We hear all the time about hard-to-believe things that come out of the mouth of Trump. These are either from the people around us, anonymously through reporters or in bridge-burning testimonials from people formerly n his orbit.
Even after listening to all kinds of far fetched news, the first excerpts from Bob Woodward’s book landed like a nuclear bomb. The revelation that President Trump had privately acknowledged coronavirus severity was not a big headline; even as he was significantly downplaying and minimizing the threat in remarks to the American public.
What made his comment even more unimaginable, that Trump has said them to Woodward on the record. Not only did he tell them on the form, but he told them during interviews that Trump knew were going to be used in Rage, Woodward’s latest real-life political thriller, due to hit shelves on Tuesday via Simon & Schuster.
Trump said this to an author who already has an anti-Trump bestseller under his name.
The bottom line, Woodward held on to receipts. These receipts, handed over to the Washington Post and CNN to kick off the Rage publicity rollout.
Woodward is associate editor of Washington post. CNN has an amicable relationship with the former through Carl Bernstein. Both platforms released the interview within minutes of each other on Wednesday.
Trump allegedly says “I always wanted to play it down, and still like doing it.”
Woodward is just the recent in a cascade of authors in the months leading up to unrivalled national elections. Including both journalists and former Trump insiders.
Some of Trump’s most prolific chroniclers think the dirt that has spilt out of Woodward’s tome is arguably the most damaging yet. Other authors to publish a negative Trump book candidly are:
- John Bolton and Mary Trump
- Michael Schmidt
- Brian Stelter
- Stephanie Winston Wolkoff
- Peter Strzok
- Michael Cohen
Just after the news broke, Biden stood right on the track of excoriating his opponent. He roared at a campaign in Michigan, “It’s beyond despicable. It’s a dereliction of duty. It’s a disgrace.” Kayleigh McEnany, White House press secretary, desperately tried to make Trump look better in the public eye.
Woodward, as any other strong speaker, received a tremendous backlash on twitter. The issue was that he kept Trump’s comments back for his book instead of disclosing them real-time. Erik Wemple of The Post raised concerns that if Woodward can be saved from being criticized.
Another set of lit up questions that lingered over Woodward’s reporting.
The opening line of Jennifer Szalai’s review on the book summed his thought up in an excellent manner. After the Mueller report and an impeachment trial and now the coronavirus pandemic—for a revelation about the president to be truly surprising?
