John Bolton is blitzing the media to insist he wasn't fired

(Image credit: Andrew Harnik/AP)

published 10 September 2019

John Bolton is taking a page out of his former boss's book.

President Trump said Tuesday that he fired his national security adviser the night before, but Bolton has since claimed that he chose to resign Tuesday morning. And in a true Trumpian "can't let it go" fashion, Bolton is embarking on a texting spree to set the record straight.

After his original ouster-denying tweet, Bolton quickly fired a text to Fox News' Brian Kilmeade that read "Let's be clear, I resigned," which Kilmeade read on the air. He sent the same message to The Washington Post's Robert Costa. Bolton then elaborated in a text to NBC News: "I offered to resign last night. [Trump] never asked for it, directly or indirectly. I slept on it, and resigned this morning."

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At that point, the White House got on the phone. "Last night, Potus said he wanted Bolton’s resignation on his desk tomorrow AM. Bolton delivered it," Trump's Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a text to The Daily Beast. Cue a text back from Bolton, alleging simply that the "press secretary statement is flatly incorrect."

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.