Bob Woodward: Trump’s aides stole his papers ‘to protect the country’
“Woodward offers a devastating portrait of a dysfunctional Trump White House, detailing how senior aides — both current and former Trump administration officials — grew exasperated with the President and increasingly worried about his erratic behavior, ignorance and penchant for lying.”
Chief of staff John Kelly describes Trump as an “idiot” and “unhinged,” Woodward reports. Defense Secretary James Mattis describes Trump as having the understanding of “a fifth or sixth grader.” And Trump’s former personal lawyer John Dowd describes the President as “a fucking liar,” telling Trump he would end up in an “orange jump suit” if he testified to special counsel Robert Mueller.
“The book also has stunning new details about Trump’s obsession with the Russia probe, describing for the first time confidential conversations between the President’s lawyers and Mueller. It recounts a dramatic session in the White House residence in which Trump failed a mock Mueller interview with his lawyers.”
“Dowd and Trump’s current personal attorney Jay Sekulow went to Mueller’s office and re-enacted the mock interview. Their goal: to argue that Trump couldn’t possibly testify because he was incapable of telling the truth.”
“A recurrent theme in Woodward’s book is Trump’s seeming disregard for national security concerns because of his obsession with money — trade deficits and the cost of troops overseas.”
Several people have denied saying the things attributed to them, which seems odd since Woodward says he taped his interviews. In fact, he actually released an 11-minute phone call with Trump himself, during which Woodward caught both Trump and Kellyanne Conway in lies or deceptions.
Here is the actual tape:
Once again, I disagree with the way Woodward did this. He should:
FIRST: make the claim of what transpired in the conversations.
THEN: wait for the denunciation from the White House.
THEN: release the transcript of the tapes.
THEN: wait to see if the White House claims the transcript is doctored.
THEN: release the actual tapes.
This is the process which makes it clear that the book’s claims are accurate and the denials are lies. I hate to admit it, but Omarosa did this correctly. At this point nobody will deny any of her claims because it’s now evident that she based the book on her actual taped conversations. The people who first came forward with denials have been exposed as liars, which deters anybody else from offering disingenuous denials.
Of course, Woodward is a professional journalist. He presumably eschews the ambush style of Omarosa, and he is unlikely to release transcripts of conversations held on deep background, but you have to admit that her methods worked. She’s the one whose claims now seem impregnable.
Anyway, here is Woodward outfoxing Trump and Conway.
Trump
Woodward explained that he’s disappointed Trump didn’t sit down for an interview for the book and said he put in several requests. At first, Trump said he didn’t know anything about it. ‘It’s really too bad, because nobody told me about it.'”
“Sen. (Lindsey) Graham said he had talked to you about talking to me. Now, is that not true?”
“Senator Graham actually mentioned it quickly in one meeting. That is true. That is true.”
Conway
“I put in the request (for the interview). But you know, they — it was rejected. I can only take it so far.”
It was a surreal moment, since Conway has direct access to the President.
“I presented it to the people here who make those decisions, but …”
“Who are the people?” Woodward interrupted.
Conway didn’t answer. “Anyway, I’ll give you back to the President.”