Dem Congressman Slams Bolton for Coyness on Testifying: Only Cares About Selling His Book, ‘Period, Full Stop’
Congressman Denny Heck (WA) slammed former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton for continuing to play coy about telling the public about the president’s attempts at a Ukraine quid pro quo and instead teasing those details will be revealed in his upcoming book.
Speaking with CNN’s Kate Bolduan, Heck condemned Bolton for flip-flopping about his willingness to testify to the House and Senate, respectively, after a blockbuster revelation from Bolton’s book — that Trump personally directed military aid to Ukraine be withheld to until a corruption probe of Biden was announced — was leaked after the Senate trial began. Heck, who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, also defended the committee’s decision to not subpoena Bolton for his testimony during the impeachment probe to avoid a extended legal battle.
Bolduan began her interview with Heck by pointing to Bolton’s latest cryptic comments at a talk at Duke University.
“That would be John ‘please buy my book’ Bolton,” Heck snarked. “Look, Kate, the truth of the matter is that anybody that thinks that any public utterance by John Bolton or private utterance, for that matter, or any action on his part is designed to do anything than sell more copies of his book is frankly just being naive. That has been the case from the get-go. We told him we would subpoena him. And he said, ‘I will not respond to that until the court orders me to.’ He had every opportunity to voluntarily come forward. He refused, despite the fact that many others did. What John Bolton is interested in, frankly, is selling as many copies of his book as he can. Period. Full stop.”
Bolduan, keying off Heck’s frustration, noted that when Bolton was asked at the Duke appearance about the reported excerpt from his book about Trump and military aid, he demurred and merely said “You’ll love Chapter 14.”
“What is stopping him from speaking out? He says the threat of legal action from the executive branch. Do you believe it?” Bolduan asked.
“No, and it’s simply not true. It’s categorically untrue,” Heck replied. “The last three years, what we’ve seen is wholesale degradation of norms and degradation of institutions. Despite the latter, we’ve been fortunate that individuals have been willing to step up and frankly act in profiles in courage.”
“Do you care what he has to say at this point?” Bolduan asked.
“Sure. I think the American people deserve to hear from somebody who was in the room about what it is that President Trump ordered Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and others at the office of budget to do in the form of withholding aid to Ukraine.”
“Why not subpoena John Bolton?” Bolduan pressed, alluding to calls for the House to follow up on what the Senate refused to do.
“Because his most recent position is that ‘I will only do it if the court forces me to,'” Heck reiterated. “And that’s just an unending series of playing rope-a-dope with him for which there’s no constructive purpose served. The truth of the matter is again, I want to repeat it, I want to reiterate it, Kate. This is all about John Bolton selling more copies of his book. If he wants to do the patriotic thing, he can do it today, right now. He could have done it yesterday. He should.”
Watch the video above, via CNN.
