Bolton Ripped for Reportedly Dropping Impeachment ‘Bombshell’ in New Book

The New York Times reports that former National Security Advisor John Bolton said President Donald Trump told him he wanted military aid to Ukraine linked to an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in his forthcoming book .

The report led to a new round of calls for senators to subpoena Bolton as a witness in the Senate trial.

In a series of tweets, Trump denied that he told Bolton he wanted to link aid to an investigation of the Bidens.

"I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book."

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1221663763138588672

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1221663764971491329

News of the reportedly "bombshell" content of the book didn't sit well some commentators.

CNN analyst Asha Rangappa suggested that Bolton may have refused to testify before House impeachment investigators because it would have hurt his book sales.

https://twitter.com/AshaRangappa_/status/1221766391730262017

Conservative commentators suggested that Bolton's book was designed to hurt the president politically:

https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1221637010709983232

https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1221637940184567810

https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1221646735380008960

https://twitter.com/MZHemingway/status/1221645444926836736

https://twitter.com/BuckSexton/status/1221647548143804416

https://twitter.com/redsteeze/status/1221647166122295296

https://twitter.com/brithume/status/1221644943342567424

https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1221646196705378304

Bolton refused to testify in the House probe, telling lawmakers he would take a subpoena to court to decide whether he must comply. But recently, he said he would comply with a subpoena to testify in the Senate's impeachment trial.

On Monday, Trump sent out a misleading tweet that suggested House Democrats did not ask Bolton to testify — and therefore missed their window to hear testimony from him.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1221764212873224193

The House did ask Bolton to testify, but after he vowed to fight it in court they decided against pursuing his testimony.

Democrats have called for Bolton to testify in the Senate trial, but that would require a simple majority of senators to vote to call him as a witness.

It is unclear whether the details from Bolton's book will sway enough Republican senators to vote to subpoena Bolton.