White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Thursday slammed former National Security Adviser John R. Bolton as a weak author, saying Mr. Bolton’s explosive new book stands in stark contrast to past praise Mr. Bolton has heaped on President Trump.
“John Bolton has discredited himself. He is a misguided hawk on foreign policy and a weak dove of an author,” Ms. McEnany said on “Fox & Friends.”
“This man is someone who praised President Trump as being strong on foreign policy, not making the mistakes of previous administrations, perfectly prepared — these are all quotes from John Bolton,” she said. “John Bolton’s book is debunked by none other than John Bolton.”
In his forthcoming book, Mr. Bolton paints Mr. Trump as a man singularly obsessed with whatever would help his reelection prospects and says the president petitioned China to give his campaign a boost through trade policy.
Ms. McEnany said Mr. Bolton has been “discredited on both sides of the aisle” and said he has likely supplanted former FBI Director James B. Comey as “the most disliked man in America.”
Mr. Trump also weighed in on Twitter overnight Thursday, saying the new book is made up of “lies” and “fake stories.”
“A disgruntled boring fool who only wanted to go to war. Never had a clue, was ostracized & happily dumped. What a dope!” the president said.
At the same time, the Justice Department is trying to halt the distribution of the book over concerns that it might contain classified information.
To Ms. McEnany’s point, though, many Democrats are criticizing Mr. Bolton for saving the salacious stories for a lucrative book deal, rather than speaking out earlier or offering testimony during Mr. Trump’s impeachment trial.
And at least one Republican said Mr. Bolton was trying to cash in on his experience.
“$2 million. Apparently that’s all it took for John Bolton to sell off what little credibility he had left,” Rep. Doug Collins, Georgia Republican, said on Twitter.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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