Rush Limbaugh said President Trump’s enemies are using the same political “playbook” employed during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination hearings to destroy his administration.
The conservative radio host told listeners that reports on an upcoming memoir by former National Security Adviser John R. Bolton represent a political distraction akin to last-minute allegations of sexual misconduct by Christine Blasey Ford, which nearly derailed Mr. Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the high court.
“Notice the timing of this leak,” Mr. Limbaugh said Monday. “Isn’t it just magical that on the very day after the Trump defense team decimates the House managers’ case, the very next day here comes this leak from the New York Times about what Trump told Bolton supposedly that he didn’t want to do?”
Mr. Bolton’s work allegedly claims that Mr. Trump wanted military aid to Ukraine tied to investigations of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden.
The reports have influenced Sen. Mitt Romney, for instance, as it pertains to the Senate’s upcoming impeachment trial.
“It’s increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton,” Mr. Romney, Utah Republican, said Monday. “John Bolton’s relevance to our decision has become increasingly clear. I have spoken with others who have opined on this as well.”
Mr. Limbaugh said that impeachment proceedings against Mr. Trump are bizarre and unwarranted because a quid pro quo for military aid literally never happened — Ukraine was sent Javelin anti-tank missiles and other lethal equipment without launching a single investigation at Mr. Trump’s behest.
“So Trump supposedly tells Bolton that he doesn’t want to release aid — but he did,” Mr. Limbaugh said. “The aid got released. It was more than Ukraine thought they were gonna get, and it included Javelin missiles, and Trump got nothing for it. There was no investigation! … The leak cannot be that Trump didn’t release aid because the aid was released!”
“When Bolton’s name was in the media [in the past], they hated him,” Mr. Limbaugh added. “They despised Bolton. … It looks to me like we almost have a replay, an exact rehash of the Kavanaugh situation when he was on the verge of being confirmed. Here we are at this trial, after the first day of the president’s team just destroying the Democrat House managers’ whole case … [and] now all of a sudden at the very last moment we’re getting a recycling of a previous Democrat quasi-October Surprise-type operation.”
Mr. Bolton’s book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” is scheduled for release in March.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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