Before Bolton Wrote About Trump, Schiff Thrashed Him for 'Lack of Credibility'

Former national security adviser John Bolton is now being heralded as a major corroborating witness for House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff for claims in an upcoming book, despite the Democratic lawmaker publicly shredding Bolton’s credibility years before.

According to a New York Times report, Bolton wrote in the book that President Donald Trump admitted to holding back military aid from Ukraine in order to spark an investigation into political rivals.

For Schiff and his Democratic allies’ case against the president, this claim seemed as good as gold.

“This would be another witness that would corroborate in very direct terms, if this report is accurate, that the president told him unequivocally he was holding up the money until Ukraine did these investigations,” Schiff told CNN Monday.

“It completely blasts another hole in the president’s defense.”

Unfortunately for Democrats, Schiff himself thoroughly trashed John Bolton’s credibility less than a few years ago.

“This is someone who is likely to exaggerate the dangerous impulses of the president toward belligerence, his proclivity to act without thinking, and his love of conspiracy theories,” Schiff told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in 2018.

“John Bolton once suggested on Fox News that the Russian hack of the DNC was a false flag operation that had been conducted by the Obama administration.”

Watch the clip below.

Of course, this wasn’t the first time Schiff tore into Bolton’s credibility.

As far back as the administration of former President George Bush, the Democratic lawmaker was building a case that Bolton was a man who shouldn’t be trusted.

Schiff told CNN in 2005 that Bolton’s “lack of credibility” should be taken into account as lawmakers at the time weighed his nomination as the ambassador to the United Nations.

For once, it’s hard to disagree with Adam Schiff. 

Past footage of Bolton himself undermines the very claim Schiff is holding as truth. Only one month after the infamous July 2019 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Bolton described the conversation as warm and cordial.

Schiff may not be right about a whole lot, but it seems he was right on the money in saying that Bolton’s words should be taken with a grain of salt.