[Bolton:] He wanted a probe of Joe Biden in exchange for delivering the security assistance that was part of the congressional legislation that had been passed several years ago before. He said it to me directly that that's what he had in mind. I think Secretary Pompeo understood, the Pentagon understood, intelligence community understood, people in the White House understood.
[Berman:] So that's former National Security Adviser John Bolton telling ABC News what he refused to say during President Trump's impeachment hearings and trial. Joining me now is Congressman Jason Crow. He was one of the seven House impeachment managers. Congressman, thanks so much for being with us. So that's what he would have testified had he been put before the House during the impeachment process and presumably during the trial itself in the Senate. The fact that he was not, he says, interestingly enough, was your fault. He blamed House Democrats for how they handled the process. Listen to this.
[Bolton:] They failed utterly to accomplish what they wanted. In fact, they made things worse, because their strategy fitted with the Trump political strategy, keep it narrow and move it fast.
[Berman:] What do you say to that, Congressman?
[Rep. Jason Crow:] Well, he's clearly trying to come up with an excuse for why he didn't come forward when the country needed him the most. And when his subordinates actually had the courage to do what he didn't have the courage to do, and that was tell the story during the impeachment inquiry, tell the story during the trial. And he has to come up with a reason for why he has withheld that information conveniently right before the launch of a multi-million dollar book deal. So he's no patriot, he's no hero here. He's trying to cast blame at other places to compensate for the fact that he didn't do what he needed to do for the country at the time he needed to do it.
[Berman:] Given what we ultimately heard from Republicans in the Senate, what difference do you think it would have made?
[Crow:] I don't know what difference it would have made. My hindsight doesn't work really well right now. But it was the right thing to do, right? He had subordinates. He had and people working for him who had the courage to stand up and tell a story that needed to be heard by the American people, that needed to be heard by the Senate. His subordinates stood forward at great personal cost to actually tell an important story about egregious and deep abuses by the president of the United States to help his personal election campaign. Now, we actually provided John Bolton with that opportunity. We asked him in the last week of the impeachment trial to submit a written affidavit to tell his story. That was after it became clear that the Senate was going to engage in a cover-up and wasn't going to call him to testify. And he even declined to submit that written statement, instead waiting five months to do it as part of a book deal.
[Berman:] So inside the book, John Bolton writes about a meeting the president has with a President Xi of China who says that he then stunningly turned the conversation to the upcoming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China's economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win. He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. So, I guess, my question is now, going forward, do you think that statement is impeachable, if the president did that, is impeachable? And what happens now? Do you have any desire see something new happen with this information?
[Crow:] This is part of a pattern that the president engages in over and over and over again. And it's selling out the country, selling out our national security in exchange for his personal political benefit. Now, if you think what he says in front of a political rally or the cameras is shocking, obviously, what he says to our foreign adversaries behind closed doors is even more shocking. You know, whether it's saying to China that you can put a million Muslim Uyghurs in a kind of concentration camp if you buy a farm you know, farming and agricultural products from swing states, whether it's withholding military aid from Ukraine and then talking tough on Russia in front of the cameras, or so many other examples, where he says one thing and then does another to help his campaign. It's very dangerous. And my personal opinion here really doesn't matter. You know, what I think and what I would like to see happen is less important than how we protect the country. And how we protect the country is by getting this information out in front of the American people as quickly as possible, because the president is trying to meddle in the elections. The timing is really important here. We have to get this out quick. And we also know that the Senate is unwilling to actually discharge its obligation. The majority in the Senate is unwilling to discharge its obligation to be a separate and coequal branch and to hear this information. So we have to look at tolls we have to get the information out quickly.
[Berman:] I want to ask you something on a slightly different subject. You, of course, are a decorated military veteran who served you served at Ft. Bragg, named after the racist and quite frankly not good confederate general, Braxton Bragg. What's your feeling on renaming military bases that are currently named after confederate generals?
[Crow:] Yes. We absolutely should be naming our bases we should have our monuments upholding the values that the military stands for, upholding the values that I fought for. It shouldn't be to traitors. It shouldn't be to people who turn their back on the United States, who defended slavery in one of the darkest moments of our nation's history. We should be upholding our values and setting an example. That's why I think it's well past time that we change the names of these bases. I would be proud to have that base named after somebody who fought for and sacrificed for the values that I also fought for. You know, I trained and deployed to war at Ft. Bragg and Ft. Benning and it's well past time that those names are consistent with the values of our country.
[Berman:] It's a New York City question, not so much a Colorado question, but the statue of Teddy Roosevelt that's outside the Natural History Museum on Central Park West, the city has announced that they are going to remove that. Now, they're not wiping Teddy Roosevelt from the museum. It's that specific statue, which happens to have an African man and a Native American sort of subjugated, walking behind him there. That's why they say they're removing it. But what's your feeling in general about something like that? If you're removing names of confederate generals is one thing, but removing statues of Teddy Roosevelt, what does that say?
[Crow:] Well, that statue, that specific statue, you're right, it does portray a subjugation of Native Americans and African-Americans and it is not an appropriate statue. What we need to do is have a conversation as a country. We need to have a conversation and go through a process where we have to come to terms with some of our monuments, our statues, the names of our streets, the names of our bases, and what's appropriate for our values. And actually having that conversation, going through that process is really important. It will allow us to educate ourselves on our history, educate ourselves on the complicated course that our history has gone through. We need to go through that process and have that discussion. That discussion is valuable, but the results of that will also be valuable.
[Berman:] Congressman Jason Crow, we do appreciate your time. Thanks for being with us this morning.
[Crow:] Thank you.
[Berman:] New coronavirus cases on the rise at a major tourist hotspot. The mayor of Miami Beach in Florida joins us next.