How Does the John Bolton Bombshell Change Impeachment?

Also on the Reason Roundtable podcast: why we should be worried about the rise of Bernie Sanders

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How Does the John Bolton Bombshell Change Impeachment?

Now that John Bolton's pick me! exertions have gotten so loud that even Republican senators are saying that they might consider issuing a subpoena to a materially relevant witness in the impeachment trial, some natural follow-up questions tumble forth, such as: Should the mustachioed former national security advisor be summoned to testify? Does his account, however disputed, change the way people interpret the Trump administration's 2019 actions vis-a-vis Ukraine? Does any of it excuse the attempt by the lead House manager, Rep. Adam Schiff (D–Calif.), to justify not subpoenaing Bolton in the first place by saying that they needed to stop Trump before he could election again?

These questions and more lead today's episode of the Reason Roundtable podcast, featuring Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, Nick Gillespie, and Matt Welch. The roundtablists also volunteer their biggest critiques of suddenly re-rising presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.), try to dampen the panic about the latest global coronavirus, and discuss the bountiful local goings-on of National School Choice Week. And yes, Kobe Bryant gets a mention.

Audio production by Ian Keyser and Regan Taylor.

Music: "Here Come The Raindrops" by Reed Mathis

Relevant links from the show:

"My Conversations with John Bolton," by Matt Welch

"John Bolton Says He Would Comply With Senate Subpoena to Testify in Impeachment Trial," by Scott Shackford

"Trump's Failed Impeachment Is Still Worth It," by Shikha Dalmia

"4 Key Republican Senators To Watch as Trump's Trial Rolls Into the Weekend," by Eric Boehm

"Did Trump Just Admit To Withholding Material From the Impeachment Process? " by Peter Suderman

"Does an Impeachment Overturn an Election?" by Keith E. Whittington

"The Senate Can (but Probably Won't) Fill the Gaps in the Case for a Ukraine Quid Pro Quo," by Jacob Sullum

"As Progressive Twitter Erupts at Joe Rogan Endorsing Bernie Sanders, a Reminder: Elizabeth Warren's Sexism Gambit Backfired," by Matt Welch

"Bernie Sanders Thinks Medicare for All Would Solve America's Health Care Problems. It Would Make Them Worse," by Peter Suderman

"Bernie J. Trump: Nationalism and Socialism Are Two Sides of the Same Statist Coin," by Shikha Dalmia

"Bernie's Bad Ideas," by Matt Welch

"No More Pandemics?" by Ronald Bailey

"Pennsylvania Bill Would Toss 35,000 Kids Out of Their Cyber Charter Schools," by Eric Boehm

"The Story Behind Miss Virginia Exemplifies the Moral Case for School Choice," by Nick Gillespie

What are we consuming this week?

Matt Welch

• Watched the 2020 Grammy Awards

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• Uncanny Valley: A Memoir by Anna Wiener

Peter Suderman

• Assassin's Apprentice(The Farseer Trilogy, Book 1) by Robin Hobb

Nick Gillespie

• Researched some of Paul Newman's greatest films in honor of his birthday

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Comments

[Unicorn Abattoir]

I'll take "Not At All", for $1000, Alex.

[Brett Bellmore]

Darn, beat me to it. Gotta be faster on that buzzer.

[Fats of Fury]

Do you form your daisy chains in a circle so the guy on the gets some?

[Fancylad]

No, but they get the soggy biscuit, which counts the same on a NYT job application as five TDS articles.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug]

As much as all the other fake bombshells did.

[John]

It is a bombshell. That is the talking point. So, you have to follow the talking point.

[Fancylad]

The old warmonger Bolton hasn't even really claimed anything. Again, it's more third-hand hearsay and rumor from "people who overheard".

The point here though is to throw these stories out there. It doesn't matter if they're debunked later. That'll just get buried or be left unreported.
Instead Welch, Suderman and all their cohorts hope the constant innuendo will eventually leave an impression in the back of the public's mind come election time. Such disgusting men.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Looks like it's time for the bombshell-walls-are-closing-in it's-the-beginning-of-the-end media mashup video...

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

I didn't much trust Bolton before, why should I suddenly trust him now? He's always had his own agenda.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug]

Tell em SQRLSY

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

We're experiencing a swing in the Bolton-good, Bolton-bad oscillation wave.

[America's Player]

The Senate doesn't need to trust him. They could call Bolton, and all the other witnesses who could corroborate or contradict his story.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug]

And then we could read the transcript. Which we have.

No no, call a known liar for no reason. Great strategery.

[JesseAz]

And we could call Biden and everybody who has ever worked for someone linked to biden and prove the request for an investigation was valid.

[Sarah Palin's Buttplug]

So you're just gonna forget Bolton's history of saying crazy shit I guess.

[John]

The country lost interest in the entire thing back in September when all the Democrats could come up with was Frank Burns and the Ambassador talking about all the great things they did for Ukraine. Nothing is going to change that.

[Jason Cavanaugh]

We're talking about America here, John. Not whatever sphincter you crawled out of.

[Fancylad]

What the hell?

[Fats of Fury]

Deep Thoughts by Harvard Hogg.

[DaveSs]

Considering how he routinely lied in order to advance the initiation of new wars, I'd say he lacks any credibility and whatever he testifies to should be considered suspect.

[Fats of Fury]

Four of the Democratic House Managers voted against sending Ukraine aid ,

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

I haven't read your link yet, but I'm guessing the counter argument is that they didn't vote against the said based on a quid-pro-quo in regards to investigate the bidens, but on mundane foreign policy reasoning.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Aid*

[JesseAz]

The 4 managers all brought up national security and how dire the aid was... but all voted against it

[Nardz]

Aside from the ridiculousness of the assertion that US security depends on Kiev crushing Donbass rebels, there hasn't even been much fighting the last 2 years.

[Rush Limbaugh]

THE WALLS ARE CLOSING IN! IT'S THE BEGINNING OF THE END!

[Knutsack]

Scott Adams seems to have a different take on the Bolton manuscript. I wonder why that is.

[Nardz]

I like that this most recent "bombshell" (#44526 by my count) is a leak to the New York Times by an anonymous source (which is combo that has never been inaccurate) quoting Bolton's book (which has received quite the sales bump)... but apparently not the part where Bolton discusses threatening the family of the OPCW to falsify his findings on Iraq's WMD program.
Credible and robust!

[JesseAz]

Vindmans brother works in the NSC ethics office reviewing the books...

[Nardz]

HOW ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE NOT FIRED???
Trump's had 3 years.
I was really hoping for a good culling when he got elected, though I figured it would be a long shot.
Still - this is where he has most disappointed me

[Brett Bellmore]

Well, me too, but in order to fire people you need to be allowed to replace them, if they're doing anything important. And aside from judges, McConnell hasn't had much time for Trump's nominations.

[Derp-o-Matic 6000]

There arent even actual quotes from the manuscript in the article.

But, you know, the walls are really closing in now...

[Robert Crim]

Well, we've yet to hear from Bolton, and it does not take a Scotland Yard detective to determine that the leakers are entrenched, civil-service Democrats at NSC or the White House who are trying to stampede the Senate.

That said, the proper thing to do at this point would be for Chief Justice Roberts to subpoena the MS and review it in camera, just like John Sirica did with the Nixon tapes.

[Nardz]

No, the judiciary stepping in would be unconstitutional.
If they feel the need to examine the manuscript, the Senate can vote to subpoena it

[Sovereign]

Yes! I've just gotten the inside scoop on Bono's economic analysis.

[NOYB2]

Bolton just said that Trump was holding up aid over concerns about corruption in Ukraine (and elsewhere). We already knew that. That's not a quid-pro-quo; it only becomes one if that was actually communicated as a condition to Ukraine.

[Brett Bellmore]

Heck, THAT doesn't become a quid pro quo even if you do communicate it. "I'm not paying you yet because I'm still investigating whether you're a crook."; Where's the quid pro quo in that?

[Liberty Lover]

Seeing Bolton's commitment to war, any war, any where, at any time, I can't imagine anything the guy writing being anything other than a fictional war novel.

[R Mac]

Pathetic, as usual.

[DarthHusker]

Well John Bolton himself seems to think it's not important enough to disseminate for free for the good of the nation. He's just using it as a marketing ploy. I guess that doesn't mean for sure that nothing in there is true and incriminating, but if it is true and incriminating it means he is a real PoS.

[Reshufflex]

Dershowitz suitably addressed this question. His answer: Bolton’s revelations mean doodly squat.
And thus the lastest deus ex machina of the desperate statists and their media tools goes kaput.

You can sense the end nears. No more gas in the tank. Breaths are becoming short. The words, the body language, the half-baked outrages from the left-all appear as formalities now.

The apparatchiks at Reason fool none. Their efforts are the tacit lament of a lost cause and twitches of an impeachment corpse.

[Eddy]

I bet Michael Bolton doesn't like having the same last name, but he figures: "Why should I change? It's that no-talent warmongering ass-clown who sucks."

[Eddy]

I said I wouldn't make any more Michael Bolton jokes, but I lied:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv5vMJKBAbo

[Eddy]

It's a little known fact that Michael Bolton did the vocals on this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvF9PAxe5Ng

[Eddy]

This just in - a highly-placed confidential source reveals that John Bolton's new book is "sizzling" and "a real page-turner." Other sources call the book "a turbocharged erotic thriller" and "a nonstop roller-coaster of excitement."

[Palatki]

Jesus Christ!!!!!! i never thought i would see the day that Reason lines up to suck John Bolton's cock. Deep down, though it was disgusting, i kind of understood why they fell over each other to tongue-fuck Obama's asshole, or try to drink the last drop of moisture from Hillary's dried up cunt. But this totally slut-to-the-max crack whore degradation fest to defile themselves with America's premier war-monger is gut-wrenchingly disgusting, and it proves once and for all, that there is no one so sickening and filthy that they will not strip their clothes off and lay with, if only they can claim to be against the Orange Monster.

[JoeB]

Hey, don't hold back, Palatki, tell us your true feelings.

[Fancylad]

It is a Faustian pact Reason writers make.
They want to maintain access to cocktail parties and achieve clique respectability. But, they make themselves look immature, small-minded, & worse, to the public. In the longer term honesty matters.

[Thaddeus Kosciuszko]

Unless one believes that the NY Times' unverified information and unnamed sources somehow mystically rise to the level of FACT, it changes nothing.

[Money34]

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[Derp-o-Matic 6000]

So Reason loves John fucking Bolton now? Anything to stop Orange Hitler, i guess.

[MarySMobley]

I am making a good salary from home $1200-$2500/week , which is amazing, under a year back I was jobless in a horrible economy. I thank God every day I was blessed with these instructions and now it’s my duty to pay it forward and share it with Everyone, Here is what I do. Follow details on this web page……. Read more

[Bogart]

None whatsoever. You think that if the Senate calls Bolton as a witness that he won't fight the appearance? It is one thing to claim to a bunch of journalists that he is willing and ready to appear, but another thing when you get the paperwork. And then Bolton always has an out: He can say that the prosecutor/manager simply misinterpreted the book.