The Washington Post has an advance copy and posted some startling revelations in its report Bob Woodward’s new book reveals a ‘nervous breakdown’ of Trump’s presidency.
>John Dowd was convinced that President Trump would commit perjury if he talked to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. So, on Jan. 27, the president’s then-personal attorney staged a practice session to try to make his point.
>In the White House residence, Dowd peppered Trump with questions about the Russia investigation, provoking stumbles, contradictions and lies until the president eventually lost his cool.
>“This thing’s a goddamn hoax,” Trump erupted at the start of a 30-minute rant that finished with him saying, “I don’t really want to testify.”
>The dramatic and previously untold scene is recounted in “Fear,” a forthcoming book by Bob Woodward that paints a harrowing portrait of the Trump presidency, based on in-depth interviews with administration officials and other principals.
>After Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate the dictator. “Let’s fucking kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the fucking lot of them,” Trump said, according to Woodward.
>Mattis told the president that he would get right on it. But after hanging up the phone, he told a senior aide: “We’re not going to do any of that. We’re going to be much more measured.”
Administrative Coup d’Etat
My favorite part of the WaPo insights involve the theft of documents right off the president’s desk.
>A central theme of the book is the stealthy machinations used by those in Trump’s inner sanctum to try to control his impulses and prevent disasters, both for the president personally and for the nation he was elected to lead.
>Woodward describes “an administrative coup d’etat” and a “nervous breakdown” of the executive branch, with senior aides conspiring to pluck official papers from the president’s desk so he couldn’t see or sign them.
>According to Woodward, Cohn “stole a letter off Trump’s desk” that the president was intending to sign to formally withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn later told an associate that he removed the letter to protect national security and that Trump did not notice that it was missing.
>Cohn made a similar play to prevent Trump from pulling the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, something the president has long threatened to do. In spring 2017, Trump was eager to withdraw from NAFTA and told Porter: “Why aren’t we getting this done? Do your job. It’s tap, tap, tap. You’re just tapping me along. I want to do this.”
>Under orders from the president, Porter drafted a notification letter withdrawing from NAFTA. But he and other advisers worried that it could trigger an economic and foreign relations crisis. So Porter consulted Cohn, who told him, according to Woodward: “I can stop this. I’ll just take the paper off his desk.”
Wow!
I have no idea what else is in book other than still more excerpts and bylines in the WaPo article.
Here is one more tidbit regarding Trump’s handling of a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.
>At the urging of advisers, he then condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis, but almost immediately told aides, “That was the biggest fucking mistake I’ve made” and the “worst speech I’ve ever given,” according to Woodward’s account.
Wow! That’s explosive stuff.
On Amazon: Fear: Trump in the White House
Disclosure: I make a few cents per book if you use that link. It does not impact the price you pay.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Was anyone suspecting anything other than more sensationalism from Woodward? A boring, functional bureaucracy laboring against itself and a bitter, embattled status quo isn’t going to sell books or serve as an effective smear piece for a msm that is consumed with covfefe typos and how many scoops of ice cream Trump eats…..
I believe Woodward about as much as I believe Trump.
I believe David Gergen about as much as I believe Woodward and Trump.
The left wins regardless: “… deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville …” Don’t know why that quote was important enough to include. Lotsa trigger words.
But the organizer was an Occupy Wall Street Obomba supporter; the police conspired with (bussed-in?) antifa to create a riot (perhaps their command was on S payroll too?); complete with a brand new nazi flag purchased by a liberal; and a death from over-eating. I guess simple sound bites camouflaging complex partisan issues are attractive to … everybody? Especially Woodward & Bernstein & the Compost Crew.
The Charlottesville rally organizer was Obama fan and Occupy Wall Street guy before starting to organize the “unite the right” insanity of attracting every nazi and loser never-do-well and some gullible people to protest in a place where police acted totally incompetently and allowed antifa and the nazis to fight without separating them.
If I would have to guess that guy is either an intelligence agency plant instructed to destroy things deep state does not like from within (Occupy Wall Street, rightist movement supporting Trump) by attracting crazies and pushing them to act even more crazy to destroy the image of Occupy Wall Street and Trump or the most incompetent and unlucky activist in the history of mankind.
Virginia governor was Clinton crony Terry McAuliffe during the Charlottesville rally so in that way it is understandable that Charlottesville police FAILED totally and completely in separating Antifa and nazis which is the most basic procedure when there are these kinds of rallies with violent idiots on both sides.
Terry McAuliffe also arranged lots of election funding for the wife of FBI 2nd in command McCabe while McCabe was involved in the Clinton email investigation…
Hmmm…published just in time for midterms by a WAPO career establishment political hack like Bob Woodward. That’s not suspicious at all.
Now time to release the “highly acclaimed” hollywood biopics on how prominent white male deplorables are destroying the country
No doubt this book will be used as ammo in the upcoming impeachment hearings. Will follow the same path as the dossier. Doesn’t matter if it’s factual or not.
“After Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017”
I don’t think that has ever been proven. I remember seeing a photo of small crater in a road, which had a tube, which was bent in the middle. Certainly not a professional device.
The early claims of use of nerve gas Sarin in the 2017 attack turned out to be FALSE according to 2018 report by OPCW.
There was traces of chlorine so chlorine gas was probably used.
However both the Assad government and Al-Qaida affiliated rebels had access to chlorine so it could have been either of them.
Assad would have to be really, really, really stupid to use even chlorine gas which is much less lethal than Sarin because before the attack Assad was winning against the Al-Qaida affiliated rebels and Trump had just stated in essence that Assad could stay in power so there was ZERO reason for Assad to use even Chlorine.
From the OPCW report:
“The results show that no organophosphorous nerve agents or their degradation products were detected in the environmental samples or in the plasma samples taken from alleged casualties. Along with explosive residues, various chlorinated organic chemicals were found in samples from two sites, for which there is full chain of custody.”
link:
“John Dowd was convinced that President Trump would commit perjury if he talked to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.”
Somebody wrote a book titled “Three Felonies a Day.” Somebody else said, “show me the man and i will show you the crime.”
Former prosecutor Sydney Powell was on Cavuto a few weeks ago and for one talked about the sham prosecution of Arthur Anderson. She said 4 innocent men went to prison and thousands lost their jobs. All from prosecutors going after underlings, to get the people at the top.
Trump has been treated with a double standard, compared to Hillary. Also, no bankers have been criminally prosecuted for massive financial crimes during the housing bubble. A few years ago i read a news story that a man who was jailed since April, had been found dead in his jail cell in August. He had allegedly stolen something worth 5 dollars. Bankers stole billions. I fail to see the justice in that.
So in your book of double standard. No criminal should be prosecuted unless all criminals are prosecuted? Just checking…
I don’t normally think of Mish as a gullible fool, but anyone who believes the story that: “Gary Cohn stole letters off Donald Trump’s desk in the Oval Office” is a gullible fool. P.S., no offense intended.
You folks are starting to defend your man like you have battered wife syndrome. It’s surreal.
What is really surreal is the politization of the FBI and DOJ. What is really surreal is the double standard being applied. What is really surreal is Russia Russia Russia.
The other half of Woodward and Bernstein got caught in a lie the other day. Surreal.
What a bunch of bullshit. Anyone that believes what this neocon rat has to write deserves every little ball of bullshit on the brain they get. What neocon tripe. Sorry for the language, but I want to be unequivocal in my condemnation. I mean, Woodward works for Jeff Bazos, need I say more?
“need I say more?”
Well I think you do. I mean you haven’t disputed any point of the article. All you have done is obfuscate…
the only fear is in the democrat party and media as they become obsolete.
Trump has been profiled imho and they know that if they goad him enough, in time, he will hurt or exhaust himself by reacting. Hence the constant poking with a stick to torment.
Topping the list: Wilson, GWB, Obama, maybe Johnson. Trump, tops when counting for sensations.
What an embarrassing post. The Washington Post? Seriously? Anything to distract from your mining stocks, down another 3 to 5% today.
Trump has had to spend his entire presidency fighting off what is likely a completely fake frame job of a Russia investigation by the deep state. His entire presidency has been clouded by something they have no proof of (yet at least). What other president has had to face anything like that from day 1? That has to take a lot of his mind share and energy. The whole reason for the investigation to begin with is very Fishy. Peter “we will stop him” Strzok running Clintons email investigation? Fake dossier used by the Obama DOJ to start spying on Trumps campaign?
What other president has had their personal attorney raided pre dawn? Campaign mgr indicted. CFO of his company granted immunity. And all the reason they could do that to Trump was a fake dossier? What would have happen if Bill Clintons personal attorney was raided when his was under investigation for Lewinsky? Or the Clinton foundation CFO was granted immunity?
He gives this Omarosa lady a job in his admin and she returns the favor by secretly taping him and writing yet another book to bash Trump? WTF? It is just endless.
Isn’t it Drumps fault that it takes up so much of his time? I mean, Mueller puts out an indictment or press release once every 3 months, but Drumpf tweets about it near daily. Methinks he doth protest too much.
Shamrock, I’m sure if you had to fight a full scale assault by the deep state spy orgnaizations trying to frame you for over two years it would take a lot of your mental energy.
Sorry dude but a president that publicly says that the justice department MUST protect two indicted republicans (for corruption mind you) pretty much tells me how corrupt he is himself.. But of course is the deep state, Obama, the elites etc that made him tweet that. LoL
I think Trump’s point was why those two republicans were charged just before elections.
Why weren’t they charged 6 months ago or after the elections?
This will lower the number of votes Republicans will get and the timing is just too good to be true for democrats.
Rosenstein and his loyal staff that Rosenstein has staffed DOJ with while Sessions was napping are hard at work.
Sessions was RECOMMENDED that he recuse himself by Obama Holdovers at DOJ, Sessions did NOT have to recuse himself by law, he just recused himself AFTER he was RECOMMENDED to recuse himself by Obama holdovers.
Among the Obama holdovers at DOJ recommending to Sessions that he should recuse himself was Tashina Gauhar.
Tashina Gauhar was the one at DOJ who received news about Clinton’s emails being found on Weiner’s laptop from FBI New York field office after NYPD had found those emails and informed NY FBI field office and subsequently both DOJ or FBI did NOTHING with the Clinton emails on Wiener’s laptop for a MONTH.
Only after someone at NYPD started raising HELL about the inaction and apparently threatened to go public was FBI forced to act and Comey told the public about the Clinton emails on Weiner’s laptop then the Trump-hater Peter Strzok looked over some of the Clinton emails on Weiner’s laptop with Tashina Gauhar for a few days and the conclusion was that there was nothing new there.
Disgraced Peter Strzok was also the FBI lead agent who interviewed Clinton about the illegal and unsecure email server earlier with softball questions, did not record the interview and wrote as recommendation that Clinton should not be prosecuted (all the while texting with Lisa Page how FBI investigation with Clinton was just a formality).
Together with Comey, McCabe and others at FBI Strzok was also involved in allowing Clinton to pick her “work” emails from the server by herself and with her lawyers(to whom Comey had given immunity) and DELETE the 30,000 emails which were NEVER seen by anyone else than Clinton and Clinton’s lawyers and which Clinton and her lawyers deemed to be non-work related (how much corruption was in those 30,000 deleted emails?) and Clinton gave FBI just those emails she and her immunity protected lawyers wanted to give to the FBI.
This was like criminals deciding what evidence FBI can collect…
Conveniently by recommending to Sessions that Sessions should recuse himself Tashina Gauhar saved her own career since if Sessions had NOT recused himself he could have investigated the Clinton emails and Weiner laptop and if there were some or ALL of the 30,000 emails Clinton and her lawyers DELETED before giving Clinton’s emails to FBI and if those emails showed corruption by Clinton then Tashina Gauhar, Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page and all other Obama holdovers in FBI, DOJ etc. that were involved in the botched and incompetent FBI investigation of Clinton emails would have had their careers ruined and charged with crimes.
Remember that Sessions recused himself while McCabe, Strzok, Page and most importantly Comey were still in their jobs and Comey was FBI leader…
Sessions was played like an idiot by Obama holdovers and people who were NECK DEEP in the botched and incompetent Clinton email investigation and it is clear that Obama holdovers recommended to Sessions that he should recuse himself to save their own careers and to protect Comey and McCabe and others who were still in place in FBI and DOJ while Sessions stupidly recused himself based on a RECOMMENDATION.
Sessions was NOT REQUIRED to recuse himself!
Sessions as a Bambi in the headlights while recusing himself after meeting Tashina Gauhar and other Obama holdovers:
“They said that since I had involvement with the campaign, I should not be involved in any campaign investigation,” Sessions said
Since Sessions recused himself Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein has effectively been Attorney General.
Rosenstein appointed Mueller.
Rosenstein approved the raids on Trump’s lawyer.
Rosenstein has staffed DOJ with employees loyal to him since Sessions did NOT have close contacts anymore who he could have elevated since he had worked in politics so long.
Trump should have fired Sessions the day he recused himself and now that the charade that is current DOJ has gone so crazy that Trump should fire both Sessions and Rosenstein. The problem is that Rosenstein has staffed DOJ with Rosenstein loyalists while Sessions has been kept busy with busy work like talking around about bla-bla-bla or doing some workplace enforcement raid here or there.
Only good hing Sessions has done is to STOP accepting asylum claims based on claims of spousal abuse and gang threats that Obama started and which are NOT accepted in any other country in the world as basis for asylum claims.
However Republican idiots like Kevin Yoder have gone along with democrats and are trying to reverse this only accomplishment of Sessions.
Sessions multiplying the detention of kids and multiplying the separation of kids from their parents that Obama started was total incompetence from Sessions because it was stupid policy and INHUMANE policy and it fired up democrats.
The new flood of asylum seekers was attracted to come to USA in 2018 by the totally INCOMPETENT Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen (recommended to the job by General Kelly who thinks Trump is an Idiot and whose assistant Kirstjen Nilsen was when Kelly headed Homeland Security).
Kirstjen Nielsen started running ads in local radio stations in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador telling people that they should only come to USA if they are fleeing something and are in danger (Nielsen stated this in Congressional testimony)and this attracted lots of people to come (since then the Obama era incompetent asylum rules were still in place meaning people could ask for asylum based on claims of spousal abuse in Guatemala or gang threat in El Salvador).
Nielsen also stated publicly that people should come if they are fleeing something and need to seek asylum from USA. This was a similar statement from Nielsen as Merkel’s “there is NO limit on how many asylum seekers Germany takes” statement.
Merkel did NOT run local radio ads in Turkey and Syria telling people to come seek asylum in USA so Nielsen is more INCOMPETENT and CLUELESS than Merkel.
Sessions response to this new flood created by Kirstjen Nielsen was to multiply detention and separation of children from their parents that had been used since 2014 by Obama.
This created a political self-destruct mode for republicans because Sessions policy was INHUMANE and unneccessary.
This was incompetent and clueless move from Sessions because Attorney General has authority to STOP accepting asylum claims on the USA-Mexico border and this right by AG has NO judicial review according to law so Sessions could have STOPPED accepting asylum claims at the border or after border and just told people to stay in Mexico or immediately returned people getting to US side of the border back to Mexico…
8 U.S. Code § 1158:
(2) Exceptions
(A) Safe third country
Paragraph (1) shall not apply to an alien if the Attorney General determines that the alien may be removed, pursuant to a bilateral or multilateral agreement, to a country (other than the country of the alien’s nationality or, in the case of an alien having no nationality, the country of the alien’s last habitual residence) in which the alien’s life or freedom would not be threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, and where the alien would have access to a full and fair procedure for determining a claim to asylum or equivalent temporary protection
(3) Limitation on judicial review
No court shall have jurisdiction to review any determination of the Attorney General under paragraph (2)
Both USA and Mexico belong to a multilateral agreement called Geneva Convention, Mexico is a SAFE ENOUGH country that does NOT persecute people, Geneva Convention only forbids returns to borders where people are in danger or persecuted so IF Sessions would just wake up he could according to 8 U.S. Code § 1158 STOP accepting asylum applications in the US-Mexico border and return everyone caught inside USA immediately back to Mexico even if they asked for asylum.
If Syria was next to USA then USA would be forced to take their asylum applications at the border or if they got inside USA.
However USA is next to Mexico…
Sessions is totally incompetent AG and the Trump administration is full of incompetent people because they have not realized that Sessions could STOP accepting asylum applications at US-Mexico border and Sessions could STOP accepting asylum applications also from those that sneak to USA.
France has closed their borders for migrants and asylum seekers trying to get France from Italy since summer of 2015 and if a migrant asks asylum at the border French border police laugh in their face and tell them to go back to Italy (France does NOT accept asylum claims at the border) and if the migrants sneak inside France they are caught inside France and put into vans and driven BACK to Italy despite requesting asylum from border police.
France stops train on the first station inside France and goes through the train and removes migrants and sends them back to Italy, in the mountains and countryside between France and Italy there are border police patrols with dogs to catch migrants and send them back to Italy, France has also told Italy to start doing something so now Italian police are pepper spraying migrants trying to get near the France border in large groups, France also puts people seen repeatedly at the border in detention for a few days and drives them on buses to Southern Italy so they would get the message.
USA could do EVERYTHING France does at it’s France-Italy border on the US-Mexico border…
Gee another anti-Trump book from the fake legacy news media – never saw that one coming. What it really shows is a nervous breakdown of the deep state which is desperate to stop Trump.
Hey Mish – where was your “WOW” blog when Woodward penned the below. Criminal charges for basically using foreign intelligence agencies to throw an American election? From the obama administration. Most likely ON ORDERS from obama. Oh wait – that never happened. But Russia, Russia, Russia!!!!
Buh but … Obaaaaaaama!
Obama’s gone. He can’t hurt you any more. Let go of Your Obama Trauma.
The man you worship is a petulant, nuclear armed ignoramus, and he’s hurting us all, right now.
Stop living in the past. Trump is happening now.
The issue is the blatant hypocrisy and double-standards that exist in the media. One set of rules for Democrats and an entirely different set for conservative Republicans. Millions of people who didn’t want to believe it before can see it plain as day now. I meet them every day. The younger generation who are just reaching voting age want nothing to do with the modern Democratic Party. That’s the best thing Trump has done, ripping the mask clean off the true Left.
“I meet them every day. ” …and they have the oddest manners… always smiling gently while backing toward the nearest exit.
Ah, more “clever” insults. Thank you for proving my point. The damage you guys are doing to your own causes by acting like 3 year-olds is incalculable but you just can’t see it. Thank God.
Luckily Trump can’t read, so will never know the gory details of how his staff is managing him and saving the USA fro losing more of our reputation than we already have!
Those hacks trying to be relevant.
Mish….do you really give the WaPo or any of its minions any credibility? With the Russia collusion thing fizzling out, this is pretty clearly the new tac by the Deep State apparatus to unseat DJT. Believing this is like believing the Steele Dossier.
Bound to be some truth in it but what’s the surprise?
Pope a catholic -tick.
Bears crap in the woods -tick.
Trump is Trump -tick.
If you think this is about WaPo – you cannot think. This is a Woodward story. WaPo is irrelevant. I have no reason to disbelieve Woodward.
Of course this is about WaPo. Woodward is the Associate Editor. They’re already publishing full-throated defenses for Woodward and his book. You can’t honestly believe Woodward and WaPo aren’t connected. Woodward made WaPo.
Trump surrounded himself with NEVER-Trumpers, EX-bush cronies, Goldman Sachs guys and even Trump’s Vice-President Pence is Koch supported…
As Attorney General Trump named a self confessed “Bambi” who is being moved around by Obama holdovers at DOJ and by Rosenstein to whom Sessions has given all the power of Attorney General through his recusal.
Said recusal of Sessions was recommended by Obama holdovers while all the dirty Obama-era stooges like Comey, McCabe, Strzok etc. were still employed and one of the people recommending Sessions recuse himself was Tashina Gauhar who was involved in the completely botched and incompetent silk gloves investigation of Clinton email server and Clinton emails on Wieners laptop and therefore had total conflict of interest in recommending Sessions recuse himself because IF Sessions would NOT have recused himself Gauhar’s career would have been in danger together with Comey, McCabe and Strzok whose wrongdoing was still hidden when Sessions recused himself and who were all still in place to corrupt Trump administration from the inside.
Sessions recused himself immediately without telling Trump or without discussing the issue with anyone that was NOT an Obama era holdover…
Sessions recusing himself is the biggest political coup in USA history.
It was like a coup’d’tat by Obama holdovers…
It’s fun to read for those of us who hate that lowlife dirtbag, but in reality there’s no way to know how much of it is true. Dowd has already issued a denial of sorts of the “mock interview” description.
Ho hum. The Washington Post reviews something critical of the President. NeverTrumpers fall all over themselves giving publicity to the review and the book. Where is the news here?
It would be news if Bob Woodward published something based on supportable facts.
More interested to read anything similar about the other side, HRC, fFoundation, Server etc.. Not much about Trump can shock now.
Not the slightest doubt that had bitch HRC trash gotten in the White House Repugs would dishing even worse
All attempting to comprehend Trump. Some coming this close (the cartoonist Trudeau for example); but all missing. I’ll make it easier: Trump is a Democrat.
Got it?