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Jun 2020
41m 56s

Don't buy John Bolton's book. Listen to ...

Vox
About this episode

Zack, Jenn, and Alex go through the published excerpts from and quotes of John Bolton’s new book — a tell-all about his time as Trump’s national security adviser. They talk about the most shocking moment in the text, Trump’s alleged support for China putting Uighur Muslims in concentration camps, and run through some of the other revealing moments in the book and what they tell us about the way US foreign policy works today. Then they zoom out to this context: How much should we trust John Bolton’s version of events, and how angry should we be about his book coming out now rather than during Trump’s impeachment?


References:


Here are the three main write-ups of Bolton’s book in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Washington Post.


This is Bolton’s other book Alex mentioned.


Vox’s Jen Kirby has a helpful explainer on the Uighur issue.


Kirby also has a great piece on the seven most disturbing allegations in Bolton’s new book.


Hosts:

Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp), senior correspondent, Vox

Jennifer Williams (@jenn_ruth), senior foreign editor, Vox

Alex Ward (@AlexWardVox), national security reporter, Vox

 

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