Peter Baker at the New York Times has a copy of John Bolton’s book about his time in the Trump administration. Baker shares some of the goodies with us.
There is the usual evidence that Trump is a fool:
Mr. Trump did not seem to know, for example, that Britain is a nuclear power and asked if Finland is part of Russia, Mr. Bolton writes. He came closer to withdrawing the United States from NATO than previously known. Even top advisers who position themselves as unswervingly loyal mock him behind his back. During Mr. Trump’s 2018 meeting with North Korea’s leader, according to the book, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slipped Mr. Bolton a note disparaging the president, saying, “He is so full of shit.”
Also, Bolton is the smartest person in the room. This is standard Bolton.
The book confirms House testimony that Mr. Bolton was wary all along of the president’s actions with regard to Ukraine and that Mr. Trump explicitly linked the security aid to investigations involving Mr. Biden and Hillary Clinton. On Aug. 20, Mr. Bolton writes, Mr. Trump “said he wasn’t in favor of sending them anything until all the Russia-investigation materials related to Clinton and Biden had been turned over.” Mr. Bolton writes that he, Mr. Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper tried eight to 10 times to get Mr. Trump to release the aid.
On the one hand, Bolton seems like an unreliable narrator. He came to the post of National Security Advisor from a checkered career that usually involved pissing people off, liberals more than conservatives. On the other, he is very bright (a friend who briefed him confirms this) and, in his way, devoted to what he believes is the truth. Along with his penchant for warmongering, that includes a fair bit of political acumen.
He refused to testify in the impeachment hearings, and the Republicans covered for him in the trial. The only reason for that seems to be so that he could save the goodies for his book.
Good advice on how to read the book, and the many excerpts you will see from it over the coming week:
So how should one approach Bolton’s book?
The best answer is to treat the book—and its author—bloodlessly, as a source of information that needs to be evaluated with due consideration for the source but without an instinct to either valorize or condemn. Bolton has a story to tell. It is very likely a story worth hearing. To absorb it implies no heroism or redemption for the man. It is not an embrace. It is possible to hear his story while maintaining one’s disdain for his behavior. The relationship is transactional.
Update: Josh Dawsey at the Washington Post has a copy too!
Open thread!
BruceFromOhio
Like when you pay a hooker that you cheated on your wife with?
SiubhanDuinne
Apologies for going O/T at the top of the thread, but any minute now the Fulton County DA is going to announce whether, and what, charges he’ll bring against the cop who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks.
Nicole
I am not interested in doing anything that will put money in his pocket. Hard pass.
Ryan
Well, Finland being a part of Russia is understandable. For a Russian stooge.
germy
@SiubhanDuinne:
Ryan
@BruceFromOhio: Also too, like you withhold government disaster assistance from a state led by a governor who disagrees with you.
SiubhanDuinne
As for Bolton, I don’t plan to buy his book — I really don’t like the fact that he refused to testify apparently solely so he could make money off of what he knew, and I don’t want to reward him with my money — but I agree that he probably really does have some good stories to tell, so I expect to read with avidity all the reviews and analyses that are guaranteed to appear over the next couple of weeks.
jeffreyw
The good stuff will come out. Read it on the twitter.
jl
I forget if it was a Josh Marshall tweet or an Onion headline, but Bolton is blaming Democrats for not impeaching Trump for stuff he kept secret and refused to divulge.
germy
@jl: Only Democrats have agency.
Jess
This line from Elmore Leonard: Beautiful things happen when you plant the seeds of discord in a garden of assholes.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
whether once or consistently.
Obvious Russian Troll
Bolton might have been the smartest person in the room.
Which terrifies me.
Baud
Bolton is finished in government. He doesn’t matter. The only question is how this book can be used to defeat Trump and the Republicans.
dr. bloor
One should approach the book with the technological tools to digitize and release it into the wild as quickly and as far as possible, so we may bloodlessly assess Bolton’s information without boosting his sales numbers.
Cheryl Rofer
Read both articles. There’s a lot in them.
The Washington Post has more than the Times.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Colbert held up a copy the other night.
Capri
Count me on Team Hard Pass
Is there anything that sums up the current administration and GOP more than the fact he declined to help his country so that he could monetize what he knew.
Cheryl Rofer
@Obvious Russian Troll: Bolton is quite intelligent. The problem is how he uses that intelligence.
Cheryl Rofer
I’m not buying the book either. After a youthful enthusiasm for this kind of book, I realized that their value fades in months. So I don’t buy any of the transient political books.
And this one in particular, because I don’t want to reward Bolton, and all the good stuff will come out on Twitter.
Kay
@Nicole:
I just keep waiting for some form of accountability for these people and I never get it. It’s important to me. They’re never, ever punished. They just keep rolling along, getting richer and richer, while the country burns.
It destroys your faith in the institutions that employ and promote them. It just has no connection whatever to merit. Bolton is bad- he’s a bad actor and he behaved terribly and yet here he is again, personally profiting.
donnah
With a tell-all, one should always consider the source. I was not a Bolton fan because he’s always presented himself as a know-it-all with some aggressive stances about global war. I didn’t like him then and I don’t like him now.
I also wouldn’t buy his book because he played his hand poorly in the impeachment process and while we’ll never know if his testimony would have made a difference, he took a chance that it wouldn’t. He held back to boost his sales.
I’ll read excerpts with interest but also with a grain of salt. I know that Trump is a piss-poor human and an unfit president, so that won’t be news. Everyone knows it. But some specifics will be interesting and might explain some of Trump’s actions and plans with Russia and China.
Crashman06
I just don’t see how this will have any impact at all except giving us a few laughs. Setting aside Bolton’s unreliable narrator problem, everyone knows Trump is a clueless idiot. His supporters don’t care or think they can take advantage of it and his detractors don’t need more examples. What’s the point?
Martin
@dr. bloor: I can say with some experience with textbooks, googling “John Bolton The Room Where It Happened pdf” will almost certainly get you a useful result within a few days of publication.
Since Simon and Schuster is also publishing Mary Trump’s book, buy that so they get at least some of the coin they deserve.
Kay
I think Biden’s campaign can probably use the information about Trump and China.
Just pick one or two of the scandals and flog the hell out of them. In that sense it might be somewhat useful to the country.
Yutsano
I’m out of clicks at the FTFNYT so I’m going with the Dawsey write up. And REEEEEALLY fuck Bolton. He should have had the balls to at least go when the subpoena came down. Instead he’s spilling all this shit now. If Pelosi was the least bit vindictive she’d haul his butt into open session then have him be repeatedly asked why the House is having to pay for this information instead of him disclosing what he knew as a public servant. Then again she might, since he has no reason to fight it now.
Martin
@Crashman06: A lot of Trumps supporters have comparable loyalty to Bolton. That’s the point – this is a wedge in the GOP.
MattF
Bolton has no friends and no allies– and apparently doesn’t believe he needs any. He might, after all, have to share credit with a friend or ally. It’s a zero-sum assumption– more for someone else means less for him. He’s smart, but hasn’t figured out that zero-sum assumptions will generally lead to zero-results.
Kay
@Crashman06:
The specifics of Trump’s interactions with China are bad, and since the Trump campaign plan is to tie Biden to China I think Joe Biden can use the information to harm Trump. But that’s all it’s good for.
JWR
@germy:
Watching it live on broadcast TV. The decision on charges, (or none), about to be announced.
mrmoshpotato
John Bolton can go fuck himself all the way from here to Timbuktu. And they won’t want him, so he can continue to go fuck himself to the middle of one of the oceans. (His choice)
Nicole
Boy oh boy, do I hear you on that one. I’ve become so bitter over the past years watching these terrible, terrible people tear apart the country and end up profiting by telling their story afterwards. It really makes me angry. No consequences whatsoever. They fail upwards their whole lives.
Crashman06
@Martin: I mean, are we sure of that? Not to be critical and I certainly could be wrong but I just don’t see that at all.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
Republicans have no notion of patriotism or the public good.
As far as his book, I used to read insider tell-all books like this, but nowadays I barely have the emotional strength to keep up with the daily news. Next book I read will be for fun.
Cheryl Rofer
@Kay: Trump encouraged Xi to build more concentration camps for Uighurs in Xinjiang. That should be useful for the campaign, and I’m sure there is more along the theme of “Trump sold America out.”
I think some of this will be useful in figuring out what is going on with other countries, for those of us who follow such things closely.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
Promoting persecution of religious and ethnic minorities all over the world, Trump sure knows his brand.
JMG
All the top stories in the book will be revealed in the public domain, so why buy it. All political memoirs have the same two titles. It’s either “How I Did It!” or “If Only They’d Listened to Me.”
laura
The whole saving it for my book/personal profit from Bolton or a passel of reporters is bullshit. Not one dime.
It cannot come as any kind of surprise to anyone that Bolton had multiple opportunities to divulge what he knew. Instead he hid behind the wide ass of Mitch McConnell and so the president was not tried and removed for his actions in Ukraine and probably every other nation because a shakedown artist shakesdown whenever an opportunity presents itself. Trump is a brokeass joke. His organization is broke. His adult children’s boo’s are on the payroll of the campaign. They’re the griftiest fucks imaginable. And all of it is A-OK by the republican party Full Stop.
Bolton book bargain bin
And while Baud may be right about Bolton’s government career being over, I’ll eat a bug if he isn’t the darling of the green room on “all the shows.”
Martin
@Crashman06: The goal isn’t to peel off 100% of Trumps supporters. 3% and he loses the election. That’s all it takes. A lot of GOP voters are worried that this election is a choice between winning the next 4 years while losing the next 40, and losing the next 4 years and having a shot down the road. Bolton represents the long game, and some GOP voters play the long game.
mrmoshpotato
More like this, please.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
Withholding information pertinent to national security for the sake of monetizing it should be a crime.
Martin
@laura: The House begged him to testify and he refused, because dumping the book contents in open testimony would have hurt sales. He should be tried for contempt of Congress.
MisterForkbeard
I’ll echo everyone else here: No need to buy the Bolton book. He’s profiting off a book instead of doing his actual patriotic duty and testifying when it could have made a difference.
If you feel the need to get a tell-all get Mary Trump’s book, but even that isn’t something I’m hugely comfortable with.
Barbara
The headline of Dawsey article:
So I think we now know why Trump is so pissed at China. And trying to undermine Biden by calling him weak on China or whatever the gambit is — it really is projection every day in every way, isn’t it?
joel hanes
Anyone who once chose to hang out with Pam “Atlas” Geller should not be trusted.
eric
@Jess: Raylon Givens (just re-binged watched Justified last week).
raven
Damn, murder and a laundry list of others.
david
The idea that John Bolton testifying at the impeachment trials would have changed even one solitary vote is laughable. The Dems knew they had the votes in the House; the GOP knew they had the 52 locked up in the Senate. Bolton not being there meant nothing; Bolton being there would have meant nothing. There was no “difference” to be made. And, quite frankly, there’s nothing he can say in his book that will mean a thing.
Barbara
Trump wanted to pull out of NATO putatively over money:
It has a Dr. Strangelove kind of quality, “Do you want to do something historic?”
Cheryl Rofer
zhena gogolia
@jeffreyw:
No way in hell would I buy this book.
JoyceH
@Cheryl Rofer: “I’m not buying the book either. After a youthful enthusiasm for this kind of book, I realized that their value fades in months. So I don’t buy any of the transient political books.”
I’m not going to buy it either, but I think this book’s value is more than the usual revelations. The added impact is the effect it’s going to have on Trump himself. The news that all of his closest aides and advisers talk about him behind his back, and in a disparaging manner, is going to make him crazier and more paranoid than he already is.
Betty
@Cheryl Rofer: Exactly. If he is so smart, why did he he join this loser in the first place?
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: 11 charges of felony murder, is what I just heard. WOW, they are not fucking around with this one.
ETA: Oops, raven says it’s one.
JWR
OT Warrants issued in the killing of Rayshard Brooks. Damn straight! One of the cops actually stood on the body instead of rendering medical assistance.
raven
@Miss Bianca: One charge of felony murder. The rest are aggravated assault and such.
eric
I am not sure that there is anything stopping the House from calling him to testify under oath about the contents of the book after it is in the public domain. There should not be any claim of executive privilege. You get to air the Lincoln Project commercials with sworn testimony rather than an excerpt from a for-profit book. Seems like a win fucking win for Biden to me
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: This type of situation is what God made libraries for.
JWR
@raven: And the non-shooter cop has agreed to turn state’s evidence. (Is that the right term?)
raven
@JWR: Yea or cooperating witness I guess.
Baud
@JWR: Damn.
joel hanes
@Yutsano:
Pelosi [could] haul his butt into open session
I believe that Bolton has taken the position that he won’t work with the (Democratic) House, even to the extent of refusing House subpoenas — he claims that he would have told all to the (Republican) Senate had they called him as a witness, but alas! as they did not, he had no choice but to allow the conviction/removal trial to fail.
JMG
@Betty: Bolton is arrogant enough to have thought that while Trump was dumb, he, Bolton, could easily manipulate him. He didn’t account for Trump’s narcissism.
Martin
@david: That is to grossly miss the point of an investigation or trial. The point is to get the truth out. Maybe it wouldn’t have changed any votes – maybe it would have lead to an expanded investigation with more witnesses.
But to have Bolton accuse the House of malpractice for not expanding charges which he himself had evidence for while refusing to honor a subpoena, and then to profit off of both sides of the situation – not testifying and then criticizing the House for not having him testify – is complete bullshit.
The truth always matters, even when the jury is corrupt. Some would say especially when the jury is corrupt, because how else do you show the jury is corrupt?
Cheryl Rofer
@JoyceH: Look for very active tweeting.
@Betty: Bolton’s intellectual capacity is impressive, I’ve been told by people who have interacted with him. He also comes with a large stock of arrogance, which can propel people into bad decisions.
laura
@JWR: I believe the legal term of art is “The guy who stood on the victim as he died to ensure he died instead of rendering aide” cut a deal/is cooperating.
The victim had spent the day preparing for his little girl’s birthday party the next day. That’s a lasting memory that no one in his family will ever get over. Not money, not the passage of time, just the pain of living with the needless murder of an irreplaceable loved one and the constant reminder that his murder was videotaped and available for viewing.
Cheryl Rofer
The Times review of Bolton’s book is now out. If you’ve been saving your Times clicks and really don’t like John Bolton or enjoy a thorough hatchet job, you will want to splurge on this one.
Baud
@laura:
Which is sadly the only reason there’s a possibility for justice.
zhena gogolia
@raven:
In your previous comment, I thought you were saying that Bolton accused Trump of murder, and I’m like, “I’d better get over to WaPo stat!”
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
Eleven counts total, including felony murder. Other charges include aggravated assault, criminal damage to property, and violations to his oath of office.
dmsilev
@Cheryl Rofer:
Raven
@zhena gogolia: Sorry
Nora Lenderbee
So Bolton supplies no meaningful new information and reveals himself to be exactly as we suspected?
SFAW
@david:
First of all, I have no doubt that Susan Collins would have become even more concerned, and she would have furrowed her brow even more deeply. Just before voting to acquit, of course.
Second, I agree that the actual conviction/acquittal vote would likely not have changed. But had Bolton displayed any kind of patriotism or ethics, the ones who voted to acquit would have had a “heavier lift” this November. They already have the Murderer-in-Chief/Racist-in-Chief hanging around their necks. Having the Traitor-in-Chief — based on the (hypothetical) Bolton testimony — as well, might have led some not-completely-nuts RWMF voters to either peel off, or perhaps stay home. Hopefully in KY and SC; Moscow Mitch would really find it to be an albatross. [Although I think he’ll still win.]
Betty Cracker
It’s hard to tell what the Trump campaign’s strategy for attacking Biden is because they’re all over the place: Biden is senile and yet a corrupt mastermind, he’s pro-crime bill and yet a radical socialist who will defund cops, blah blah blah. But to the extent that they have a plan, painting Biden as soft on China was part of it, so if Bolton’s book makes that harder to pull off, good.
Jeffro
@MisterForkbeard: Mary’s book, now THAT one I’m probably buying.
Just to savor it every 48-72 hours from now ’til November. =)
SiubhanDuinne
@Cheryl Rofer:
Wow! That’ll smart.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Microtargeting to different sets of voters. The crime bill attack, for example, is aimed at discouraging progressive voters, while defund the cops is to turn out GOP voters.
laura
@dmsilev: Dana Carvey does a wicked impression of Bolton. My impression is that he’s a too clever by half and considers himself the be the smartest man in the room regardless of the room and that he’s had a raging war boner for Iran since forever and has been thwarted in his efforts to gin up said war accross multiple administrations.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jeffro:
I pre-ordered my copy of Mary’s book earlier this afternoon.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah, the “feckless mastermind tyrant Dem president” thing is one of their go-to attacks. They did it with President Obama as well. The RWMF base is too fucking stupid to understand that it’s self-contradictory.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
These are the same people who gave us “Obama, feckless tyrant.”
trollhattan
@Baud:
My hunch is body cameras will become popular with “civilians” since cops never seem to have theirs turned on.
The revolution is being televised.
BruceFromOhio
@Cheryl Rofer:
Ego kills talent.
Barbara
@Martin: Bullshit is a nice way to put it. What it shows first and foremost is that far from being patriotic, Bolton is keen to show that he is still playing in the Republican end of the swimming pool. That’s why he would have testified if subpoenaed by the Republican controlled Senate, but not the Democratic controlled House. Castigating the House for not going far enough in its process but keeping mum on what happened in the Senate. He is worse than even I thought he was and that’s saying something.
eric
@trollhattan: make it a crime for an officer to demand that a civilian stop recording an encounter.
Baud
@trollhattan:
I can see cameras becoming a standard feature in cars.
Apple is supposed to be trying to make augmented reality eyewear a thing. Perhaps that will also be a source 9f evidence.
eric
what a shock…QAnon candidate is racist.
Miss Bianca
@dmsilev: Yeah, just got to that part. Whoo!
West of the Rockies
@Martin:
You are correct. The Bolton book may lead to Trump losing a few hundred votes here, a couple thousand there. Another 50,000 Covid deaths will cost him more still. His Lafayette Square fiasco and infirm West Point appearance and everything else that happens will damage him.
He will lose. He has about 200 days of power and freedom and adulation left. And then his life will fade to ash and ruin.
Jeffro
@trollhattan: the proliferation of cellphone cameras as a major factor in all of the recent police brutality incidents, leading to all the protests, has only been mentioned once or twice that I’ve seen.
I know it’s everyone’s ‘new normal’ and kind of has been for some time, but it really is what has made the difference here, both in terms of the initial deaths like Floyd’s that sparked the protests, and the revulsion people are feeling when seeing all these police departments go in and crack heads.
Betty Cracker
Regarding the charges against the Atlanta cops, do any of our resident lawyers think a prosecutor can make that charge stick? .
Betty Cracker
@dmsilev: LOL!
Jeffro
@SiubhanDuinne: I’ll go do that now as well!
GOP, yer goin’ down in November…let us know if you want us to run those impeachment charges by you all again… ;)
Rand Careaga
@donnah:
Spoiler: It wouldn’t have. Trump could have raped and strangled an entire daycare center on the Senate floor an hour before the vote, and Lisa Murkowski might have voted “present.” Susan Collins would have furrowed her brow very deeply indeed before she voted to acquit.
Glad I could clear this up for you.
Roger Moore
@Crashman06:
There is a difference between knowing someone is a clueless idiot and getting the details of what they’ve done. For example, we know Trump sucks up to dictators, but it’s still shocking that he endorsed Xi jinping’s decision to build concentration camps in Xinjiang.
Bex
@Miss Bianca: Support your local library!
catclub
I am pretty sure that Elliot Abrams is back in the State Department.
HumboldtBlue
These are the “Raging Grannies,” an social justice activist group that’s been around since the 80s.
Ruckus
@Kay:
All of this. Evil is no longer accountable. Theft, corruption, bigotry, total incompetence, rancid self serving economics, political views out of the most vile times in history, ignoring the political job they ran for by all of the above… Yep you are right evil is no longer accountable.
eric
@Betty Cracker: i think you will see an ask for change of venue, hoping to go to a whiter jury pool. that will matter a lot
catclub
… but a year from now, case gets thrown out? for reasons? We shall see.
Barbara
I think the House should subpoena Bolton specifically to ask him to explain the “other” impeachable offenses they should have been investigating.
Ken
Well, that should make the next cabinet meeting fun.
jonas
I could never figure out for the life of me why Trump even appointed Bolton NSA in the first place. Bolton was the quintessential neocon hawk. There hasn’t been a part of the world he didn’t think we should bomb and occupy just to show we can. Trump loves the jingoistic bluster and the occasional show of force, to be sure, but his instinct is to avoid protracted conflict or major military commitments, mostly because he can’t control events — waging war isn’t “making a deal” — and the generals running it would get more attention than him. As near as I can figure, someone (Jared? Kelly?) told him making Bolton a prominent adviser would “own the libs” or something. I doubt Trump even knew who he was.
JPL
Candidate trump made clear that he had no problems dealing with dictators, so the support for concentration camps didn’t surprise me at all. I did find it odd that he thought Finland might be part of Russia.
OT If you are looking for something to stream, Bordertown is good.
mrmoshpotato
Krope, the Formerly Dope
Not that he truly seeks to make deals with other countries either. He expects negotiating partners to accept one-sided terms that only benefit
the USa select segment of the US.jonas
That’s my take as well. He knows what side his bread is buttered on. Or rather, maybe he *thinks* he knows. Right now, Republicans hate him for (further) exposing the president as a corrupt moron. Never Trumpers can’t forgive him for staying silent during the impeachment. He’s gonna be in a lonely place for a while. And deservedly so.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: Thank you for your post about the Custer March. I looked up Custer County’s 2016 vote totals: 67% Trump, 26% Clinton. I live in a red county, but it’s nothing like that.. Your march may not change people’s minds, but it may make them think. Those that can think. And that was some good journalism on your part.
Barbara
@jonas: It’s a think tank play — the organizations that are made up of unelected people who are probably horrified by Trump but too beholden to the Republican Party to make an actual fuss. Especially in the area of national security.
catclub
here’s another wackdoodle trump wants to nominate for the #3 post at Defense.
and my question is not “why did Trump nominate him?” it is “How the fuck did this guy have a 28 year service career that ended with a distinguished service medal???”
Ken
This from the campaign that has all their hats, and the family that has all their fashion knockoffs, made in China.
jonas
@david: I agree there is no way Bolton’s testimony would have changed the vote, but it certainly would have added another degree of shamelessness to each acquittal. We would have known (potentially) that the Ukraine call was not an exception, but that Trump was *routinely* using US foreign policy, and sometimes undermining the US’s position, to advance his own personal political interests. It would have been damaging.
Elizabelle
@jonas: Wasn’t Bolton constantly on Fox News, sounding bombastic? Fox News is cred, in Trump’s small mind.
Calouste
@JPL: Finland was part of Russia for about 100 years until 1917. I’m sure the shitgibbon’s boss thinks that things should be like they were in those days. Cf. the Crimea.
Poe Larity
@catclub: Elliot has been in charge of bringing freedom to Venezeula.
piratedan
gotta admire the hurbis that it takes to blame the Dems for actually going forward and impeaching the President and then refusing to answer the subpeona to help cement the case and then blame them for not getting the job done. Can see where the example for the ‘Not My Responsibility” administration gets it blueprint.
Ruckus
@Cheryl Rofer:
So he’s a typical human with above average intelligence and a way above average view of himself and his own value. Sounds vaguely familiar to narcissism. Don’t we know of another, quite possibly much higher level narcissist involved in politics at the moment?
Calouste
@jonas: Bolton is 71. I’m sure he’ll be happy with just the company of the advance for this book for a while.
Fair Economist
@Cheryl Rofer: I only buy books like Bolton’s as a way to reward the author and do my tiny bit to stoke interest. Not doing either for Bolton.
piratedan
@Ken: that’s the tack that we’re seeing in AZ with the current run of McSally ads, trying to paint Biden and Kelly as being tools of the Chinese who took all of our jobs away, while honest Martha McSally is fighting to bring those manufacturing jobs back to America. So, not only did Biden and Kelly fuck up your economic situation, they’re patsies of the Chinese spreading disease to make America Less Great.
Remains to be seen how many people buy that bullshit…
Jinchi
I’ve never understood the argument that there was no point in conducting an impeachment, because we all knew there would never be an honest trial in the Senate. A significant number of civilian employees put their careers on the line, knowing that Trump was unlikely to be convicted, and yet also knowing that our democracy relies on people making the effort.
It matters that the whistleblower brought the crime to the attention of the IG. It matters that the IG moved the investigation forward. It matters that Yovanovich, Vindeman, Hill and Taylor stood against Trump’s orders and testified against him when called to do so. It matters that the House laid out evidence proving the case clearly to the public. It matters that Mitt Romney broke with his party and voted to convict.
It would have been easier for each of them to hunker down and wait for everything to blow over.
Impeachment laid down a marker – this is a step too far. It stripped Trump and the Republican party of all legitimacy. Watching them fail again and again, as they refuse to confront the pandemic, the collapse of the economy and race relations, simply reinforces that verdict.
Bolton’s refusal to testify under subpoena in the House, while simultaneously writing a book on the events in question and asking to testify in the Senate demonstrated that he was not one of the heroes. Just another opportunistic Trump appointee, with some vague sense that someone else should do something to get our government back under control.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@piratedan:
If recent polling in AZ is anything to go by, not very many. Kelly is beating McSally by almost 10 points as of 6/2 according to the RCP average
Baud
@piratedan:
Given the polling I’ve been seeing out of AZ, not that many.
ETA: Shakes fist at Goku.
JPL
Why would his asking China for help, be any different to republicans than say Ukraine and Russia? It wouldn’t and if I were running, I’d point out that everyone who voted against impeachment is complicit.
Martin
@jonas: Right. Remember, even if we couldn’t get the Senate to agree that Trump was corrupt, every member of the Senate goes up for reelection, so the impeachment evidence becomes a trial of each Senator. How they handle Bolton’s evidence is a potential campaign ad against them.
This is why the GOP did 17 trials of Clinton – it was all for campaign ads against her and against Democrats that supported her.
When Dems throw up their arms and say ‘what’s the point’, you’re missing the fucking point. Not only does that in the near term provide support for your party, you don’t know what it holds in the long term. 2021 might be the full airing of Trumps crimes once there is no administration to hide it all, and history may look back on this period much differently, and there will be these looks back to see how obvious was it that these things were happening, and how hard did partisans try to not see that. We do that ALL THE TIME with Watergate and other pivotal moments in History, and Democrats that say ‘why bother’ are simply surrendering the long game entirely.
NotMax
@JPL
Yup on your OT. Also Roba.
Baud
Remember, the GOP senators not only voted to acquit, they voted against calling witnesses, including Bolton.
Ruckus
@BruceFromOhio:
Just a personal observation but I noticed that while Bolton is probably smarter than a number of republican political people, he seems to have blind spots the size of TX in his views. So ego, which he has no shortage of, is certainly a reason for his problems, I’m not sure he’s ever really had all that much talent. To me talent in politics requires one to learn from events. Bolton seems to never, ever do that. He seems to have preconceived notions of what’s required to change a situation and it’s always one answer, military force. That makes him a republican, not a smart person.
Martin
tl;dr version of my previous post:
“The long arc of history bends toward justice” only works when you surface the injustices. That was the whole fucking point of the civil rights movement. LBJ didn’t go all-in on civil rights until the TV was filled with police attacking protestors with dogs. It needed to be aired. OJ went free, but in hindsight, nobody believes he was innocent. The jury in the Rodney King trial found the officers not guilty, and look at the moment we are in now.
You have to surface the wrongdoing now, even if justice doesn’t come for 20 years.
JMG
Many of those GOP Senators who voted to acquit are already planning to run for President in 2024. They will be subject to constant attack asking them to prove THEY’RE not seeking foreign assistance to their campaigns, since they voted that was perfectly OK for Trump.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
Great minds think alike ; )
Elizabelle
At the very least, had Bolton come forth earlier, the stonewalling about not allowing impeachment witnesses might have been a real problem for the Republicans.
But: I think a lot of them will lose their Senate and House seats this fall. They can decide if grandstanding during the impeachment of the worst president ever was worth it.
It was already known that Wuhan was experiencing an epidemic, while impeachment hearings were going on.
A lot of these Republican senators are directly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. Personally. Because a President Pence is unlikely to have actively sabotaged the federal response, as Trump did, and you would have taken princeling Kushner out of the business of waylaying shipments of vital PPE.
They knew what a terrible president Trump is. The sane ones (and they exist) know what a danger he poses. They were clucking about it behind the scenes, putting out stories that if only it was a private vote …. because these Republicans are cowards and enablers.
Burn them.
Brachiator
Say it plain.
But of course, Trump’s base is a textbook case of denial. They love their God Emperor. He’s the greatest. He got bizniss man skills. He chooses the best people.
But whenever Trump dumps a staffer, the base sex, “that guy or gal was the worst ever, you can’t trust anything they say!”
It all goes round and round… never quite flushes.
JPL
@NotMax: thanks for mentioning Roba and I’ll save it to my list.
Hungry Joe
One of the first things I remember hearing about Bolton is one of the worst things you can hear about anybody: “He’s a kiss-up, kick-down kind of guy.”
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
The attacks don’t have to be coherent or self-consistent. The people who buy this stuff have never had a problem believing that, say, Obama was simultaneously an incompetent boob the entire world laughed at and a devious mastermind who coordinated the entire world’s attacks on Trump. The important part is saying the target is a bad person, and the details of what makes them bad are just noise.
Martin
Y’all will be shocked to learn that the QAnoner that won a House primary in Georgia is racist. Guessing her district is sufficiently gerrymandered that Dems don’t stand a chance, but surfacing this race nationally will put a lot of pressure on other Republicans to denounce their own candidate or support her batshit views.
Martin
@Hungry Joe: Find a Republican that isn’t.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
This tautology is a proposition that must be true as the conclusion reached is an affirmation of the condition that supported it.
Kathleen
@Cheryl Rofer: Today is the 5th anniversary Dylan Roof’s massacre of nine African Americans who were praying in church. I juxtapose his treatment at his arrest (he was still alive so he could be arrested) and after (Burger King!) with these monstrous crimes police are committing against African Americans innocent of wrongdoing and the obligatory “what if an African American man killed 9 white people in church”.
I found out yesterday the nephew of a friend was one of the African American men who was hanged in California.
RandomMonster
The best way to approach this book is to not pay for it.
ET
The author is not exactly a neutral narrator. He comes to this with an agenda. His rehab but also his side of the story. But a few points can’t be avoided.
Mike in NC
So Bolton and Pompeo both cynically knew all along that negotiating with North Korea was a yuuuuge waste of time and taxpayer money, but they did it anyway to soothe Fat Bastard’s megalomania and further their own agendas. About as Republican as you can get.
Geminid
@Martin: There will be a runoff for that Georgia house seat. Cue-anon Lady got 45%, the runner up ~25%, but Georgia and national republicans will go all out to keep her out. The seat is now held by idiot Doug Collins, who is running against Kelly Loeffler for Senate. That race has a jungle primary with a runoff in January.
Miss Bianca
@Geminid:
Aww, shucks. Thanks!
Roger Moore
@Martin:
IIRC, the QAnon candidate has not yet won her primary. She failed to get 50+% of the vote in a multi-way primary, so there will be a run-off. Now that all her craziness has come out, it’s possible the voters will decide to go with the other candidate. Not likely, but possible.
Benw
My plan is to buy a copy, so Bolton thinks he’s gettin those sweet royalty $$, then return it for a full refund! FOOLED YOU BOLTON
Central Planning
I have no interest in buying the book, but if I did, I would wait for a used copy to show up on Amazon or Barnes & Noble so Bolton doesn’t get any money for it.
ETA – or maybe borrow it from the library
Kathleen
@Ken: I have to admit I laughed out loud when I read Bolton’s account of Kelly’s reaction to something stupid Jared did. Kelly reportedly said, “Why did Jared call Mexicans?” I’m still laughing. Don’t know why that struck me as so funny. I’m seeing in my mind’s eye an befuddled 50’s sitcom dad whose son sneaked off to watch movies at the drive in instead of studying for next day’s chem final. “Honey, why did Jared watch Indians at the Mexican drive in?
“Why Did Jared Call Mexicans” would be perfect name for neo punk band or BJ rotating tag.
catclub
@Jinchi: well put. I agree.
cain
@Ryan:
That question was really if he should be supporting finland or not. The stupid git. His loyalties are always towards Russia, he’s a fucking manchurian candidate.
raven
@Martin: fuck lbj
cain
@Baud:
I think that’s exactly what that book was about – he knew that as soon as he opened his mouth; he was toast. So that book is his retirement money going forward.
mrmoshpotato
The Lincoln Project has bitchslapped the traitorous Soviet shitpile mobster manbaby again.
Chyna
Fuck Rick Wilson, etal but these ads are good.
mrmoshpotato
Hindsight my ass! Some of us believed OJ was a murderous motherfucker way before the trial.
Just Chuck
@mrmoshpotato: Wow that was the most damning one yet. I think they’re saving up their Russia ammo.
Martin
@Baud: it won’t. It won’t have a camera. The AR glasses are not designed to detect the stuff you and I can already see, but display information that we cannot see.
Calouste
@Martin: Google tried that with Google Glass. Turned out people didn’t like being filmed somewhat sneakily.
Bill Arnold
@Jeffro:
Another factor is that the protests have been almost entirely non-violent, and with impressive mask discipline.[2]
The evil fucks on the right were counting on violent protests, and sometimes even provoking violence. They didn’t get the violence they so desperately wanted so that they could run on law-and-order-and-crackdowns-on-dissent.
We need to keep it that way.
Recording everything, all the time, is a part of that. Every protester who’s carrying a cell phone [1] should be recording video or at least audio of the events.
[1] There are privacy reasons not to, given the vindictive nature of the RWNJs, and some of the authority orgs particularly the police when the protests are anti-(bad-)police.
[2] a lot of the looting and vandalism aside, after the protests. And some of it happened opportunistically because police were decoyed by/ focused on the protests
Bill Arnold
@mrmoshpotato:
“Trump even begged Chinese leader Xi to help him win the re-election, like a dog”.
I’ll be watching for reactions to that dig. (Trump thinks of dogs as threats/not-friends, so that’ll fester in his mind for days.)
Ruckus
@cain:
If that’s his retirement he can fucking live off of social security. Like all the people his party fucked and are fucking worse as we speak.