Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

elleng

(130,126 posts)
Mon Oct 14, 2019, 11:10 PM Oct 2019

Bolton Objected to Ukraine Pressure Campaign, Calling Giuliani 'a Hand Grenade', NYT.

'The effort to pressure Ukraine for political help provoked a heated confrontation inside the White House last summer that so alarmed John R. Bolton, then the national security adviser, that he told an aide to alert White House lawyers, House investigators were told on Monday.

Mr. Bolton got into a sharp exchange on July 10 with Gordon D. Sondland, the Trump donor turned ambassador to the European Union, who was working with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, to press Ukraine to investigate Democrats, according to testimony provided to the investigators.

Mr. Bolton instructed Fiona Hill, the senior director for Russian and Eurasian affairs, to notify the chief lawyer for the National Security Council that Mr. Giuliani was working with Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, on a rogue operation with legal implications, Ms. Hill told the investigators, according to two people familiar with her closed-door testimony.

“I am not part of whatever drug deal Rudy and Mulvaney are cooking up,” Mr. Bolton, a Yale-trained lawyer, told Ms. Hill to tell White House lawyers, according to the testimony.

It was not the first time Mr. Bolton expressed grave concerns to Ms. Hill about Mr. Giuliani. “Giuliani’s a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up,” Ms. Hill quoted Mr. Bolton saying during an earlier conversation.'

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/us/politics/who-is-fiona-hill.html?

10 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Bolton Objected to Ukraine Pressure Campaign, Calling Giuliani 'a Hand Grenade', NYT. (Original Post) elleng Oct 2019 OP
Thanks for posting this! Beakybird Oct 2019 #1
WOW! JoeOtterbein Oct 2019 #2
YVW! elleng Oct 2019 #3
When John Bolton thinks this is nuts, you're really deep in f***ed up territory. Eugene Oct 2019 #4
Some one on the extrem right safeinOhio Oct 2019 #5
Extreme or not, he has it in for trump now, elleng Oct 2019 #6
+1. Bolton's revenge dalton99a Oct 2019 #7
What is Bolton thinking in this picture? yellowcanine Oct 2019 #9
:) A great deal of extreme right power is religious right. Hortensis Oct 2019 #8
Yes he is something of a hero to the "Christian" Zionists because .... Bomb Iran! yellowcanine Oct 2019 #10

elleng

(130,126 posts)
6. Extreme or not, he has it in for trump now,
Mon Oct 14, 2019, 11:34 PM
Oct 2019

he has a brain, has used it in the past to our detriment, but now may use it in our interest.

Hortensis

(58,785 posts)
8. :) A great deal of extreme right power is religious right.
Tue Oct 15, 2019, 08:06 AM
Oct 2019

Bolton's a secular hawk, but his worldview and especially his commitment to Israel, have some big things in common with the religious right's. His commitment is to America's military dominance, and it's impossible to separate our power interests in the ME from religion. Or our interests there from Ukraine, which is just one of the military holdings on the way to the Mediterranean/ME that Putin's after.

The Republicans'/religious right's intense zionism and concerns for who holds the holy lands are all about Christian ascendancy. And Trump has just put the very existence of Christianity in the ME in danger, Kurdish Christians and other Christian groups in Syria, Turkey, Iraq especially.

It may be an overstatement, or not , but someone just said Trump's bumbling chaos-creation is changing the entire balance of power in the ME as we watch. Putin's visiting Sawdi Arabia. Turkey, a member of NATO, is attacking U.S. forces. And so on. It's all connected.

Latest Discussions»Issue Forums»Editorials & Other Articles»Bolton Objected to Ukrain...