Trump attacks Woodward, but throwing his book may not work

President Trump and his White House allies launch a counter-attack on Bob Woodward's book, but let's just say he's not an Omarosa.

As a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who writes books about presidents since Richard Nixon, he can not be simply dismissed as a third-rate hacker or as someone with an ax. Woodward has hundreds of hours of recorded interviews with the White House and other sources for "fear" as well as internal documents.

But the president nevertheless tries, telling the Daily Caller: "It's just another bad book, it has had a lot of credibility problems." Yesterday, he told reporters that "the book does not mean anything, it is a work of fiction … He had the same problem with the other presidents".

Senior officials have precipitated denials of denigrating comments attributed to them. And Trump tweeted:

"The Woodward book has already been refuted and discredited by the general [Secretary of Defense] James Mattis and the General [Chief of Staff] John Kelly, "he wrote on Twitter". Their quotes were frauds, a con on the public. Similarly other stories and quotes. Woodward is an agent of the Dem? Notice the timing? "

Sorry, rejecting Bob Woodward as a possible Democratic agent is simply not enough. He made a difficult book about the White House Clinton and a revealing look at the treatment of military conflict by the Obama White House.

Another tweet – "I do not know why Washington politicians do not change the laws on defamation?" – reflects the president's biggest frustration with the press. According to the case law of the Supreme Court, a public figure must prove that the work of a journalist is not only wrong, but that he acted with malice or reckless disregard for whether it was true or not. no. How exactly would the president change that?

Woodward is not perfect. His books are still controversial. It has long been criticized that people who cooperate with him are presented with more sympathy than those who do not (although this is a problem for all journalists). And some of his anecdotes are often denied.

Namely: you have John Kelly, describing the president as "offside" and presiding over "Crazytown", denying some of the quotes that have been attributed to him. You have Jim Mattis, described as saying that the president operates at a level of fifth or sixth year, calling the book "fiction". You have lawyer John Dowd, denying telling Trump that he could either refuse to sit down with Bob Mueller, or face life in an "orange jumpsuit". These are strong statements.

But I watched Woodward closely and he did not invent things. Sources may have misinformed, have faulty memories or have agendas. But he does not write fiction.

"It's just another bad book, it has had a lot of credibility problems," Trump told the Daily Caller.

And by denying that he called Jeff Sessions "mentally retarded" or "silly southerner," Trump told Woodward, "He did that to divide!"

But Trump tweeted five years ago: "Only the WH of Obama can get away with attacking Bob Woodward."

And on the fascinating audio of Trump 's appeal in August in Woodward, saying that no one had told him about the reporter' s multiple interview requests, the president said: "I 'm not sure. would have liked to talk to you.You know I'm very open to I think you've always been right. "But once the snippets hit the fan, not so much.

By the way, I went through something similar with my book "Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press and The War Over the Truth". I asked several high – level people for a presidential interview, nothing happened, and two weeks before the press launch, I received a surprise call that I 'd like. went without more time to arrange an interview.

My book, in addition to the hostility of the media, often described staff members and counselors seeking to prevent the president from taking what they considered erroneous decisions, to limit his personal attacks or to clean up impulsive messages. Such internal struggles have also been reported in countless articles. So, is it really surprising that this is what Woodward describes as a "nervous breakdown" in the executive branch?

What is also remarkable is that Woodward has not been a deceiver. Unlike his former partner, Carl Bernstein, who attacked a "malignant presidency" and said after excerpts from the "fear" that Trump's mandate is a "national emergency," Woodward said some reports were unfair to President. He appeared regularly on Fox as well as on other networks.

Here is an excerpt that has been largely neglected. Woodward reports that Kelly said at a meeting: "I'm the only one protecting the press president, the press is there to look for him, they want to destroy him, and I'm determined to the bullets and taking the arrows. "

The book portrays an ugly image of a chaotic white house, but the largely antagonistic role of the media is also part of the portrait.