The View Bludgeons John Bolton for Three Segments: ‘You Never Said a Word Until Someone Gave You $2 Million’

The View hosts pressed Former White House national security adviser John Bolton for holding onto the revelations detailed in his memoir until he got a $2 million book deal, pushing him to answer why he didn’t testify during President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

“Mr. Ambassador, you were working for Trump for 17 months, and you write about all this horrible stuff you saw go on, and yet you never said a word until someone gave you $2 million to write a book about it,” Joy Behar said before adding that he could only redeem himself if he would now testify under oath.

Bolton claimed he was not scared to testify under oath regarding the illegal and controversial incidents he witnessed while working in the White House, explaining that he did not participate in the impeachment trial because he did not agree with the Democratic House’s process and leadership.

“I felt very strongly and still do that the way the impeachment process was carried out was needlessly partisan, and doomed to failure,” he said. “My view was that if you are going to get this information out, it had to be done the right way, and the way they were proceeding, I think, would have guaranteed much of what I said in the book, simply would have been ignored.”

Hosts Sunny Hostin and Whoopi Goldberg continued to press him on his decision not to testify in front of Congress during the president’s impeachment trial and questioned what he knew about Trump’s relationship with Ukraine.

“Ambassador, when it comes to Ukraine, you had to say that Trump told you directly that he did not want to send them any military aid until they turned over materials related to Clinton and Biden,” Hostin said.

“And you claimed Trump’s true intentions were widely understood, widely understood among White House staffers, the Pentagon, and the intelligence community. In fact, you tried eight to ten times to get him to unfreeze the aid. So once and for all, can you tell us whether there was a quid pro quo in your view?”

Bolton explained that Trump wanted information on the Bidens and the Clintons from Ukraine in return for unfreezing the hold on their aid.

Goldberg asked Bolton why he didn’t “step up” during the trial, and guessed that it was because he knew the impeachment was going to fail.

Bolton again remarked on the partisan nature of the trial and noted that it devolved into a “shouting match,” adding that “the possibility of Republicans being open to considering impeachment was gone in effect already.”

He noted that Republican Senator Jim Buckley was the first to suggest that President Richard Nixon should resign in the 1970s, and explained that a bipartisan effort would have been the only way Trump’s impeachment trial would have succeeded.

“Yes, but John Bolton, the way that most people thought of you, they thought you were the man. You could have stood above the fray and said, this is not good,” Goldberg pushed back.

The hosts continued to hammer Bolton on the topic — albeit in a manner that was not overly hostile. Hostin noted that Bolton was in the room for many questionable or impeachable actions he’s accused the White House of having carried out. She added that Bolton is the “reason President Trump is still in office and wasn’t impeached.”

Bolton insisted again that his input would not have made a difference during the trial because of the partisan nature of Trump’s impeachment.

Watch above, via ABC.

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