PUBLISHED TO
On Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement
containing a number of digs at his former colleague John Bolton. After
admitting that he had not read the book, Pompeo wrote, “It is both sad
and dangerous that John Bolton’s final public role is that of a traitor
who damaged America by violating his sacred trust with its people.” Now,
now, boys, don’t fight. You’re both traitors who have damaged America.
But even if John Bolton is a perennial rat bastard, celebrated coward, and title thief (spoiler: he’s all that and more), that doesn’t mean there’s not some information inside in his list of things he should have told Congress. Among the things that Bolton kept ‘stached when he should have been speaking up was Trump’s relationship with China—a relationship that included Trump begging China to shape a trade deal to maximize his chances of reelection. The reason that information is getting a shout-down from Pompeo, is the same reason it’s proving interesting to Joe Biden.
On Friday, the Department of Justice lost their case to prevent the publication of Bolton’s book, a case that rather ignored the fact that the book has already been published, and that thousands of copies have been distributed to reviewers and news organizations. The text is still under embargo—except for those snippets that have been released by arrangement with Bolton’s publisher to encourage sales—but the book definitely exists in both warehouses and bookstores, awaiting its official release. It’s clear that William Barr is involved in yet another exercise of attempting to please Donald Trump through treating the DOJ like his personal legal firm. It’s also clear that it’s pointless.
Meanwhile, as the Associated Press reports, one of those scanning a copy of Bolton’s tome is Biden, and what he’s finding inside provides plenty of fodder when it comes to Trump and China. In both his 2016 campaign, Trump made repeated claims that Democrats had been “weak” on China and that U.S. trade had suffered from giving too much power to Beijing. Trump has also made multiple attempts to float a conspiracy theory that Biden and his son Hunter somehow got “billions” from China for … something, something.
On Thursday, Biden’s team got an opportunity to flip those charges on their head when Bolton’s book contained scenes of Trump begging Chinese party leader Xi to be nice to him, and even encouraging China to place millions in concentration camps to get on the good side of the communist government.
Biden adviser Ron Klain called the information in Bolton’s book “the most noxious and hateful cherry on top of a sundae that already existed” when it comes to Trump bowing to demands of the Chinese government. “We have seen for three years that Donald Trump has curried favor with authoritarian regimes that are willing to help him personally and politically,” said Klain.
Trump has repeatedly painted himself as being “tough” with China, but that image absolutely melts in the face of Bolton recalling Trump saying that building concentration camps “was exactly the right thing to do” and Trump explicitly hoping for China’s help to get reelected.
But Trump’s staff will surely have some new explanations of how Trump stood up to tell China to throw people in prison for religious beliefs or racial heritage, and how Trump toughly begged for their help.
But even if John Bolton is a perennial rat bastard, celebrated coward, and title thief (spoiler: he’s all that and more), that doesn’t mean there’s not some information inside in his list of things he should have told Congress. Among the things that Bolton kept ‘stached when he should have been speaking up was Trump’s relationship with China—a relationship that included Trump begging China to shape a trade deal to maximize his chances of reelection. The reason that information is getting a shout-down from Pompeo, is the same reason it’s proving interesting to Joe Biden.
On Friday, the Department of Justice lost their case to prevent the publication of Bolton’s book, a case that rather ignored the fact that the book has already been published, and that thousands of copies have been distributed to reviewers and news organizations. The text is still under embargo—except for those snippets that have been released by arrangement with Bolton’s publisher to encourage sales—but the book definitely exists in both warehouses and bookstores, awaiting its official release. It’s clear that William Barr is involved in yet another exercise of attempting to please Donald Trump through treating the DOJ like his personal legal firm. It’s also clear that it’s pointless.
Meanwhile, as the Associated Press reports, one of those scanning a copy of Bolton’s tome is Biden, and what he’s finding inside provides plenty of fodder when it comes to Trump and China. In both his 2016 campaign, Trump made repeated claims that Democrats had been “weak” on China and that U.S. trade had suffered from giving too much power to Beijing. Trump has also made multiple attempts to float a conspiracy theory that Biden and his son Hunter somehow got “billions” from China for … something, something.
On Thursday, Biden’s team got an opportunity to flip those charges on their head when Bolton’s book contained scenes of Trump begging Chinese party leader Xi to be nice to him, and even encouraging China to place millions in concentration camps to get on the good side of the communist government.
Biden adviser Ron Klain called the information in Bolton’s book “the most noxious and hateful cherry on top of a sundae that already existed” when it comes to Trump bowing to demands of the Chinese government. “We have seen for three years that Donald Trump has curried favor with authoritarian regimes that are willing to help him personally and politically,” said Klain.
Trump has repeatedly painted himself as being “tough” with China, but that image absolutely melts in the face of Bolton recalling Trump saying that building concentration camps “was exactly the right thing to do” and Trump explicitly hoping for China’s help to get reelected.
But Trump’s staff will surely have some new explanations of how Trump stood up to tell China to throw people in prison for religious beliefs or racial heritage, and how Trump toughly begged for their help.
No comments:
Post a Comment