Posted on 06/22/2020 9:16:48 AM PDT by Kaslin
Two authors can play at that game. On the heels of former national security advisor John Bolton's already infamous book, "The Room Where it Happened," about his time in the Trump administration, where he accuses the president of using Ukraine and China to boost his re-election chances, former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has penned her own book, called "Speaking for Myself." Because of the current news cycle, she thought it would be a perfect time to share an anecdote from her book about Bolton. And it ain't pretty.
The following story, she says, proves that Bolton is a man "drunk on power."
(Warning: the following excerpt contains graphic language)
Full excerpt from my forthcoming book “Speaking for Myself,” about John Bolton, a man drunk on power who ultimately betrayed America when he didn’t get his way... “That evening the United States hosted the reciprocal dinner at the Winfield House, the US Ambassador’s residence...— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) June 22, 2020
Earlier in the trip, the Winfield House had been the site of a nasty fight between senior White House officials. To prepare for every foreign trip we had daily operations meetings and briefings leading up to the trip itself...— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) June 22, 2020
She continues:
"The UK state visit had lots of moving parts and one area of concern was that there would not be a presidential motorcade to and from most events, because the president would predominantly be traveling on Marine One. The UK security team was allowing one small staff motorcade and based on their protocol they’d designated it for National Security Advisor John Bolton. In one of the prep briefings Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Walsh asked Bolton’s team to be sure to wait on the senior White House staff vehicles traveling to the Winfield House...so they could be part of Bolton’s motorcade and not get stuck in traffic. Bolton’s team acknowledged the request. As he did on many of our foreign trips, Bolton had a separate agenda and often arrived and departed on a different plane because he didn’t want to travel on Air Force One with the President and his team. Bolton apparently felt too important to travel with the rest of us. It was a running joke in the White House.
"As we were ready to depart for the Winfield House we loaded onto a small black bus...On board were Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Senior Advisor Stephen Miller, Senior Advisor Dan Scavino, Walsh and me. Based on US protocol, Mnuchin, Mulvaney and Walsh all outranked Bolton...Mnuchin, one of the highest ranking officials in government, far outranked him. We waited at the hotel but there was no sign of Bolton or his motorcade. After a while we gave up and headed to the Winfield House to meet the president...
"While en route, UK police directed us to pull to the side of the road because someone was coming through...we looked over to see who it was and sure enough here came Bolton and his motorcade. We waited and watched as Bolton sped by and left us in the dust...The discussion on the bus quickly moved from casual chit chat to how arrogant and selfish Bolton could be, not just in this moment but on a regular basis. If anyone on the team should have merited a motorcade it was Mnuchin, but he was a team player...
"Bolton was a classic case of a senior White House official drunk on power, who had forgotten that nobody elected him to anything. Often Bolton acted like he was the president, pushing an agenda contrary to President Trump’s...When we finally arrived at the Winfield House, Mick Mulvaney, typically laid-back and not one to get caught up in titles or seniority, confronted Bolton and unleashed a full Irish explosion on him. He lit into him in a way I hadn’t seen him do to anyone before...
"Mick made clear he was the chief of staff and Bolton’s total disregard for his colleagues and common decency was unacceptable and would no longer be tolerated. “Let’s face it John,” Mick said. “You’re a f—— self-righteous, self-centered son of a b——!” That epithet really didn’t have much to do with the motorcade, but was the culmination of months of Bolton thinking he was more important and could play by a different set of rules than the rest of the team. Bolton backed down and stormed off...
"The rest of us looked on and nodded in approval, proud of Mick for standing up for us. Mick even got a few high fives from officials thrilled someone had put Bolton in his place.”
After reading the juicy excerpt, several of Sanders's social media users said they were immediately pre-ordering her publication.
President Trump and other current administration officials have dismissed Bolton as a liar, with the president adding on Twitter on Monday that his former national security adviser is a "wacko." And the Democrats hate him too. Last week Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Bolton of refusing to testify during Trump's impeachment trial so he could "self-servingly" save some details for his manuscript and perhaps sell a few more copies.
Let the battle of the books begin.
What did Trump see in this a-hole?
Why isn’t Bolton at Gitmo for lying about WMDs and conspiring against the American public in PNAC?
With Trump and his Team Bolton has burned his very last bridges in Washington D.C.
Oh, sure, he’ll be called by the likes of Schiff, for whatever the Dims can get out of Bolton’s words; but Bolton has seen his last federal office appointment from any Republican or Democrat.
Here's an illustration of why that makes sense:
If you refuse to launch a major military campaign against Iran while Jane Fonda is your National Security Advisor, you’re a wimp. If you make that same decision with John Bolton as the NSA, you come across as assertive — while at the same time demonstrating to the world that you’re better than the miserable failures from the Bush family who came before you and spawned this @sshole with a mustache who is standing behind you at all your media announcements about foreign/military issues.
I said on another thread yesterday:
“I can’t believe how wrong I was about this guy.
Probably the most significant misjudgement of character I have EVER made or likely will EVER make.”
I remember lots of FReepers singing praises for Bolton years ago.
Same with President George W Bush.
Romney, too.
They hadn’t shown their true colors yet.
That POS is dead to me. It is one thing to be the tough guy, quite another to be a narcissist jerk.
Trump has said one of the reasons he chose Bolton was because it was well known how trigger happy he was. It would keep foreign leaders guessing. Plus the Dems hated the guy. In short Bolton was used as a prop. Sucker!
President Trump operates in an open forum of ideas. He wants people to lay it all out and compete. He loves that type of debate before him.
He decided to give Bolton a chance and resurrect him. It was a good play overseas to put fear into the bad actors. Of course, Bolton became unhappy when he couldn’t get a war.
So, here we are.
Bolton is a deranged psychopath and complete ass-hat.
His signature “achievement” was the disastrous Iraq invasion, the biggest foreign policy screw up in the history of the United States.
The fact this loser has never been held to account for his failures is why he is such an arrogant piece of filth.
Having Bolton at the NSA was an absolute disgrace. All this b.s about 3D chess and striking fear in enemies by having a nut in power was the worst sort of balderdash
I've asked that of many that Trump appointed who later went on to stab him in the back.
I think, being an outsider and not a career politician, he did not, early on, see that politics is the life blood of DC and there are many who will play that at the expense of working for their President (a.k.a. deep state)
I'm with ya. I really thought highly of him.
He's managed to alienate both parties and most world leaders.
Trump needs to refer to him as Lord Ramsey, as this Bolton is just as prone to war and violence as the Game of Thrones reference.
He saw what I thought I saw — a protege of the great Jeanne Kirkpatrick, who, as it turns out, was actually not even fit to carry her briefcase.
I like how Mnuchin comes across here. The reason he doesn’t need motorcade games is because he’s had an extraordinary career outside of government, and is here to serve. He could buy a fleet of planes, if he wanted.
But Bolton? Not so much.
Don’t feel bad; a lot of us did.
I’m right there with you. :(
My President wanted to start his administration with a rabid hawk, to contrast the previous whimpery administration. Bolton served his purpose and was duly discarded ... the President no longer needed an a-hole lying rabid hawk.
“If you make that same decision with John Bolton as the NSA, you come across as assertive”
—
Yup - a figurehead who, in actuality, contributed nothing else of worth. Something like the wizard of Oz.
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