Speaking during a press conference Wednesday from Davos, Switzerland, President Trump explained why he would like former National Security Advisor John Bolton to testify, but said security issues would prevent him from doing so.
"I would rather interview a lot of people. The problem with John is it's a national security problem. You can't have someone who is national security," Trump said. "If you think about it, he knows some of my thoughts. He knows what I think about leaders. What happens if he reveals what I think about a certain leader and it's not very positive and that I have to deal on behalf of the country, it's going to be very hard. It's going to make the job very hard."
"I don't know if we left on the best of terms, I would say probably not. So you don't like people testifying when they didn't leave on good terms and that was due to me, not due to him. So we'll see what happens. But when you have a national security, you could call it presidential prerogative, you could just call it, the way I look at it, I call it national security. For national security reasons. Executive privilege. John would certainly fit into that," he continued. "I just think it's very hard. I've always gotten along, I've actually gotten along with John Bolton. He didn't get along with other people, a lot of other people but when he knows my thoughts on certain people and other governments and we're talking about massive trade deals and war and peace and all these different things we talk about, that's really a very important national security problem."
President Trump also said he would like White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney to testify, but said he's already made his statements during interviews with the press.
The remarks came after the first full day of President Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate. Bolton's name came up several times as House Democrats, who refused to follow up on their own subpoenas in court, continue to demand the Senate issue a subpoena for his testimony. Knowing he is covered by executive privilege, Bolton has stated he is willing to testify.
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