President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the InterContinental Barclay New York hotel during the United Nations General Assembly, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

John Bolton is apparently among the living.

After months of speculation, leaks, and underhandedness by the former National Security Advisor, he’s finally decided to speak publicly about some of his accusations regarding Donald Trump and Ukraine. You’ll be less than shocked to learn that he chose a hack like Chris Matthews to give an interview to.

If he’s trying to appear sincere, he’s doing a terrible job at it.

BREAKING: John Bolton spoke publicly for the first time since the impeachment trial. He was asked whether he thought Trump's July 25 call was “perfect.” Bolton says “you'll love Chapter 14” of his book.#Hardball pic.twitter.com/FBr4jQIiDf — Hardball (@hardball) February 18, 2020

Amazingly, John Bolton managed to tick everyone off by speaking out. Liberals are very upset with him for not dropping bombs on Trump during impeachment, instead urging them to buy his book to find out what he thinks. That sales pitch isn’t going over very well.

Money before country. The @AmbJohnBolton way. That’s his legacy. — andy lassner (@andylassner) February 18, 2020

No interest in buying or reading his damned book. #BoycottBoltonsBook — martyrabkin (@martyrabkin) February 18, 2020

Can you blame them for being angry? If I were so invested in the removal of Donald Trump and had deluded myself into thinking that John Bolton was the savior, I’d be pretty mad if all I got was a link to a book pre-order page. Even as the hype has died down, he’s still refusing to comment on the leaks that sought to breath new life into impeaching Trump.

Here’s what these people don’t understand though. If John Bolton had “the goods,” he wouldn’t be stringing this out. He’d have rushed publication of his book, testified, and become a #resistance hero. Look at how well James Comey’s book did. The pre-release excerpts did nothing to hurt sales. If you go after Trump, the left will shower you with cash. But with Bolton, he’s refused to even confirm the descriptions of passages which leaked the week prior to Trump’s acquittal. Why? Because it’s pretty obvious that all they contain are his opinions, which we already got from his assistant that testified. There’s clearly no smoking gun here.

Meanwhile, Bolton’s coyness and and general grift regarding this book aren’t going to earn him any good will among conservatives either. Somehow, Bolton managed to walk away from this with less friends on both sides than he had before. Perhaps CNN will throw him a bone as an analyst? They seem to have made a sport out of hiring anti-Trump, former officials.

Front-page contributor for RedState. Visit my archives for more of my latest articles and help out by following me on Twitter @bonchieredstate. Read more by Bonchie