Former Rep. Trey Gowdy blasted former White House national security adviser John Bolton’s upcoming book and its attempt to whistleblow on alleged corruption in the Trump administration.
Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor and South Carolina Republican, said Bolton hinted it wasn’t a difficult task to make his claims in a book rather than publicly state concerns he had during his tenure working under President Trump.
“John Bolton’s argument now is that Trump is unfit for office and should be removed, that he’s committed high crimes and misdemeanors,” Gowdy said Wednesday on The Story with Martha MacCallum.
“He had a chance to go before the House, he didn’t do it. He had a chance to go before the Senate, he didn’t do it. He had a chance to come on your show or some other host’s show and answer tough questions, but no; for $29.95, he’s going to save you from this existential threat to our republic.”
Bolton makes several assertions in his book about Trump’s alleged misconduct, including a claim about him asking Chinese President Xi Jinping to buy large amounts of agricultural products to improve his reelection prospects in agriculture-reliant states.
Gowdy’s sentiment was also echoed by Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff, who stated that Bolton had a chance to speak out when he had been subpoenaed during the House impeachment hearings.
Bolton also volunteered to testify in front of the GOP-led Senate when the impeachment hearings moved to that chamber, but critics claimed that his motives could have been because of the small chance he would be called.
“He ain’t being cross-examined,” Trey Gowdy said. “He’s sitting in his pajamas, pecking away on his iPad. The power of cross-examination is you actually have to withstand the cauldron … withstand the heat of being questioned on it.”
“I mean, anybody can write a book and make assertions. Can you answer questions under cross-examination from the House or the Senate? And apparently, he couldn’t because he didn’t,” Gowdy concluded.
