Susan Rice confronted John Bolton face to face over his failure to testify in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
Rice, who served as former President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, shared a stage Wednesday with Trump’s former national security adviser at Vanderbilt University, and she confronted Bolton over keeping quiet about his concerns over Ukraine, reported The Guardian.
“I can’t imagine withholding my testimony with or without a subpoena,” Rice said. “I would feel like I was shamefully violating the oath that I took to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.”
Bolton had refused to testify during the House impeachment inquiry, but said last month he would testify in the Senate trial, if subpoenaed — but Republican senators unsurprisingly voted against hearing from new witnesses.
“I said I would testify if subpoenaed,” Bolton told Rice. “My position is exactly the same as Joe Biden.”
Rice quickly slapped back.
“Except Joe Biden didn’t have firsthand knowledge about what transpired with Ukraine,” she said.
“When I was the sitting national security advisor in 2016, I was called to testify in front of the House select committee about Benghazi,” Rice said. “The last thing I wanted to do was take time away from my duty as national security adviser. But I did so voluntarily, I wasn’t subpoenaed.”
The university did not live stream the event or post audio of the exchange online, but the Vanderbilt Hustler student newspaper reported on the exchange, in addition to other reporters in attendance.