Glenn Kirschner To John Bolton: 'Woman Up'

By Aliza Worthington — November 23, 2019

MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner joined Ali Velshi to talk about a series of coy tweets from former Ambassador John Bolton. Bolton has been off twitter for a couple of months, apparently, and is now back on the platform, playing footsie with the idea of dropping significant information about the "backstory" of those two months. Velshi called the tweets "fun" and (hopefully) with tongue in cheek, exclaimed, "Juicy deliciousness, Glenn Kirschner." He asked Kirschner what he thought Bolton meant by these tweets.

Kirschner was neither impressed nor amused. He pointed to the fact that some very strong and powerful women lower down on the employee chain have had the fortitude and sense of duty to come forward and withstand the heat. Citing Marie Yovanovitch and Dr. Fiona Hill, Kirschner dispensed with the tired phrase "manning up" and instead told Bolton to "woman up."

KIRSCHNER: I think it's pretty sad the way John Bolton is going about sort of putting these things in the public square. I mean, plus one point for Bolton for telling Dr. Fiona Hill, "Go report this to the NSC lawyers because I'm not going to be part of the Sondland/Mulvaney drug deal," that is the illegal bribery scheme that was headed up by Donald Trump. So, plus one point there. Now, minus two points for, one, not walking down yourself. We don't know if he did it. Not walking down yourself and reporting it to the NSC lawyers. But even worse than that, for him to kind of throw out these teasers, rather than, I'd like to use the term "manning up," but I think after we've seen Dr. Hill and Marie Yovanovitch, I think the more appropriate word is "WOMAN up," and get in front of Congress, get in front of the American people and testify.

Seriously. Bolton sent his employee to the NSC lawyers, but did HE go? SHE testified, but HE won't?

Velshi, because he is kind, probably, tried to give Bolton an out, saying perhaps it's cynical to assume he's just teasing the info because a forthcoming book, rather than having a good reason for not simply giving what he knows up to Congress. He asked Kirschner if there might be a good reason for Bolton to be resisting testifying before the House Intelligence Committee in the hearings. How might he handle executive privilege issues, for example? Kirschner was ready.

KIRSCHNER: Yes. Here's what he does. He does exactly what Dr. Fiona Hill did. He invokes executive privilege when it's appropriate to do it, but he ignores this ridiculous claim that there is absolute immunity preventing him from testifying. The court, the one time addressed it, it was John Bates in 2008, and he said, there is no such thing under the Constitution. He needs to woman up. He needs to get in there, invoke executive privilege when it's appropriate, just like Dr. Hill did, but come on, testify and tell the American people what in the world was going on with this drug deal.

Woman up. It should become part of the regular lexicon. Put it into heavy rotation. Or listen to the great Betty White, who said this very thing years ago. Of course, she said it better than anyone: