"Trump has lost the election and his claims of election fraud are baseless," says John Bolton. "Where is the evidence?"
Here is the transcript of John Bolton's appearance on Sunday's ABC "This Week":
MARTHA RADDATZ, "THIS WEEK" CO-ANCHOR: And here to talk about that divide, Former National Security Adviser to President Trump, Ambassador John Bolton. Good morning, Ambassador.
You just heard what those voters said about this election. More than 72 million are not seeing the outcome they wanted and the nation really is deeply divided. There were thousands of Trump supporters marching in D.C. yesterday.
How does your party, the Republican Party, address that?
JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, I think it's very important for leaders of the Republican Party to explain to our voters, who are not as stupid as the Democrats think, that in fact Trump has lost the election and his claims of election fraud are baseless.
The fact is that we've seen litigation in all the key battleground states and it has failed consistently. Right now the Trump campaign is doing the legal equivalent of pitching pennies. Where are their silver dollars? Where is the evidence?
I think as every day goes by, it's clearer and clearer there isn't any evidence. But if the Republican voters are only hearing Donald Trump's misrepresentations, it's not surprising that they believe it.
It's critical for other Republican leaders to stand up and explain what actually happened. Donald Trump lost what by any evidence we have so far was a free and fair election.
RADDATZ: But you haven't seen that from Republican leaders. Very few of them are accepting those results.
So what happens? I mean you can talk about that all you want, but they're not doing it.
BOLTON: Well, I think they're getting ready to do it. I’ve said I think this is a character test for the Republican Party.
I don't buy the argument that Donald Trump has hypnotized Republican voters or they're not capable of accepting the truth. This is a myth that's being perpetrated that's simply not true. But it requires people to explain what happened.
The Trump campaign simply has no evidence. Their basic argument is this was a conspiracy so vast and so successful that there's no evidence of it. Now if that's true, I really want to know who the people are who pulled this off. We need to hire them at the CIA.
The fact is this is all blue smoke and mirrors. I think people will accept that if they see leaders they respect explain it to them.
RADDATZ: Probably not those voters I talked to.
But you worked for President Trump. You know his demeanor and temperament. What do you make of his refusal to concede this race?
BOLTON: Well, if he had any character, I would say it's perfectly in character. It displeases him when reality doesn't conform to the image that he has of it.
I do not expect him to go graciously. I do expect him to go. But I think pretty soon we'll get the stab in the back theories. We'll get the dark conspiracy theories continued. And he will make life as difficult as he can for the incoming Biden administration.
I think that harms the country. I’ve been through five separate transitions and I know how difficult it is coming in and going out. And every day that he delays under the pretense that he's simply asking for his legal remedies ultimately is to the country's disadvantage, certainly in the national security space, and I think given (ph) the coronavirus pandemic and the effective distribution of the vaccine and a range of other things as well.
So this is something he needs to get over. And, again, I just think it requires Republicans to explain that in the nature of things we need a transition and we should proceed with it as soon as we can.
RADDATZ: Let's talk about national security. You say it is a danger. Biden has not received that daily presidential briefing.
Do you believe that is a real national security concern?
BOLTON: Well, I think it goes beyond that. Look, Trump doesn't pay any attention to the daily briefings either which will -- it will be a plus for the country when we have a president who actually cares to know what's going on in the rest of the world.
But it's much more complicated than just the president. The national security decision making process is cumbersome. Everybody agrees with that. There are a lot of different perspectives and a lot of different information that has to be considered.
So, really, the whole transition process itself at the State Department, at the Defense Department, at Homeland Security, in the intelligence community, really across the whole government, not just for the transition team to be sure they understand the issues that the new administration will face, but to move forward with the selection process for cabinet secretaries, White House advisers, the teams at various departments, this nomination and confirmation process is already beyond description in how lengthy and time-consuming and hard it is to do.
(CROSSTALK)
MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC NEWS HOST: Ambassador, I want to -- I want to --
BOLTON: Just like in the --
RADDATZ: I want to talk about what the president did this week, that purging at the Pentagon, at the NSA, at Homeland Security. What do you think he's up to? Is this trying to get troops out of Afghanistan rapidly? Is this a planned strike on Iran? What do you think he's up to and how dangerous or not is that?
BOLTON: Well, the primary motivation is personal peak. I hope that's right. There are rumors about other things, perhaps creating facts on the ground for the Obama administration -- sorry, Freudian slip -- for the Biden administration, by withdrawing Trumps in Afghanistan, releasing documents relating to the Russia collusion charge. It's hard to say.
But it's destructive. I mean, when you decapitate the Office of the Secretary of Defense with less than ten weeks to go in the administration, really it’s -- it's very damaging, not just for the current administration, but for the incoming administration as well.
RADDATZ: OK. Thank you so much for joining us this morning, Ambassador Bolton. Always great to see you.
BOLTON: Thanks for having me.
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"It's not over til it's over." Yogi Berra
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