A speechwriter for former Defense Secretary James Mattis took to Twitter late Wednesday to say he “can confirm” a controversial claim in John Bolton’s bombshell book The Room Where It Happened. Guy Snodgrass wrote, “Bolton alleges Trump privately told him reporters deserve prison. ‘These people should be executed. They are scumbags.' Can confirm. This sentiment expressed again [and again] during Trump's meeting with Mattis in the Pentagon.” Bolton, former National Security Adviser to president Donald Trump, is set to publish a memoir with a number of explosive claims about his time working in the White House next week. The Trump administration has sued to either block the book’s distribution or take its proceeds. Mattis, like Bolton, has also turned on the president, calling him unfit for office and a danger to the American people last week.
