Bolton down the hatches

Reentering from right field comes former national security adviser John Bolton, on the eve of the publication of his tell-all “The Room Where It Happened.” The long-delayed book gives eyewitness confirmation to the heart of last winter’s impeachment drama: Trump’s quid pro quo shakedown of Ukraine, a promised exchange of military support for an election-year announcement of an investigation of Joe Biden and his family.

Bolton’s testimony under oath back then could have had significant impact. Instead, he played games. Via the same lawyer as his NSC deputy Charles Kupperman, Bolton let it be known that he would fight a Democratic subpoena. But had Bolton testified, he could have laid his cards on the table.

And not only with additional details on Ukraine. Bolton’s book asserts that Trump urged China to boost Trump’s reelection by lowering the price of soybeans to help U.S. farmers; encouraged Chinese President Xi’s building of “de facto concentration camps” for the Uighur Muslim minority; and repeatedly tried to insert himself in Justice Department investigations of foreign companies.

This would not have produced conviction in a Republican Senate but could have produced enough “yes” votes to demonstrate that majorities in both chambers wanted Trump out of office.

That opportunity is lost. Now, after the president’s failed furious flailing to prevent publication on the ridiculous grounds that his “every conversation” is classified, the American people have to settle for a damning insider tell-all that confirms what most of us already knew: The president is unfit to serve.