As all 528 pages of John Bolton’s manuscript winds its way throughout Donald Trump’s impeachment hearing, fact after fact keeps emerging. None of them out of The Room Where It Happened has favorited the president. A brand new fact put a real thorn in the side of Donald Trump’s defense.
Just last September, then-National Security Adviser (NSA) John Bolton came to the House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Eliot Engel (D-NY). He wanted the chair to check out why the career Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, a highly qualified career employee in difficult regions, had been recalled.
Meanwhile, Trump twitter-bombed Bolton:
‘For a guy who couldn’t get approved for the Ambassador to the U.N. years ago, couldn’t get approved for anything since, “begged” me for a non Senate approved job, which I gave him despite many saying “Don’t do it, sir,” takes the job, mistakenly says “Libyan Model” on T.V., and..’
The most powerful man in the world tweeted that Bolton’s book was “nasty & untrue:”
‘…many more mistakes of judgement, gets fired because frankly, if I listened to him, we would be in World War Six by now, and goes out and IMMEDIATELY writes a nasty & untrue book. All Classified National Security. Who would do this?’
Ambassador Yovanovitch took a phone call in the middle of the night, urging her to leave on the next flight out of Kyiv, Ukraine. Trump’s smear campaign via his personal attorney had not halted the ambassador from fighting corruption in the country. Her security was in danger.
There had been no need for Yovanovitch’s good name to be smeared. The president had it in his power to recall her with one phone or one letter. Engel released his statement mentioning that Bolton had come to him about his committee’s oversight duties.
Engel said according to The Talking Points Memo:
‘Ambassador Bolton suggested to me — unprompted — that the committee look into the recall of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.
‘He strongly implied that something improper had occurred around her removal as our top diplomat in Kyiv.’
The chair said he informed his investigative colleagues on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Intelligence and Oversight Committee. He had remained quiet until Bolton’s manuscript hit the Senate:
Engel only stepped forward when the impeachment trial appeared to be headed toward a blocked road. The Bolton manuscript revealed his memory of a conversation he had with Trump regarding the military aid Ukraine.
‘President Trump is wrong that John Bolton didn’t say anything about the Trump-Ukraine Scandal at the time the President fired him. He said something to me.’
The book stated that the president told Bolton that he wanted to withhold military assistance, a full 10% of the Ukrainian military’s budget. Finally, last September a whistleblower courageously stepped forward making the Congress aware of the commander-in-chief’s illicit activity.
Trump’s acolytes in the Senate were exposed to the president’s raw acts when Bolton’s book emerged. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), the second most powerful Republican senator, was tasked with saying in essence: nothing here to see. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said:
‘I don’t know what we could learn. We’ve heard all we could possibly hear.’
The New Yorker magazine wrote:
‘These senators already look like patsies and enablers. If Bolton repeated what is reportedly in the book for all the world to see and hear, it would make them look like blithering idiots as well. Who else would have agreed to countenance Trump’s preposterous defense—that his real concern was corruption inside Ukraine?’
Senate Minority Leader Charles (Chuck) Schumer (D-NY) said:
‘I hope we have just four Republicans. All we need is four,” he said. At another press conference, Adam Schiff, the leader of the House managers, said it was clear that the President’s lawyers were “still reeling from the revelations of John Bolton’s book.’
Trump’s former Chief of Staff John Kelly announced he believed the former NSA John Bolton’s account:
‘Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and the rest of Trump’s Republican enablers now find themselves. “Mortifying” is another word that could be used. Rarely, if ever, has a political blood oath—in this case, a pledge to acquit a crooked President regardless of the evidence against him, and without even bothering to call any witnesses—rebounded so horribly, publicly, and spectacularly. Like Trump, when the whistle-blower’s complaint originally emerged, McConnell and his colleagues have been caught in the act. And it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving bunch.’
Fox talk-show host Sean Hannity was concerned:
‘The problem is it’s a Times story. How often did this New York Times get things wrong?’
Twitter world took off after these tweets. Check out some of our favorites below:
Featured image is a screenshot via Twitter.The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
