Bolton: Important for Americans to understand what Donald Trump really is
Former National Security Adviser John Bolton speaks out about working in the Trump administration.
"Real Time" host Bill Maher admonished former White House national security adviser John Bolton on Friday night for refusing to back Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election despite just publishing a book slamming President Trump.
Citing examples from, "The Room Where It Happened," Maher noted that Bolton claims he didn't approve of Trump's "coddling" of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and referred to Trump's Ukraine scandal as a "drug deal."
"Yet you won't vote for Biden," Maher said. "You say you won't vote for Trump but you won't vote for Biden.
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"How could Biden be worse?" Maher asked. "What could the Democrat be that you think this list could be surpassed by?"
Bolton responded by saying the November election choice was like "comparing apples to oranges."
He his objections to the former vice president were "philosophical" and that a Biden presidency would be "another four years" of Obama national security policy -- but noted that a second Trump term also poses a "different set of risks."
"I wish there were a conservative Republican that I could vote for who had a chance of winning, but there's not," Bolton told Maher. "My situation is that I live in Maryland and that my vote doesn't mean much one way or the other. So I'm going to do the best I can to show philosophically that I remain committed to these national security values that I've had for a long time."
"I wish there were a conservative Republican that I could vote for who had a chance of winning, but there's not."
"But we only get two choices," Maher pushed back. "We only have apples and oranges. There's only an apple and an orange on the ballot and you have to pick one. And even if your vote doesn't count, your influence does."
Bolton explained that he faced a similar personal dilemma in 2016 and admitted he made the "same argument" Maher was making when he voted for Trump over Hillary Clinton. Back then, Bolton said, he believed a Trump presidency would be "at least worth trying."
"I think what I've tried to do now is try to lay out 500 pages of facts about Donald Trump's performance and they're there for anybody to use for whatever purpose that they think fit," Bolton continued. "Obviously, Trump didn't want the book to come out at all and sued to stop it, but I view that as the contribution I can make."
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Bolton insisted he would remain "unstinting" with his criticism of the president as the election approaches and that he won't go "out of his way" to attack Biden.
He added that he will make an effort to aid Republicans in holding onto the Senate.
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