Lindsey Graham Pushes Back on Trump’s Criticism of John Bolton

Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) released a statement on Wednesday pushing back on President Trump’s criticism of former White House national security adviser John Bolton.

“I am concerned when John Bolton’s credibility is attacked, it makes it more likely some will feel the need to call him as a witness,” Graham said. “In that event, it would be important for the President and his team to call witnesses on other issues.”

Graham seemed to be responding to Trump’s earlier criticism of Bolton on Wednesday.

“If I listened to [Bolton], we would be in World War Six by now, and goes out and IMMEDIATELY writes a nasty & untrue book,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “All Classified National Security. Who would do this?”

In his statement, Graham asserted that no witnesses would be necessary in the impeachment trial.

“It is my opinion, based on the law and facts, that additional testimony is unnecessary in this case,” Graham wrote. “For the sake of argument, one could assume everything attributable to John Bolton is accurate and still the House case would fall well below the standards to remove a President from office.”

The Senate will vote on Friday on whether to subpoena witnesses and documents as evidence for the trial. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) told caucus members on Tuesday that they lack the votes to prevent the calling of witnesses.

On Sunday the New York Times reported that Bolton had written in the manuscript of his upcoming book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” that President Trump had conditioned aid to Ukraine on that country’s commitment to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden. Bolton denied leaking the report, saying there was “no coordination” between himself, his publisher and the Times.

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