Bob Woodward’s new book reveals a ‘nervous breakdown’ of Trump’s presidency
80 replies, posted
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bob-woodwards-new-book-reveals-a-nervous-breakdown-of-trumps-presidency/2018/09/04/b27a389e-ac60-11e8-a8d7-0f63ab8b1370_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.71f904b4391e
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.”
There's a whole lot to take in from that article but I feel like pointing out this one part:
Cohn came to regard the president as “a professional liar” and threatened to resign in August 2017 over Trump’s handling of a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. Cohn, who is Jewish, was especially shaken when one of his daughters found a swastika on her college dorm room.
Trump was sharply criticized for initially saying that “both sides” were to blame. 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, it almost sounds like Trump is a NAZI.
Cohn, a Wall Street veteran, tried to tamp down Trump’s strident nationalism regarding trade. 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.”
Stealing documents off your boss's desk so he doesn't do stupid despotic things and knowing he won't notice the papers missing because he's got the attention span of a toddler on cocaine. Truly, this is how you make America great.
His dad was one of the old school Catholic hating KKKs. Nazi, Confederate, KKK, whatever, these people have been in the US a long time.
I saw another line from the book on another source
"James Mattis said Donald Trump has the understanding of 'a fifth or sixth grader' "
Highlights from the book, per CNN and WashPost snippets:
Potential national security incidents:
After Trump left a meeting with Defense Secretary James Mattis on North Korea, Woodward recounts, "Mattis was particularly exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the president acted like — and had the understanding of — 'a fifth- or sixth-grader.'"
Former chief economic adviser Gary Cohn and former staff secretary Rob Porter repeatedly stole or hid documents from Trump's desk, including a draft letter that would have withdrawn the U.S. from a trade agreement with South Korea: "I stole it off his desk," Cohn told an associate. "I wouldn't let him see it. He's never going to see that document. Got to protect the country."
"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."
Others include senior staffers' exasperation with Trump and many of Woodward's anecdotes highlight the toxic working environment at the White House:
"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." Dowd claimed to Axios he never called Trump a "fucking liar."
Chief of Staff John Kelly on Trump: "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."
Often, the quotes Woodward obtained are from Trump himself, as others recount him berating or insulting some of his most publicly visible staff members:
Trump to Rudy Giuliani: "Rudy, you're a baby," Trump told the man who is now his personal attorney. "I've never seen a worse defense of me in my life. They took your diaper off right there. You're like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?"
Trump on Attorney General Jeff Sessions: "This guy is mentally retarded. He’s this dumb Southerner. … He couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama."
Trump to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross: "I don’t trust you. I don’t want you doing any more negotiations. … You’re past your prime."
Axios
This is the man the Republicans chose to regain control of America.
I hope it was fucking worth it.
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.
Christ...
Non-interventionist Trump at work. And people were so sure Hillary was going to lead to war? Hoooo boy.
Two Scalia clones, and fulling court vacancies at a record pace, it was. I hope Republicans don't kill senatorial courtesy to get even more shitty court picks in.
I really wish ever perma'd super Trumper from the last few years was still around to post here
I fully understand nothing would change their minds, but I just cannot fathom how they function like that
Why bother asking them? This is exactly what they wanted.
They didn't choose him. The Republican primaries were the first victims of Russian interference.
That is being way too generous.
Trump to Rudy Giuliani: "Rudy, you're a baby," Trump told the man who is now his personal attorney. "I've never seen a worse defense of me in my life. They took your diaper off right there. You're like a little baby
that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?"
Donald John Trump, the 45th President of the United States of America. Serving January 20th, 2017 to present.
And yet they still choose to do nothing about it. They aren’t pursuing investigation into the election hacking, and are intentionally sabotaging efforts by Mueller in his investigations. They’re so desperate to hang onto this power they have and to consolidate it that they have a literal manchild propped up as the most powerful man in the country.
Every single supporter of his in the government deserve to be removed.
Okay, can we come down to Earth? Trump led the Republican primary by a mile and half because he was a bombastic outsider and every other guy on the stage was a gutless worm in a corporate suit with zero likeability. Not to say that Trump isn't an establishment shill either, it just wasn't as clear to the electorate at the time. Not everything that happened in 2016 was the result of a Russian espionage plot.
I am in shock that the President of the United States called his Attorney General mentally retarded.
Absolutely. However a vast many things in it were accompanied directly by Russian espionage, calling into question 'just how much of this result is due to Russian interference'.
Of which the Republican primary is not in question. Trump won 30 more contests and got seven million more votes than Ted Cruz.
Yeah, while there's no doubt that the Russians interfered in the general election, I think a lot of Trump's success in the Republican primary was Jimmy Trailerpark going, "Hey, I recognize that feller from the telema-vision, and he's saying what I'm thinking about them there Nee-groes and Spanish gardener folk! Imma vote for the tough Hollywood man and free mah speech some more!"
Uhh... yeah, well, there were specifically Russian operatives who were acting directly in that primary.
The result of the primary is in question? So Russian operatives got Trump a seven million vote lead over Ted Cruz? Then they're a more serious threat than I thought.
I was replying directly to a post that made an extremely bold claim, that the Republican primary was not won legitimately by Trump. Was there Russian espionage involved? There probably was and I wouldn't be surprised. There's most certainly a lot of corruption that goes on behind closed doors at the RNC. Did it make the result illegitimate? No.
The process of the primary is in question.
So to be clear, you are saying that Trump's overwhelming victory in the Republican primary was largely due to a Russian plot and there is a question that his victory in that race was legitimate? Does anybody in the intelligence community believe that claim as well?
https://i.imgur.com/n13WsiZ.png
No, I'm saying that he was greatly assisted by Russians. People still, at the end of the day, voted for him -- however his victory falls under the shadow of doubt simply due to the nature of his victory -- winning by only 80,000 votes in key areas where the popular vote defeated him by well over 3 million people. We know the Russians had information on just about every single citizen in the United States regarding who they were likely to vote for, what issues they were driven by, and how they could be therefore driven to vote in particular ways; we know the GOP and RNC were working with the companies who had that data to work with and use in their own elections and candidacies.
We know the Russians penetrated election registration databases. We have strong suspicions that they penetrated voting systems themselves; it is unlikely we will ever see confirmation on that, however, as that would undermine the totality of democracy in this country. Even so, attempts have been made at seeing if that was done and, in response, those systems were then immediately wiped, their backups deleted, and the machines basically ripped apart.
We know the NRA has been funneling money into RNC and GOP campaigns to fund Russia-specific policies. We know they had agents operating at their behest which were embedded both in political campaigns and in key positions within the GOP and RNC. We know that key policy positions were changed at the behest of unregistered foreign agents. We know companies were hired to specifically interfere with particular targeted candidates' elections at the behest of Russian intelligence.
We have means, motive, and opportunity to believe that it's not only possible but it'd be something that Putin would want. Did Trump get elected? Absolutely. Did he get elected thanks to criminal conduct? Probably. Do we know that at least some of that criminal conduct was directly facilitated and enthusiastically 'donated' by Russia courtesy Putin? Yes.
So under all of that, you would, to be clear, assert that the result is 'unquestionable'?
