“Like Impeachment 1.0, the 2021 edition is badly conceived, poorly executed, and likely to produce precisely what the first round did: results 180 degrees contrary to the objectives that impeachment supporters say they want,” Bolton wrote in the National Review. “Like the first, it is too narrowly drawn (first Ukraine, now the Capitol desecration) and was rushed through the House on largely partisan lines. Neither scenario is the right way to do impeachments, 50 percent of which in U.S. history have occurred in the past twelve months.”

Bolton warned Trump’s first acquittal in the Senate “emboldened and enabled him” instead of “deterring and constraining” the former president, forecasting a second acquittal could do the same as he enters his post-White House life.