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Continetti: Bolton’s Book Won’t Change Minds

Washington Free Beacon founding editor Matthew Continetti said Wednesday that former national security adviser John Bolton's new book will not change many minds because Bolton faces criticism from both sides of the aisle.

"I'm not sure that the Bolton narrative will change many minds," Continetti said on Fox News's Special Report. "Especially since you have one group, the Trump supporters, saying that Bolton is a traitor and the other group, the Democrats, who we heard in the opening clips saying, 'Now you tell us [after impeachment failed]. You're no good to us now.'"

Bolton joins former secretary of state Rex Tillerson, secretary of defense James Mattis, chief of staff John Kelly, and attorney general Jeff Sessions in publicly criticizing Trump's management after leaving the administration. But Continetti said Trump's image is likely to withstand Bolton's narrative.

"When you read the Trump in the Bolton excerpt, he's not much different than the Trump in public," he said.

Continetti argued that Trump has done publicly much of what Bolton writes that the president did privately, including calling on China to investigate Hunter Biden.

In an excerpt of his new book published in the Wall Street Journal, Bolton criticized Trump's China policies, which Bolton said included Trump asking Chinese president Xi Jinping for help in the upcoming presidential election.

Continetti concluded that Bolton's book will be a bestseller, but the fact that his narrative does not please either side of the political spectrum means it will probably not turn the presidential election.