A lifelong Republican, former National Security Adviser
John Bolton won't vote for
President Trump in November, telling Britain's Telegraph newspaper that Trump does not represent the
Republican Party."In 2016 I voted for Trump over
Hillary Clinton," Bolton told the Telegraph. "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.""I don't think he's fit for office," Bolton told ABC News in an interview that aired Sunday. "I'm not gonna vote for him in November. Certainly not gonna vote for
Joe Biden either," he added, referring to the presumptive
Democratic nominee, saying he will "figure out a conservative Republican to write in."Bolton served as Trump's national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019, a stint he writes about in his forthcoming memoir, The Room Where It Happened. The
Trump Administration tried to block the book's release, but a judge on Saturday ruled against "a nationwide seizure and destruction of a political memoir."Reporters who have read the book say Bolton claims Trump begged Chinese President
Xi Jinping to help him win re-election, approved of
China building Uighur concentration camps, and called journalists "scumbugs" who should "be executed." UPDATE: The Telegraph reported that Bolton was voting for Biden, and an earlier version of this article cited that report, but Bolton spokeswoman Sarah Tinsley later clarified that Bolton "never said he planned to vote for Joe Biden." This article has been updated accordingly. We apologize for the confusion.