I think the damage that he's done to the United States, both internationally and domestically, can be repaired.

I'm actually optimistic it can be repaired fairly quickly, But I worry that two terms of Trump could make Ah lot of that damage irreparable.

And I'm gonna be unhappy on Election night or whenever the election is resolved, one way or the other.

Uh, I wish we had a really conservative Republican running.

We don't.

So I'm going to write in the name of a conservative Republican.

Where is the Republican Party?

If Trump wins?

Well, I think it Z probably in trouble.

Uh, one of the one of the worst things about the Trump presidency is that the philosophical basis of the party has been distorted.

And instead of debating policy issues, the debate both within the Republican Party and in the country as a whole is.

Do you agree with Donald Trump or not?

That's not the mark of a mature Democratic debate.

It's it's not.

It should not be based on personalities.

It should be based on philosophy.

Just in terms of recent developments.

Amy Coney, Barrett has now been confirmed on the Supreme Court, a record speed now.

The perception amongst many Americans is that her appointment could secure the presidency for Trump in the event off a close or a disputed race, could it?

The perception is the perception of ignorant people and politicians.

The fact is, and she said last night and right after her swearing in, she is independent of the president, independent of Congress and independent of her own personal views.

She looks for the intent of the of the people who wrote the words to carry out what the words say on, and that is the Onley neutral way for judges to behave.

Otherwise.

They are amending the Constitution on their own and let me finish this point.

Let me finish this point that is anti democratic, anti democratic.

I raise it because, as you know, President Trump has refused to acknowledge a peaceful transfer of power in the event that he loses on.

He said his supporters should head to the polls and watch very carefully.

What did you interpret that to mean?

Did his position on that unnerve you?

Well, nothing he does unnerves may, because I understand that everything is through the prism of what benefits him personally.

Andi, I think he was trying to eso discord in the body politics on.

I think he was looking for excuses.

And I think this will be an early test for Republican leaders, officeholders and others.

Uh, if after the election, hey tries to manipulate public opinion in the believing that, uh, that he prevailed when he did not let me turn to the book you called Trump.

Erratic, stunningly uninformed, Dangerous.

I imagine many people watching this at home will say, Well, yeah, you had plenty of time to see that you watch the campaign.

You didn't enter the administration until a year in.

What were you actually expecting?

Well, I don't think anybody has ever called me naive.

I heard all of those things, to be sure, but I did believe that Trump would be affected by the gravity of the position of the presidency of the United States and that he would recognize that the weight of the decisions he had to make would affect him in a way that that would make more responsible decision making possible.

And I thought I could help out on I don't regret it.

Even if it turned out that I was wrong, Donald Trump was not at all affected by the presidency.

Why weren't you then worried about somebody who you saw is clearly corrupt, Who you would have worried about endangering American security?

I was worried about him endangering American security.

That's why I tried to move his policies, Uh, in in better directions on why?

Ultimately, when I concluded that I couldn't, I couldn't do that.

I resigned.

But you were given the chance to testify on his impeachment.

You were begged to do your duty as a citizen.

You refuse to tell the American people what you saw on what you knew.

Well, you're absolutely wrong about that.

There's a history here that I'd be delighted to lay out.

Although I'm sure he won't broadcast any of it because it's too complicated.

Let me finish.

Let me finish.

OK, can you just clarify?

You were asked You let me finish way.

Let we let me finish my answer.

Just answer the question if you can.

The House of Representatives, uh, never issued a subpoena for May, and when they issued a subpoena for my former deputy, the White House ordered him not to testify.

The fact is, the advocates of impeachment did a terrible job and made the situation much worse because they impeach Trump but by their own actions failed to achieve a conviction in the Senate.

So the result of the impeachment was to empower Trump not to constrain.

You explain in your book that the way you saw the impeachment process was that it wasn't big enough.

The parameters went wide enough that it was too politicized.

But you still had the chance to say out loud to the people of America what you knew and I did that, and it took 500 pages to do it.

It may be inconvenient for you as a television reporter who wants answers that last for 30 seconds.

But what I tried to do was lay out for the voters to read, and the book is so very well so a lot of people are reading it the full story, and I did that, and I think that was the right course of action.

The point is, I'm sure you did well in the book deal, but if Donald Trump gets re elective, which you've already hinted would be problematic.

Presumably, you will have to accept your part in that, that you covered up a criminal act that you absolutely did not.

I mean, this is really Tell me something.

Do you work for free?

E don't know what that means.

You don't take a salary I've taken.

I take a salary.

Yeah, of course you do.

And that's that's why I got reimbursed for the book.

I didn't cover anything up.

In fact, the administration has made something of a precedent in American history by trying to suppress the book.

That should tell you what they think of of what I've revealed in it.

Okay, So if the house stems call upon you belatedly to testify, you will do that now, will you?

E.

I am not obliged to follow Nancy Pelosi's orders.

I think she and the House Democrats made a severe mistake and the consequences of their mistake's word to empower Trump.

I I guess you don't see that point.

They thought they would deter him, but by failing to get a conviction, they've empowered him.

They've made the situation worse by their failed impeachment effort.

Trump said of your book when it was published.

If John Bolton had his way, we'd be on World War Six by now.

His point is that you made him look like the calm, rational one based on engagement rather than on warfare.

Do you accept that?

You know?

Of course not.

Look, this is Ah, typical of the kind of personal attacks and kind of childish rhetoric that the President engages in.

I think it's beneath the dignity of the office of the presidency.

So I don't really respond to it.

As you will know, Trump himself campaign on a platform of Nome or Foreign Wars gnome or spilt blood and isolationist policy.

Now, you were very much part of that military action.

Do you accept that you were part of the swamp in commerce that Trump came in to destroy you were part of the problem that created him?

Of course not, Ambassador Bolton.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.