The release of excerpts from a book by fired National Security Adviser John Bolton reveals much more about Bolton than about President Trump.
As is always the case when money is to be made, Bolton (who claims he resigned) makes allegations about the president designed to titillate the ‘Orange Man Bad’ crowd.
One of the most scurrilous of the claims relates to an alleged conversation that the president had with Chinese President Xi Jinping, supposedly asking for help with Trump’s 2020 reelection bid. Both U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney say such a conversation never occurred.
BOLTON FACES BACKLASH FROM LEFT AND RIGHT AS BOOK EXCERPTS LEAK: 'SHIRKED HIS RESPONSIBILITIES'
In an excerpt of Bolton’s book published Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal Bolton wrote: “In their meeting in Osaka on June 29, [2019] 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 … 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. 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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Lighthizer, who was in the room for the meeting Bolton discusses told the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday that the allegation is “Absolutely untrue, 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.”
Lighthizer concluded that Bolton’s allegation was “completely crazy.”
LIGHTHIZER DENIES BOLTON CLAIM THAT TRUMP ASKED CHINA’S XI FOR 2020 HELP: ‘NEVER HAPPENED. I WAS THERE’
Bolton, for his part, was so “stunned” that he hung around for more than two months after the supposed comment to be unceremoniously fired for repeatedly urging the president to get the United States into several military conflicts around the world.
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America is at a crossroads. China is engaged in a wholesale assault on our nation. The Chinese government is attacking the dollar as the world reserve currency, infiltrating our nation’s universities and laboratory system, stealing our intellectual property, and coercing U.S. multinational corporations to become China’s political and legislative advocates.
It’s an indictment on John Bolton’s character that in an environment where Marxists are burning our cities he is seeking to destroy the only person standing in China’s way – President Trump.
Bolton’s massive ego was hurt when the president fired him. And the former national security adviser has been offered a small fortune for a “tell all” book. But this does not justify him effectively providing aid and comfort to the enemy out of spite.
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It is a shame that someone with a distinguished career like Bolton would be so wrapped up in his own ego over being fired that he would gaslight the president with clear lies.
Sadly, the Bolton book writes the epitaph on his political tomb: “Turned his back on his country when America needed him most.”