Navarro says claim Trump asked China's Xi for reelection help a 'John Bolton fantasy'

White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro during an interview on CNN's State of the Union refuted John Bolton's claim that President Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win reelection.

The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday printed an essay that it said was "adapted" from former National Security Advisor Bolton's book, "The Room Where It Happened," which is slated for release on Tuesday.  

Bolton said that President Trump "turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win." Bolton wrote that "He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome." 

Bolton wrote: "I would print Trump’s exact words, but the government’s prepublication review process has decided otherwise."

CNN's Jake Tapper asked Navarro directly: "But did President Trump ask President Xi to help him win election?"

Referencing the title of Bolton's book, Navarro said that he "was in those rooms too," and Bolton's claims are "just silly because this president has been the toughest president on China of any American president ever."

"But yes or no, did he ask President Xi to help him win reelection?" Tapper pressed.

"Oh come on Jake, come on, come on," Navarro said. "That's a John Bolton fantasy." 

"What do you mean come on?" Tapper said. "He did with Russia and Ukraine."

"I never heard that, I was in the room. [U.S. Trade Representative] Lighthizer never heard it, he was in the room," Navarro said.