John Bolton: I Cannot Vote for Donald Trump

Embattled ex-national security adviser John Bolton, kicking off a massive book tour, said in an interview published Sunday said that he can no longer support his former boss for a second term.

Speaking with The Daily Telegraph about his new book, "The Room Where It Happened," Bolton explained that after seeing Trump behind the scenes he was forced to support another candidate.

Originally, the Telegraph interpreted Bolton's statement as an admission that he would be voting for former Vice President Joe Biden.

But a Bolton spokeswoman quickly issued a statement saying that was incorrect.

"This statement is incorrect. The Ambassador never said he planned to vote for Joe Biden," Bolton spokesperson Sarah Tinsley told Axios on Sunday. "He has consistently said in recent days he will be writing in the name of a conservative Republican. Let there be no doubt - he will not be voting for Trump or Biden."

In the interview, Bolton never explicitly stated he was voting for Biden. That was how the newspaper interpreted his statements.

“In 2016 I voted for Trump over Hillary Clinton,” he told the newspaper. “Now, having seen this president up close, I cannot do this again. My concern is for the country, and he does not represent the Republican cause that I want to back.”

Bolton was ousted from the White House last year after just over a year on the National Security Council.

“The president does not have a philosophical grounding or strategy,” Bolton told the Telegraph. “He does not know the difference between the national interest of the U.S., and the interests of Donald Trump. There is confusion over the national interest and his personal interest, which is very dangerous for the country.

“When you are in a senior position you have an obligation to tell the truth,” he added. "I was concerned after 17 months in the administration that he (Mr Trump) did not have the requisite competence to be president, and the American people need to know about that.”

Bolton also pushed back on allegations that his book contained details of highly classified government operations — an allegation made Sunday by White House trade adviser Pete Navarro.

“I have years of experience of dealing with sensitive national security issues, and I do not want to have anything in the book that might hurt America’s national interests,” Bolton said. “I wanted to lay the facts out on key foreign policy and domestic issues and let the American people decide for themselves. I want to put this in front of the American people so they can read for themselves what was really going on. This is a history of how not to be president.”

Bolton said Trump is running the country like it's " a small family-owned business, and the issues are just far too important for the country to be run like this."

The implications for foreign policy are dire, he added.

“There is no long term strategy for Russia and China,” he said. “The North Korean negotiations have failed to the extent that North Korea blew up the building it built with South Korea and has continued work on its nuclear and missile programmes. And Iran has not been contained over the past three years."