>> Donald Trump is so desperate to block the release of his former national security adviser's
book that the Justice Department has taken things a step further. This could potentially
lead to John Bolton not being able to collect any of the profits he makes from the book.
The administration might be able to do that if they're successful in their lawsuit.
Now the DOJs move followed their initial action, which was the lawsuit that I'm talking about,
arguing the contents of the book contain classified information, and the release of this classified
information would put our national security in jeopardy. No one's believing that. This
is a book that embarrasses Donald Trump, there's no question about it.
And beyond embarrassing him, there are some damning revelations when it comes to Donald
Trump putting himself above the best interests of this country. So, let me give you some
examples. Bolton writes the following. 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.
Now look, I disagree with him, I think that the Senate was going to exonerate Trump regardless
of what we found through the impeachment investigation. But I do agree that they should have broadened
their investigation, not only to look into foreign policy decisions, but as Jenk and
I said over and over again during this investigation.
They should have also looked into Donald Trump's financial crimes, potential financial crimes.
They didn't do it. Also, I just wanna note John Bolton saying that the Democrats didn't
do enough of an investigation is rich, considering he was called to testify. He was subpoenaed
to testify and he refused to do it.
Instead, he saved all of this information for his book, probably because there's a profit
motive behind it. But, Cenk, I wanted you to chime in before I give you more details.
>> Yeah, so there's two different issues here, what you think of John Bolton and what you
think of Donald Trump.
What we think of John Bolton is less relevant because he's no longer in government, he's
a terrible person in almost every regard. He's a war hawk, I don't know that I disagree
with anyone else more on foreign policy than I do with John Bolton, that includes Donald
Trump.
I think Bolton was worse than Trump on foreign policy, but that's ideology and principles,
and Bolton did a terrible thing here. He claimed that, hey man, look, if you're gonna subpoena
me, we got legal issues etc., in case of the impeachment. If you're wondering why he did
that, if he was just gonna spill the beans anyway, I mean, why not just say it during
impeachment when it would've mattered?
Because his book wasn't ready, so he wouldn't have made as much money if he gave away all
the goods in the books during the hearings, rather than releasing them now. So his own
personal ambition and greed outweighed national security interests that he claims he cares
so much about with Bolton.
So now that's bull, I'm done with him in terms of his ethics, but that doesn't mean that
what he said about Trump isn't true. I believe that it is totally true and I have a lot of
reasons to believe that, even though I don't like the guy. And between Trump and Bolton
I mean, they're both terrible people, but Trump is the proven pathological liar.
Trusting Trump over anyone is absurd, and then Bolton has to say about Trump are damning.
>> Exactly, so let's get to this on a more granular level. So Bolton also writes in his
book, I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my White House tenure
that wasn't driven by re-election calculations.
And remember, that was the motive behind Donald Trump attempting to coerce the leader of Ukraine
to announce this sham investigation into the Biden's, right? Trump thought it would give
him an upper hand in the election. Now, I also wanna just go to a short snippet of John
Bolton's interview with ABC News.
Here he is with Martha Raddatz. >> There really isn't any guiding principle
that I was able to discern other than what's good for Donald Trump's re-election.
>> You say that you were astonished by what you saw, President for whom getting re-elected
was the only thing that mattered, even if it meant endangering or weakening the nation?
>> Well, I think he was so focused on the re-election that longer term considerations
fell by the wayside. So if he thought he could get a photo opportunity with Kim Jong-un at
the demilitarized zone in Korea, there was considerable emphasis on the photo opportunity
and the press reaction to it and little or no focus on what such meetings did for the
bargaining position of the United States.
>> And Jenk, he gave so many other examples including the example of Trump's negotiations
with Xi Jinping of China, and how those trade negotiations were much more about his chances
of getting re-elected than anything else. I'll give you those details in a second, but
thoughts. >> So this is the most concerning stuff, Bolton
also revealed 18 different ways in which Donald Trump is an absolute moron.
And that's entertaining and depressing at the same time. But what's really important
is when he sells out our national security for his own benefit. So in the case of the
photo op, it's not a light issue because when you give North Korea something that they want,
which is a picture of Donald Trump with their leader in the demilitarized zone, you're supposed
to negotiate something in return for America, not for yourself.
But when you're more concerned about the photo op for yourself and for your re-election efforts
and you negotiated nothing, well, you let down the country. And you put yourself above
your country, which is not what the President's supposed to do, and that is a relatively minor
example. So the major examples are when he says to the Chinese in regards to Huawei and
ZTE, two different companies that are very, very important the Chinese, that he basically
will let them get away with doing things that are wrong so that they can get a deal on trade.
And that's the thing about the two things that connect these issues is Donald Trump's
stupidity. Normally, even if you're going to be that crass and do that, you wouldn't
say to the Chinese leader, hey, I need help in my election. That's why I want to do a
trade deal, that's why I'm gonna give this Chinese company a break that I shouldn't give.
You would never say that out loud, but he's too dumb to know how ignorant he is. So he
just says it, and Bolton and the others are like, my god, he just said that he wants help
from the Chinese in winning his election. What the hell's he doing?
And that's what he got in trouble for in Ukraine and if Bolton and the others had the courage
to say this during impeachment, we would be talking about not just Ukraine, but also what
he gave away, the two biggest countries he gave giveaways to are China and Turkey.
And Turkey's a whole another bag that we'll talk about in a second. And you saw what he
did in betraying our allies, the Kurds, and pulling out of northern Syria cuz he's making
deals for himself. I mean they had to impeach him on this, both the Democrats and Bolton
were so reprehensible in not getting that done.
>> Right, so that was a good summary, I wanna read some of the excerpts from his book pertaining
to the negotiations with China. And I also wanna quickly play devil's advocate afterwards
because some might argue and I've seen this argument all over the Internet, well, isn't
this what every president does?
Every president does these types of negotiations, knowing that if the negotiations end up the
way that they are hoping for, it'll help them in their chances of getting reelected. That's
a fair argument, I think, but let me give you the details of how it went down with China
and then we can discuss that.
Trump's conversations, Bolton writes, with Xi reflected the confluence in Trump's mind
of his own political interests and US national interests. Trump commingled the personal and
the national not just on trade questions, but across the whole field of national security.
Trump said approvingly, that there was great hostility to China among the Democrats.
This is what he's saying to President Xi while he's meeting with him, he's like, these Democrats,
they're too hard on you, they're too hard on you. And then try to remember the Trump
re-election ad where he accuses Biden of being too soft on China, it's just incredible. Trump
then stunningly turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election alluding
to China's economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win.
Trump stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soy beans and
wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trump's exact words, but the government's
pre-publication review process has decided otherwise. And then he writes, Xi agreed that
we should restart the trade talks, welcoming Trump's concession that there would be no
new tariffs and agreeing that the two negotiating teams should resume discussions on farm products
on a priority basis.
And here's what Trump said to him, you're the greatest Chinese leader in 300 years,
the greatest leader in Chinese history. >> Okay, what an idiot, what an idiot, so
I'll tell you why he says the things that he says in those little segments there. So
first off, why is he telling him he's the greatest leader in 300 years?
Because Trump thinks that's what I would wanna hear, and so if I compliment him this way,
he'll give me something I want, because that's how his mind works. If Xi gave him a compliment
like this, he'll go what do you need? Keys to the city, keys to the country, I'll give
you anything you want, as long as you compliment me.
So that's why in his tiny minuscule little mind, he thinks I'll if I give him over-the-top
compliments, I'll get up with the election and second of all, what a terrible negotiator.
He just >> Yes.
>> What's really hurting us was what you're doing with the tariffs on agriculture.
Why would you tell him that? Okay, then they know that's where their leverage is, world's
worst negotiator. And then he's like, pretty please help me with my election, begging,
tipping your hand and over-the-top compliments of the other guy are not well known for making
a good deal for your side, he just sucks at this.
>> Yeah, he should take lessons from Melania who really knows how to use her own leverage
to get a better prenup contract for instance, right? But anyway, moving on to the other
examples that were provided by Bolton. So there was some question about why Donald Trump
decided to let ZTE off.
That's the Chinese company that broke the US sanctions against Iran, right? So why is
it that Trump did that and Bolton did address it, right? Now, we focused on possible financial
ties and how immediately after the the ZTE case was dropped by the Trump administration,
all of a sudden, Ivanka Trump gets rewarded all these trademarks in China.
I'm sure that that plays a role as well, but according to Bolton, Trump did it because
he wanted to distract the public's attention away from Ivanka Trump's own email scandal.
So Ivanka Trump was also using her personal email in order to conduct official White House
business. And to make matters worst, she was doing it for months before she was even a
White House employee, right?
So she was a private citizen for months using her private email in order to communicate
about official White House business and Trump allegedly said this will divert from Ivanka.
If I read the statement in person, that will take over the Ivanka thing.
>> Well, give him a tiny bit of credit there, Anna, cuz that's the first time I've ever
heard of them doing any type of strategy.
>> Yeah. >> But now, to know the strategy here, I will
cheer lead for a person who dismembered a Washington Post columnist cuz that will distract-
>> That's true, yes. >> Yeah, cuz that'll distract from my daughter's
law breaking, the thing that I said my political opponents should be put in prison for.
So let's go out there and say, yay, beheadings and dismemberment by Muslim fundamentalists,
wow. >> Yeah, yeah, and by the way, I'm sorry,
there's just so many moving parts. I wanna be crystal clear, I mixed a few things up.
So yes, the ZTE thing did happen, and the reason why he dropped that investigation is
because he was working on that trade deal with China.
So it's a favor for a favor, quid pro quo, that had to do with the ZTE issue. With Ivanka
Trump, he wanted to distract from her scandal by releasing a statement in support of what
happened basically to Jamal Khashoggi. And here's what his statement said in November
of 2018, it could very well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event.
Maybe he did and maybe he didn't, that being said, we may never know all of the facts surrounding
the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi. In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia. And I remember reading that statement when we covered that story in 2018,
Jenk.
But it's just amazing, because in his mind, and I don't know, I mean, I guess this is
proof that he really does love his daughter, Ivanka. Because in his mind, releasing a statement
excusing the dismemberment and the murderer of a US resident and Washington Post journalist
is better than having the public pay attention to his daughter's email scandal.
>> Yeah, well look, he also doesn't think dismemberment is that big a deal. And so,
I mean no other decent human being would think that that was like a good way to distract
folks by being in favor of that. And let's also note that he wanted to do a total ban
on Muslims, but when there was actually a terrorist who happens to be Muslim, the Crown
Prince of Saudi Arabia who'd beheaded and dismembered someone, he was his biggest cheerleader.
So it never has to do with crime or the things that he thinks, he says he's gonna try to
solve, no, it's always me, me, me, me, me. And look, on the Turkey issue, also helping
Erdogan try to avoid sanctions for law breaking. And he said that he would try to get the prosecutors
removed from the case, where for criminal law breaking that we were pursuing inside
our country.
In other words, I'll help you break the law, Turkey, in return for favors. Well, as we
saw later with the withdrawal from Northern Syria, he did the government of Turkey a lot
of favors. At this point, it's not perfectly clear what he got in return, but I'm very
curious about that, cuz it's always personal with Trump.