Bolton Will Testify If Subpoenaed | Talking Points Memo

danny · January 6, 2020, 5:15pm

Well, if McConnell won’t approve a subpoena then I say maybe he is not such a good guy.

filmknight · January 6, 2020, 5:16pm

“If I am drafted by the Astros, I promise to show up at training camp.” - Me

bankerpup · January 6, 2020, 5:16pm

Why wait for a trial, or a subpoena, to testify?

rob_beatty_walters · January 6, 2020, 5:16pm

Except I don’t think the House actually subpoenaed him.

junebug · January 6, 2020, 5:16pm

I’m not overly excited by the news. Bolton can find ways not to harm Trump during his testimony, and I expect he will. He’s overjoyed by Trump’s “toughness” in killing Suleimani, damn the consequences. This is John Bolton, the man who never saw a war in the Middle East he didn’t like.

randome · January 6, 2020, 5:19pm

SAY IT AIN’T SO! Not all turtles are weak and stupid.

clearwater · January 6, 2020, 5:19pm

Pretty much confirms there will be no testimony at the Senate trial. Probably a good time for House Judiciary to reopen their case and subpoena Bolton. Then he can come up with a new song and dance.

grandpajoe · January 6, 2020, 5:19pm

The House committees need to be drawing up the subpoena right this moment. If he’ll submit to one, there is no logical reason to not submit to another.

pshah · January 6, 2020, 5:19pm

My understanding is if he’s issued a subpoena during a Senate Impeachment trial, he has to testify. Am I wrong?

Moreover, he could testify today to House Judiciary or Intelligence. I don’t think anyone is stopping him.

paul_lukasiak · January 6, 2020, 5:20pm

My guess is that the ineptitude in which the assassination was carried out was the last straw for Bolton. While he no doubt was in favor of a more aggressive stance toward Iran, he was also an institutionalist and a realist, and would not have killed Soleimani in a way that jeopardized US interests throughout the middle east.

danny · January 6, 2020, 5:20pm

Yertle has delusions of big turtlehood.

isakindamagic · January 6, 2020, 5:20pm

Look at us - holding out hope for the truth from a Republican, and one of the least sane of them.

danny · January 6, 2020, 5:21pm

And yet they swat that hope out of our hands and spit on it.

randome · January 6, 2020, 5:21pm

Mitch McConnell vs Gamera would be like Bambi Meets Godzilla. I can dream, too.

dicktater · January 6, 2020, 5:22pm

Gamera is really neat
Gameria is full of meat
We all love you GAM-E-RA !

danny · January 6, 2020, 5:23pm

Where’s a turtle-seeking missile when you need one?

rob_beatty_walters · January 6, 2020, 5:24pm

My understanding is if he’s issued a subpoena during a Senate Impeachment trial, he has to testify. Am I wrong?

I think this is based on the assumption that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court would have an immediate role in enforcing the Senate subpoena while the House would have to start with the District Court, then the DC Circuit and then petition for Cert with the SCOTUS.

steviedee111 · January 6, 2020, 5:25pm

dicktater · January 6, 2020, 5:25pm

Yeah but the point isn’t to get sane behavior out of Bolton or any Republican…and it certainly isn’t the point to put our trust in any of them. The Point is to keep bashing them over the head with Impeachment without actually handing them the ball - and as Josh pointed out today - calling out all 6 of the vulnerable R Senators and McConnell and Graham as traitors, Putin lickspittles, and enablers of the Russian Asset In-Chief.

rucleare · January 6, 2020, 5:25pm

Let the House subpoena him on whatever pretext and make the m******er tell what he knows in a public hearing. Doing so can only help, not hurt, the effort to educate/inform the American people about the cesspool in which this lout agreed to swim.