On Wednesday, President Trump’s former national security advisor, John Bolton, made a public appearance alongside Obama’s former national security advisor, Susan Rice, at Vanderbilt University, where he blasted the Democrats’ ”grossly partisan” impeachment against Trump, and downplayed the impact of the testimony he would have had on the outcome of the impeachment vote.
According to Bolton, the House “committed impeachment malpractice.” He added that “the process drove Republicans who might have voted for impeachment away because it was so partisan.”
Bolton also revealed that he was surprised the Senate voted against him testifying, but dowplayed the impact his testimony would have had anyway. “People can argue about what I should have said and what I should have done. I would bet you a dollar right here and now, my testimony would have made no difference to the ultimate outcome.”
Susan Rice was critical of Bolton for his silence. “I can’t imagine withholding my testimony, with or without a subpoena,” she said. “I also can’t imagine, frankly, in the absence of being able to provide that information directly to Congress, not having exercised my First Amendment right to speak publicly at a time when my testimony or my experience would be relevant.”
Bolton still refused to divulge details about his forthcoming book, which perhaps suggests that the information he has is nothing new, and doesn’t contain any evidence of actual wrongdoing by President Trump. We still haven’t seen actual excerpts from the book, and since Bolton believes that his testimony wouldn’t have changed the outcome, it’s probably safe to say when the book does come out, a lot of people who pre-ordered it expecting it to be Trump’s downfall will be very disappointed.
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Matt Margolis is the author of Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama’s Legacy and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis
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