Former National Security Adviser John Bolton on Wednesday said that he wasn’t surprised about the backlash he’s gotten from President Trump and former administration officials over his damning tell-all book.
When asked about the Bolton-bashing bandwagon that has followed the bombshell revelations in his book recounting his time in the Trump administration, the former national security adviser replied that he’s “not worried about that” and that the criticisms didn’t surprise him. Bolton has faced criticism the President, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, among others.
“With respect to the criticisms, I assumed they were coming,” Bolton said. “I believed that the President would respond the way he did and I’m not going to answer and comment.”
Bolton argued that Trump’s recent irate responses to his book “degrade the office of the presidency” and that it would be unproductive for him to answer “the same way.”
“That’s something that all Americans should prize,” Bolton said. “I long for the day when these two-minute hates from the White House stop, but I don’t think I improve the situation by answering the same way. I may be wrong on that, but that’s the way I feel.”
Bolton’s remarks come as the President continues to tear into him with recent tweets calling his former national security adviser “a lowlife who should be in jail” and saying Bolton “will have bombs dropped on him.”
On Saturday, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth rejected the Justice Department’s emergency request to block the release of Bolton’s tell-all book. Lamberth said that the DOJ had not proved that the order it was seeking “would prevent irreparable injury” and that “there is no restoring the status quo” now that “the damage is done” with hundreds of thousands of copies of it distributed globally.
Bolton pointed his finger at Trump for the government’s crusade against his book in court filings by calling the White House’s handling of the book “a determined political effort to suppress” his speech.
Watch Bolton’s remarks below:
Former national security adviser @AmbJohnBolton on Pres. Trump’s criticism to his new book: “I assumed they were coming.”
“This response and many other things he said degrade the office of the presidency. That’s something that all Americans should prize.” https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/E3881fN12F
— The View (@TheView) June 24, 2020
