Former National Security Adviser John Bolton reportedly directed the State Department to release $141 million in military to Ukraine several days before President Donald Trump claims he himself had authorized the aid’s release.
So Bolton was fired on Sept 10th and Trump claimed he released the funds on the 11th.
I think I know why Bolton was fired.
Apparently, everyone in the WH besides Mulvaney and Trump himself realised that Trump was guilty of extortion and struggled to mitigate it right after Schiff announced the WB complaint. Was that on Sept. 7th? Bolton supposedly released the funds on Sept. 9th.
Bolton attempted to take a playing chip off the table. Bold move actually.
Say the magic word and win a hundred dollars.
Never thought I’d say Bolton was the rational guy in the room. What a mess.
Does it bother anyone else that there’s no chain of command in this Administration, and that the people who know Trump best seem to respect him the least?
Also, Bolton is…a hero? Is it okay if I start drinking early this Sunday morning?
Who’s in charge here???
This actually makes things worse for Trump in terms of intent. He was was still stubbornly holding on to the funds, hoping he could do so until Zelensky could announce the asked for investigation into the Bidens (the favor, though) which had already been scheduled on Zakaria’s show.
How did we come to this? When John Bolton can be seen as the level-headed pragmatist?
No. He’s a would be chestnuts rescuer.
Rational, maybe in the sense of brinkmanship. As said above, it was a bold move, but it smacks of conflicting egos. Bolton dances on the edge in his endeavors. He bounces between his zealotry and doing business properly. He is up against Trump who steps well past that point. Easy to see Bolton taking the moral high ground by calculation just to shaft his boss.
We are at a point where there isn’t a single thing ANY of these people say that can be relied upon. I mean, we knew that…but if they say a date, it probably wasn’t that date. If they say a person, it probably wasn’t that person. If they give a reason, it probably wasn’t that reason. And then, they all get to retract who said what happened on which date…go back and change their testimony, and wait for Chump to upend the whole thing with his revision of how large-and-in-charge he is while making the most perfect of wonderful strategery and his best dealmaking ever. There may possibly never have been a bigger, longer running shitshow in all of history.
For some reason it was the OMB that was holding the money back. There was no legal authority for them to do so. This part gets short shrift in the reporting.
I’m wondering about the actual mechanics of what happened here versus what the protocol is supposed to be.
Allegedly, Bolton called someone in the State Department who “quietly” released the funds. So, who in the State Department did this and did they know the President was not in the loop or know but not care? Did Pompeo know what happened or was he also kept out of the loop? Is this another example of Anonymous’s claim about the people around Trump working hard to thwart his worst and basest instincts? Could Pompeo be Anonymous?
Oh. for the days of Alexander Haig.
That’s been key part of the narrative that republicans have been busily rewriting. Nikki Haley’s comment yesterday is a prime example. The aid wasn’t given until the WB made the affair known. Without the WB, the aid would still be withheld today.
Its like the guy dumping his drugs out the car window when the police lights go on behind him. Without being caught, he is keeping the drugs.
Yeah, where’s Alexander Haig when you need him? He’d straighten things out
Revenge of the walrus. Remember all the way back to June when Trump literally sent Bolton to Mongolia while he walked across the DMZ with Tucker Carlson(!) to meet Kim?