NewsNational News

Actions

Bob Woodward: Trump ‘detached from reality’

Posted at 11:11 AM, Sep 10, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-10 12:16:37-04

Compiled from wire reports:

Author Bob Woodward had a scathing comment about President Trump during a series of appearances on national news shows Monday morning.

During an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, Woodward said Trump “is detached from reality.”

Later, he defended his use of anonymous quotes throughout his new book “Fear: Trump in the White House.”

“These people are not anonymous to me,” Woodward told NPR. “These things happened.”

In excerpts published last week, Woodward quotes several current Trump administration officials — including chief of staff John Kelly and Secretary of Defense James Mattis — who make disparaging comments about the president.

In the book, Mattis compared the president’s understanding of U.S. national security interests in the Korean Peninsula to that of “a fifth- or sixth-grader.”

Kelly is also portrayed as described working for Trump thusly: “He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.”

Both Kelly and Mattis released statements denying they made those comments.

“They are not telling the truth,” Woodward said. “These are political statements to protect their jobs.”

Trump took to Twitter to maintain that the quotes in Woodward’s book are fabricated.