Bolton urges Republicans to ‘purge the taint of Trumpism’

Former national security adviser turned Trump critic John Bolton urged his party to “purge the taint of Trumpism,” saying Monday that President Donald Trump was a dangerous historical anomaly for Republicans.

“There has to be a serious conversation in the Republican Party about how to remove the taint of what Trump has done, how to repair the damage,” Bolton told MSNBC’s Katy Tur. “And while I think the damage is considerable, I think it can be repaired, and it should be repaired. And it should be — from the purely limited perspective of the party, it should be the highest priority going forward.”

Bolton also predicted Trump’s influence will decline substantially following last week’s storming of the Capitol. The veteran Republican official added he felt his views on removing Trumpism from the party was widely shared among his peers.

Bolton called Trump an “aberration in American politics,” and pushed back on the idea that the whole Republican Party was responsible for Trump’s behavior and repeated dismantling of norms.

“I don’t think you can attribute Trump to everybody else,” Bolton said. “To try and blame everybody else, I think, is simply more Washington politics. The focus here should be on the real problem, the center of the problem, and that’s Donald Trump.

Bolton urged Republicans to be more stringent in selecting their presidential nominees, ensuring they have “real character” and “a real philosophy, as opposed to people like Donald Trump.”

When asked if he felt Republicans who supported Trump’s false claims of widespread election malfeasance — the driving ideology behind Wednesday’s Capitol attack — Bolton said he doesn’t “see any reason why they shouldn’t be held accountable.” Tur asked specifically about Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, who led the Senate efforts to challenge the Electoral College results, but Bolton demurred on issuing individual judgments.

“I think individual Republicans are going to have to make decisions whether they support individuals who have participated in this effort to stop the election from being certified. And I think there’s a lot that remains to be seen from their behavior,” Bolton said.

Bolton has been vocal about his dismay at his time in the Trump White House. In his post-mortem book, “The Room Where it Happened,” Bolton portrayed Trump as unfamiliar with basic facts and driven above all by reelection — often leading to instances that Bolton said warranted investigating by the 2019 House impeachment probe. The White House tried to stop the book’s publication in the courts at the time, but were unsuccessful. The book was released last June.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/11/bolton-trump-gop-republicans-457735
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Matthew Choi

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Trump calls Bolton ‘one of the dumbest people in Washington’ after former aide weighs in on martial law report

President Trump blasted John Bolton as “one of the dumbest people in Washington” after his former national security adviser expressed alarm over a report that Trump considered a suggestion to implement martial law….

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/531034-trump-calls-bolton-one-of-the-dumbest-people-in-washington-after
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Zack Budryk

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Bolton: ‘Trump is throwing rocks through windows’

Former White House national security adviser John Bolton on Sunday blasted President Donald Trump for continuing to contest the Nov. 3 election results, accusing his former boss of mounting political damage.

“I think Trump is throwing rocks through windows,” Bolton said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I think he’s the political equivalent of a street rioter.”

Breaking tradition, Trump has refused to concede to his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, and launched numerous legal challenges to the election results.

At this point, Trump has “given up on the legal issues,” Bolton said, pointing out that Trump’s campaign has lost almost all of the legal challenges it has brought around the country.

“I think what he’s trying to do now is sow enough confusion that he can break through what’s called the ‘safe harbor’ provision in the Electoral College process,” Bolton said. “I think he’s playing for as much time as he can, hoping that something will happen.”

“This is not a legal exercise anymore,” Bolton said. “As we saw on Friday, when the Michigan legislators were called to the Oval Office, this is now an exercise of raw political power.”

Still, it’s unlikely that electors could go against election results and vote for Trump over Biden. Many states have laws that punish or prevent electors from voting against the chosen candidate, and state parties tend to choose party loyalists as electors.

Appearing separately on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said he was “embarrassed that more people in the party aren’t speaking up” against Trump’s actions to influence electors.

“I thought the pressuring of the legislators to try to somehow change the outcome with electors was completely outrageous,” Hogan said. “We were the most respected country with respect to elections. And now we’re beginning to look like we’re a banana republic.”

Hogan acknowledged that a fear of reprisal from Trump could be a factor in Republicans not speaking up against the president.

“We all know how vindictive the president can be, how powerful his Twitter account is, and how he can really pressure Republicans and go after them,” Hogan said. “Very few of us are willing to stand up.”

But the number of critics is growing, he added. “And I think the others are quietly talking and telling the president their advice about what he should do. He’s just not following any of the advice.”

Both Bolton and Hogan expressed confidence that Biden will be sworn in as president on Jan. 20.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/22/bolton-hogan-trump-election-damage-439250
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Maya Parthasarathy

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Bolton calls on GOP leadership to label Trump’s behavior ‘inexcusable’

Former national security adviser John Bolton is calling on Republican Party leadership to condemn President Trump’s post-election behavior as “inexcusable” for the sake of the GOP. Bolton during …

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/527070-bolton-calls-on-gop-leadership-to-label-trumps-behavior-as
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Justine Coleman

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Bolton book sells 780,000 copies in first week, set to surpass 1M copies printed

John Bolton’s new memoir about his stint as President Trump’s national security adviser has sold more than 780,000 copies in its first week to top The New York Times and Amazon top-seller lists, with publisher Simon &…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/media/505594-bolton-book-sells-780000-copies-in-first-week-set-to-surpass-1m-copies-printed
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Joe Concha

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Bolton says he would have personally briefed Trump on Russian bounties

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton told CBS’s “The Takeout P…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/505498-bolton-says-he-would-have-personally-briefed-trump-on-russian
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The Article Was Written/Published By: J. Edward Moreno

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Bolton: U.S. should consider ‘very severe measures’ over reports of Russian bounties

Former national security adviser John Bolton on Sunday said the United States should consider “very severe measures” against Russia if reports are true that a Russian military intelligence unit offered bounties for Afghans to kill Americans.

“Underlining the word if on whether it is true, I think you’ve got to consider a number of strong measures against Russia,” Bolton said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The former official, who is making the rounds of TV networks while promoting his new book, criticized President Donald Trump’s tweet in response to the New York Times article, which broke on Friday.

“Nobody briefed or told me, @VP Pence, or Chief of Staff @MarkMeadows about the so-called attacks on our troops in Afghanistan by Russians, as reported through an ‘anonymous source’ by the Fake News @nytimes,” the president tweeted Sunday morning. “Everybody is denying it & there have not been many attacks on us.”

Russia has also denied the allegations.

Bolton said the story, if true, “is one of the most serious matters I think that has arisen in the Trump administration.”

“I’ve been puzzled over the tweet of the president saying, ‘I don’t know anything about this,’” he added. “The fact that the president feels compelled to tweet about the news story here shows that his fundamental focus is not the security of our forces, but whether he looks like he wasn’t paying attention.”

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Bolton expanded on his point: “I think the answer may be precisely because active Russian aggression like that against the American service members is a very, very serious matter and nothing’s been done about it, if it’s true, for these past four or five months, so it may look like he was negligent but, of course, he can disown everything if nobody ever told him about it.“

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/28/john-bolton-severe-measures-reports-russia-bounties-342990
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Victoria Guida

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Bolton on Trump denying he was briefed on bounties on US troops: ‘Just another day at the office in the Trump White House’

Former White House national security adviser John Bolton said Sunday that a tweet from President Trump denying he had been briefed on reported Russian bounties placed on U.S. troops in Afghanistan was typical behavi…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/504905-bolton-on-trump-denying-he-was-briefed-on-bounties-on-us-troops-just
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Rebecca Klar

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John Bolton says he hadn't realised how 'bad' Trump would be

US president’s ex-advisor explains why he voted for him in 2016, and would not again

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/john-bolton-trump-book-room-where-it-happened-stephen-colbert-a9582891.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Gino Spocchia

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Bolton claps back at Colbert: You’ve ‘really insulted me’ by calling me ‘naive’

John Bolton took exception to CBS “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert calling him “naive” for going to work for the Trump administration, with the former national security adviser explaining that he thought it was possible t…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/media/504261-bolton-claps-back-at-colbert-youve-really-insulted-me-by-calling-me-naive
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John Bolton denies reports he would vote for Joe Biden after saying he cannot support Trump

Former US national security adviser says Donald Trump is not fit to be president

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/bolton-trump-joe-biden-vote-2020-election-a9578741.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Rory Sullivan

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John Bolton’s book, packed with dirt on Trump, is out tomorrow

John Bolton, challenged as to why he reserved his claims about Trump’s behavior for a book deal, has a grimly convincing excuse: revealing them during his former boss’s impeachment trial wouldn’t have made any difference because his party controls the Senate. American voters are the only jury with the power to get dispose of him.

The book, out Tuesday, is titled The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir [Amazon] and promises to be a blockbuster. It bears real dirt and was made sensational after the administration suddenly moved to block its publication. A judge ended that effort, remarking that the horse was out the barn, and it truly is: some of the key claims have already generated headlines and the book itself has leaked widely.

Some key claims:

As revealed in an taster posted last week, Trump asked President Xi Jinping of China to help him win the 2020 election. “I would print Trump’s exact words,” Bolton writes, “but the government’s prepublication review process has decided otherwise.”

Trump gave personal approval to China’s detention of at least 1m Uighur muslims in concentration camps: “According to our interpreter,” Bolton writes, “Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do.”

Trump regularly says outrageous things to get more important stories out the news. In one example, he defended Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi to get Ivanka Trump’s use of private email servers out of the news. It worked: “This will divert from Ivanka. If I read the statement in person, that will take over the Ivanka thing.”

Trump wants to be president for life. “Xi said he wanted to work with Trump for six more years, and Trump replied that people were saying that the two-term constitutional limit on presidents should be repealed for him,” Bolton writes. “Xi said the US had too many elections, because he didn’t want to switch away from Trump, who nodded approvingly.”

His cronies, such as Mike Pompeo, casually mock him behind his back. Bolton relays a remark from the Secretary of State that Trump “is so full of shit,” written on a notepad during negotiations with North Korea.

Trump thought it would be “cool” to invade Venezuela and steal its oil: Second-hand from John Kelly (“Trump doesn’t care what happens to these guys. He says it would be ‘cool’ to invade Venezuela.”) and first-hand that “we should take the oil in Venezuela after ousting Maduro.”)

The supposed “adult” handlers were self-serving morons who turned Trump into a paranoid freak. On the John Kellys of the White House, Bolton is scathing:

The axis of adults in many respects caused enduring problems not because they successfully managed Trump, as the High-Minded … have it, but because they did precisely the opposite. They didn’t do nearly enough to establish order, and what they did do was so transparently self-serving and so publicly dismissive of many of Trump’s very clear goals, (whether worthy or unworthy) that they fed Trump’s already-suspicious mind-set, making it harder for those who came later to have legitimate policy exchanges with the President.

The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir [Amazon]

Source: https://boingboing.net/2020/06/22/john-boltons-book-packed-wi.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Rob Beschizza

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Bolton says Trump proposed intervening in SDNY investigation of Turkish bank

Former national security adviser John Bolton said in an interview set to air Sunday that President Trump proposed intervening in the Southern District of New York’s (SDNY) investigation of a state-owned Turkish bank…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/503788-bolton-says-trump-proposed-intervening-in-sdny-investigation-of
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Justine Coleman

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READ: Judge’s order denying DOJ request to block Bolton book

A federal judge on Saturday denied the Trump administration’s request t…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/503704-read-judges-order-denying-doj-request-to-block-bolton-book
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The Article Was Written/Published By: The Hill Staff

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Mulvaney on Bolton book: ‘Excerpts that I have seen have been factually false’

Former acting White House chief of staff and U.S. special envoy for Northern Ireland Mick Mulvaney on Friday claimed that excerpts from former White House national security adviser John Bolton’s new book are “factually fa…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/news/503535-mulvaney-on-bolton-book-the-excerpts-that-i-have-seen-have-been-factually-false
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Marina Pitofsky

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Trump news – live: President lashes out at John Bolton after explosive memoir alleges foreign policy mishaps as Facebook removes his ad for 'violating organized hate policy'

Follow the latest updates

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-news-live-us-coronavirus-update-2020-election-today-latest-a9572406.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Joe Sommerlad, Chris Riotta, Alex Woodward

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Bolton: Putin thinks ‘he can play’ Trump like a ‘fiddle’

Former national security adviser John Bolton said in a new interview to promote his new memoir that has rocked Washington that Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks he “can play” President Trump like a “fiddle.”A…

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/503332-bolton-putin-thinks-he-can-play-trump-like-a-fiddle
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Justin Wise

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