John Bolton had a rough time trying to defend Trump's constant claims Russia's hacking of our 2016 presidential election is a hoax and was forced to allege there's no evidence to say he benefited from their efforts.

Really?

On Fox News Sunday Chris Wallace grilled Trump's NSA on why Trump still insists Russia's cyber-warfare was a hoax after members of his own security team and the Senate Intelligence report clearly stated Russia committed cyber-warfare to help Trump win.

Being part of the Trump administration means you have to clean up and or rewrite whatever specious claim Trump utters on Twitter or at his obnoxious rallies.

After asking him if the US had any part of an assassination attempt on Venezuela's President Maduro, Wallace turned towards Russia.

After Thursday's WH security briefing with all the high ranking members of Trump's administration to make believe Donald is on board with the seriousness of Russia's cyber-warfare, Wallace played video of Trump telling his minions "I had a great meeting with Putin. We discussed everything. I had a great meeting. Now, we are being hindered by the Russian hoax. It's a hoax, OK?"

Wallace asked, "So, Ambassador, which is it? Is Russian meddling a threat to our democracy or is it a hoax?"

Bolton tried his Kellyanne Conway impression and began by spinning his response by attacking the media, never answering the question and then telling us, Trump knew all the reasons why they held Thursday's briefing.

But that never answered Wallace's question at all.

Wallace pressed, again and again, saying, "You have the secretary of homeland security with her hair on fire saying our democracy is in the crosshairs and then you have President Trump saying we are being hindered by the Russian hoax. That's not the press making that up, that's anybody who looks at it has got to see a difference there."

Again Wallace told him that 12 Russian military officers of the GRU were indicted, Bolton agreed, and Wallace said, "That's not a hoax."

Finally, Bolton had to respond to the "Russian hoax" comment.

"I think what he's saying by the hoax is the idea that somehow the Russians directed and controlled his campaign or direct and control his administration, that there was some conspiracy or some violation of U.S. law in 2016," Bolton said.

Now Bolton claims Trump means he's not some sort of Manchurian candidate and Russia is not controlling his administration.

When has Robert Mueller mentioned something like that? Never.

Wallace pressed Bolton that the best thing Trump could have done to try and prevent election hacking in the future was publicly call out Putin over it in his Helsinki press conference. Wallace played video of Trump's pathetic and disgraceful response.

Trump said, "I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today."

Wallace said, "But why not stand there right alongside Putin, with the whole world watching and say, we are not going to stand for anymore meddling?"

Bolton's response was to use Trump's bogus claim that he misspoke. You remember the "n't" defense?

Wallace kept the pressure on by bringing Trump's rally words into play when he said again that Russia wasn't the only hacking players. Wallace said, "No, there wasn't, it was Russia that was interfering. That's what everybody's been focusing on. That's what you focused on in your briefing."

Wallace did a great job of not letting John Bolton slide into carefully coordinated talking points.

And the idea that Russia's 2016 election cyber-warfare had no direct effect on our election is preposterous.

Wikileaks provided plenty of ammunition for Trump to use in the campaign as we all know.
Facebook and other social media platforms have been forced to reconfigure how to defend against foreign interference and hackers.

If anything, the question should be how many votes were changed by Russia's interference against our democracy, Mr. Bolton.