Trump unfit for office
Donald Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton said the US president is unfit for office, according to interview excerpts released yesterday after portions of the top aide's upcoming book revealed a withering portrayal of his ex-boss.
"I don't think he's fit for office," Bolton told ABC News in an interview. "I don't think he has the competence to carry out the job."
The longtime foreign policy hawk, who left the White House in September, accused the president of sweeping misdeeds in order to seek re-election, including explicitly seeking Chinese President Xi Jinping's help, according to portions of his behind-the-scenes account.
Trump also expressed a willingness to halt criminal investigations to favor dictators he liked, Bolton said in excerpts published in several major newspapers on Wednesday that allege far more extensive accusations of impropriety than those that drove Trump's impeachment.
Trump hit back at Bolton, calling him "a liar" in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. The paper also published excerpts Wednesday of the book, titled "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir," as did the Washington Post.
Together, the excerpts portray a US president mocked by his top advisers who exposed himself to far more extensive accusations of impropriety than those that drove the Democratic-led House of Representatives to impeach Trump last year.
The Republican-led Senate acquitted Trump in early February. Trump was accused of withholding US military aid last year to put pressure on newly-elected Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky to provide damaging information on Democratic political opponent Joe Biden.
"Had Democratic impeachment advocates not been so obsessed with their Ukraine blitzkrieg in 2019, had they taken the time to inquire more systematically about Trump's behavior across his entire foreign policy, the impeachment outcome might well have been different," Bolton wrote.
The US Justice Department has sued to block Bolton from publishing the book, citing risks to national security.
According to the book, Trump told China's Xi in June 2019 to go ahead and build camps for its mostly Muslim Uighur minority and other Muslim groups despite the Trump administration's criticism of China's mass detention.
Bolton also wrote that Trump said invading Venezuela would be "cool" even as the US government has said it does not favor using force to topple Venezuela's socialist President Nicolas Maduro.
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