John Bolton condemns GOP for ‘coddling’ Trump in searing op-ed: ‘His time is running out’

'Trump's time is running out, even as his rhetoric continues escalating’

President Donald Trump’s ex-national security adviser released a scathing Op-Ed condemning him for “frustrating” President-elect Joe Biden’s transitions and launching “frivolous” attacks on the electoral process.

“Any aggrieved candidate must at some point produce valid legal arguments and persuasive evidence,” John Bolton wrote in his latest piece for Washington Post. “Trump has so far failed to do so, and there is no indication he can.”

Mr Bolton, who served in the president’s White House administration until he was fired under contentious and public circumstances by the president last year, described his recent behavior as “post-election rampaging” and rebuked Republican officials for “coddling” him despite his lies and misinformation surrounding the results. 

The former adviser to the president said Mr Trump was running out of time in his presidency, as well as options to try and justifiably dispute the official projections of the 2020 US election, which showed him with 214 electoral votes compared to 273 for President-elect Joe Biden. At least 270 electoral votes are required to assume the Oval Office.

Mr Trump has not provided credible evidence of the systematic vote rigging he has long falsely claimed would plague his re-election odds. Furthermore, several of his campaign’s lawsuits have already been tossed out in states where he was apparently seeking to overturn Mr Biden’s victories for the Democratic Party, with key battlegrounds like Arizona and Pennsylvania flipping from red to blue.

The president has lied on several occasions about the results of the election even before votes were counted across the country, claiming he could only lose if the vote was rigged.

But to Mr Bolton, the “real issue” was the “grievous harm he is causing to public trust in America’s constitutonal system.”

“Trump's time is running out, even as his rhetoric continues escalating. And time is running out for Republicans who hope to maintain the party's credibility, starting with Georgia's two Senate runoffs in January,” Mr Bolton said. “Here is the cold political reality: Trump is enhancing his own brand (in his mind) while harming the Republican brand. The party needs a long internal conversation about the post-Trump era, but first it needs to get there honorably.”

“For the good of America, the 2020 election needs to be brought expeditiously to the conclusion that all logic tells us is coming,” he concluded. “National security requires that the transition get underway effectively. These are Republican values. We will acknowledge reality sooner or later. For the good of the party as well as the country, let's make it sooner.”