Several resurfaced clips concerning former national security adviser John Bolton reveal that Democrats, in particular Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said his 11th hour impeachment messiah had a "lack of credibility," and was prone to "conspiracy theories" - and that Bolton thought there was nothing untoward about Trump's interactions with Ukraine.



"This is someone who's likely to exaggerate the dangerous impulses of the president toward belligerence, his proclivity to act without thinking, and his love of conspiracy theories," Schiff told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow during a March 22, 2018 appearance (via Fox News) after Bolton was named national security adviser.

"And I'll, you know, just add one data point to what you were talking about earlier, John Bolton once suggested on Fox News that the Russian hack of the DNC [Democratic National Committee] was a false flag operation that had been conducted by the Obama administration," Schiff continued. "So, you add that kind of thinking to [former U.S. attorney] Joe diGenova and you have another big dose of unreality in the White House."

Adam Schiff slams John Bolton as a liar (2018) pic.twitter.com/tXLghhpMLW — Jack Posobiec🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) January 30, 2020

And in another clip posted by Donald Trump Jr. from 2005, Schiff asks during the Bush administration "why we would want someone" like Bolton "with that lack of credibility."

Mr. Bolton has been AWOL - he's been focused more on the next job than doing well at the last job - and particularly given the history, where we've had the politicization of intelligence over WMD. Why we would pick someone who the very same issue has been raised repeatedly - that is John Bolton's politicization of the intelligence he got on Cuba and on the other issues. Why would we want someone with that lack of credibility, I can't understand.

FLASHBACK: Adam Schiff In 2005 Said John Bolton Has A “Lack Of Credibility” - YouTube https://t.co/Mc7U3rVrNa — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 30, 2020

As Fox News notes, "Then-Sen. Barack Obama, in 2005, echoed those arguments, calling Bolton "damaged goods" whose appointment as ambassador means "we will have less credibility and ironically be less equipped to reform the United Nations in the way that it needs to be reformed."

Obama separately had said that Bolton "bullies, marginalizes and undermines those who do not agree with him." Other prominent Democrats agreed at the time."

Now, however, Schiff loves the guy - telling CNN on Monday that Bolton is "essential to the "search for truth."

"I think for the senators, and I'm just not talking about the four that have been so much the focus of attention, for every senator, Democrat and Republican, I don't know how you can explain that you wanted a search for the truth in this trial and say you don't want to hear from a witness who had a direct conversation about the central allegation in the articles of impeachment," Schiff said on CNN's "New Day." Bolton himself had said in the past that he would be more than willing to lie if he felt it was in the nation's interest. “If I had to say something I knew was false to protect American national security, I would do it," Bolton said in an interview with Fox Business in 2010. -Fox News

And on Wednesday, President Trump tweeted an August 2019 clip of Bolton in which he made no mention of any quid pro quo, and that battling "corruption" was a "high priority" for the White House. Bolton said that Trump's communications with Ukraine's new President, Volodomyr Zelensky, was "cordial."