Wait, John Bolton said WHAT?

On Tuesday, John Bolton appeared on CNN analyzing the latest January 6 Committee hearing. The two cents he offered was worth much less, as he succeeded only in promoting a flawed defense of Donald Trump while spotlighting his own arrogance. Boltonโs comments, cloaked in the authority of his experience as the twice-impeached Presidentโs fourth National Security Advisor, amounted to Republicansplaining at its worst.
Although Bolton conceded that Trump โdid unleash the rioters at the Capitol,โ the crux of his argument was that planning a coup โtakes a lot of workโ and that Trump was incapable of pulling off such a feat. Instead, he insisted, Trump โwas just stumbling around from one idea to another.โ Employing an awkward Star Wars analogy, Bolton casually downgraded Trumpโs culpability by calling his former boss a mere โdisturbance in the Forceโ instead of the orchestrator of an โattack on our democracy.โ
Of course, Bolton couldnโt be more accurate to describe Trump as highly incompetent, impatient, and capricious. โItโs rambling from oneโฆ idea to another; one plan that falls through, and another comes up,โ he said. Indeed, throughout his failed presidency, Trump executed so much of his hateful agenda after much bumbling, starting with the Muslim ban he rushed out in January 2017.
Trumpโs ham-fisted nature contributed only to the coupโs ultimate failure. Although itโs clear he didnโt plan the events of January 6 with great coherence and discipline, he nevertheless did plan for that day, as the January 6 Committee hearings have confirmed. As for the โlot of workโ part that Bolton suggests is exculpatory, letโs not forget that people of varying competence levels, from the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to top government officials, contributed their efforts to help turn the insurrectionist buffoonโs dreams of staying in power into reality.
January 6, 2021 was the date to certify the election results after Trumpโs myriad yet frivolous litigation efforts had failed. Nevertheless, Bolton laughably suggested that Trump ordered the rioters (some of whom were armed) to the Capitol merely to โbuy more time to throw the matter back to the states to redo the issue,โ and that itโs a โmistakeโ to claim this was somehow to โoverthrow the Constitution.โ
Bolton smugly cited his background โas somebody who has helped plan coups dโรฉtat, not here but other placesโ as authority for knowing that โit takes a lot of work, and thatโs not what [Trump] did.โ Curiously, when Jake Tapper asked Bolton to clarify his comments, he cited a 2019 Venezuelan coup against President Nicolรกs Maduroโonly to admit that the U.S. government didnโt have โall that much to do with itโ and that it failed. John Boltonโs latest analysis is as flawed as his career.

Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month