over Bolton's "Hamilton"-inspired book, “The Room Where It Happened." The memoir, set for release next week, "has not completed prepublication review" and still "contains classified information" that could endanger national security, the government said. Bolton served as national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019 and was United Nations ambassador in the George W. Bush administration.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, speaking at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, denied Bolton's claims that Trump had sought China's help with the election. "Absolutely untrue," he said. "Never happened. I was there. I have no recollection of that ever happening. I don't believe it's true. I don't believe it ever happened."
Trump allies have previously accused Bolton of trying to sell books with incendiary claims, noting that he was paid $2 million for the memoir and refused to testify during Trump's impeachment proceedings. Democrats were upset with Bolton at the time, saying he had even declined to produce an affidavit in the Senate trial, for unclear reasons. On Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who led Democrats' impeachment effort, slammed Bolton in no uncertain terms.
"Bolton’s staff were asked to testify before the House to Trump’s abuses, and did," Schiff tweeted. "They had a lot to lose and showed real courage. When Bolton was asked, he refused, and said he’d sue if subpoenaed. Instead, he saved it for a book. Bolton may be an author, but he’s no patriot."
The White House has repeatedly challenged Bolton's credibility, and The Federalist's Sean Davis pointed out that Bolton advanced false narratives in the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003. A string of resurfaced video clips earlier this year led Trump to tweet "GAME OVER!" -- including an interview of Bolton in August 2019 where he appears to have no issues with Trump foreign policy concerning Ukraine or any other nation. The interview seemingly contradicted assertions in Bolton's book that Trump explicitly told him he wanted to tie military aid to Ukraine to an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden. (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his communications with Trump involved no pressure for any investigation.)
At one point in his memoir, Bolton makes reference to edits made to his book as a result of the prepublication review process, as he accused the president of soliciting foreign election help during a June 29, 2019 meeting with Xi in Osaka, Japan.
"Xi told Trump that the U.S.-China relationship was the most important in the world. He said that some (unnamed) American political figures were making erroneous judgments by calling for a new Cold War with China," Bolton wrote, according to an excerpt reviewed by Fox News. "Whether Xi meant to finger the Democrats or some of us sitting on the U.S. side of the table, I don’t know, but Trump immediately assumed that Xi meant the Democrats."
That's when, according to Bolton, the conversation took a troubling turn.
"Trump then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win," Bolton wrote. "He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trump’s exact words, but the government’s prepublication review process has decided otherwise."
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