Mike Pompeo on Bolton’s Book: ‘Lies’ by a ‘Traitor’

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday lambasted John Bolton for pushing various “lies” through his upcoming and already controversial memoir about working for President Donald Trump, dismissing the former White House national security advisor as a “traitor.”

In a statement, Pompeo acknowledged that he had not read Bolton’s book — The Room Where It Happened, — which the Trump administration is trying to prevent from being published, arguing that he has not completed a security review process for classified information.

Citing excerpts, however, the secretary of state said;

John Bolton is spreading a number of lies, fully-spun half-truths, and outright falsehoods. It is both sad and dangerous that John Bolton’s final public role is that of a traitor who damaged America by violating his sacred trust with its people. To our friends around the world: you know that President Trump’s America is a force for good in the world.

In the excerpts published in several major newspapers, including the leftist New York Times (NY), Bolton claimed Pompeo — who has never publicly clashed with Trump — belittled the president in private.

Bolton alleged Pompeo passed him a note during President Trump’s historic first denuclearization meeting in June 2018 with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in Singapore, reviling the commander-in-chief for being “so full of shit.”

On Wednesday, Jake Sherman from Politico wrote on Twitter that an unnamed person close to Pompeo “denied the note-passing incident.”

“The only person full of shit is John Bolton. The secretary is not a note passer. And if he has such a note, he should put up or shut up,” the anonymous source declared.

A person close to @SecPompeo — who insisted on anonymity — denied the note-passing incident: "The only person full of shit is John Bolton. The secretary is not a note passer. And if he has such a note, he should put up or shut up."

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) June 18, 2020

In 2018, Pompeo went to North Korea four times to kickstart negotiations for a denuclearization deal in exchange for relief from crippling sanctions against the rogue regime.

Bolton reportedly asserted in his memoir, however, that the secretary of state dismissed Trump’s efforts in North Korea, saying it had “zero probability of success” a month after the summit in Singapore back in 2018, according to the Times.

Bolton, a longtime critic of diplomacy with North Korea, claimed he resigned from his position at the White House in September 2019, but Trump insisted that he fired him, claiming he and other members of this administration disagreed with the former official over his suggestions.

Bolton’s hawkish, neoconservative views towards foreign policy, particularly in regards to Iran, North Korea, and Afghanistan, never meshed with Trump’s America First policy, which has so far avoided starting any new wars.