Andrea Mitchell: Bolton ‘not leaving quietly,’ will return to TV to bash Trump

MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell said Wednesday that ousted national security adviser John Bolton “is not leaving quietly” and will return to TV to voice his displeasure with President Trump.

“He was tweeting his objections. He was texting reporters including our own reporters at the White House immediately,” Mitchell told the network’s “Morning Joe” program. “I was on the air when this all happened. It happened one minute before we started our show, so we blew everything out and just went wall-to-wall for the hour, and people were texting in and showing me their texts from John Bolton as we were rocking back and forth.” 

{mosads}”The fact is he is going to be very outspoken,” the veteran Washington reported added. “He is not leaving quietly at all.”

Trump tweeted Tuesday morning that he had fired Bolton, but when news broke of his dismissal, the former top White House aide texted multiple members of the media including Fox News host Brian Kilmeade to stress that he had “resigned.” 

“John Bolton just texted me just now. He’s watching. And he said, ‘Let’s be clear, I resigned,’ ” Kilmeade, who was co-hosting “Outnumbered” on the network at the time, relayed on to the audience. “So John Bolton has just told me, texted me to say, ‘I resigned.’ “

Bolton, 70, served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under former President George W. Bush before becoming a Fox News contributor for more than a decade. 

He reportedly strongly disagreed with Trump on multiple foreign policy areas, including the president’s plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and to meet with Taliban representatives at Camp David just days before 9/11. Trump eventually canceled that meeting.

As a result of Bolton’s departure, Trump will need to find his fourth national security adviser in less than three years since taking office.