Bolton calls on GOP leadership to label Trump’s behavior ‘inexcusable’

Former national security adviser John Bolton is calling on Republican Party leadership to condemn President Trump’s post-election behavior as “inexcusable” for the sake of the GOP. 

Bolton during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday said that describing Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results as a “nonviolent attempt at coup” gives “Trump too much credit.”

“I think he’s just playing for time in hopes that something will emerge that allows him either to have a good reason why he’s lost or in his mind, maybe still to win,” he said. “But I think that simply emphasizes the need for senior Republican leaders to join those who have begun to come out and say Trump’s behavior is inexcusable.” 

{mosads}”The Republican Party is not going to be saved by hiding in a spider hole,” he added. “We need all of our leaders to come out and say, ‘the election is over.’ We’re not talking about an abstract right for Trump to use his legal remedies. We’ve passed that.”

Trump’s former adviser also said that for Republican leaders that are “worried about Trump’s reaction, there’s strength in numbers”

“The more who come out and say, ‘He doesn’t represent us – he is not following a Republican game plan here,’ the safer they will be,” Bolton said. 

Trump has refused to concede to President-elect Joe Biden, who was declared as the election’s winner more than two weeks ago. Instead, the president’s campaign filed a series of lawsuits in several battleground states contesting the vote and falsely alleging widespread voter fraud, in moves that Bolton on Sunday called “an exercise of raw political power.”

Bolton also said he thinks Biden will be sworn in as president, but “the real question now is how much damage Trump can do before that happens.”

“The Republican Party is not going to be saved by hiding in a spider hole. We need all of our leaders to come out and say, ‘the election is over.’ We’re not talking about an abstract right for Trump to use his legal remedies. We’ve passed that,” John Bolton says. #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/ylcvXZyueo

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) November 22, 2020