Top takeaways from Bob Woodward’s new book about Trump’s White House

FAN Editor

Watergate journalist Bob Woodward’s new book “Fear,” published Tuesday (by Simon & Schuster, a division of CBS), has attracted widespread attention for its depiction of a White House in chaos. Mr. Trump has lashed out against the book, variously calling it “a joke,” “fiction,” “a joke,” and “a scam.” 

Here are some of the most memorable moments from the book:

Cohn and Porter hiding papers from Trump

Former White House economic adviser Gary Cohn, spying the draft letter ending the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement on Trump’s desk, took the letter and put it in a “KEEP” folder — as in, to keep away from Mr. Trump, who never noticed the letter was missing. Eventually, the draft had landed on his desk through “an unknown channel,” meaning that it hadn’t been prepared by Rob Porter, the staff secretary. Porter also discovered that there were “multiple” copies of the letter, and the book says that he and Cohn swiped all of them from Trump’s desk. Woodward included the draft letter in his book.

“It’s not what we did for the country…It’s what we saved him from doing,” Cohn reportedly said.

More often than stealing documents, though, Porter “10 times” more often made up legal excuses not to do what Mr. Trump asked, Woodward reported. Cohn and Porter, according to Woodward, then tried to wait out the president, hoping he’d just forget about the letters and documents they didn’t want him to sign.

On Tuesday, Porter disputed Woodward’s characterization as a “selective and often misleading portrait” and seemed to suggest that Woodward had somehow misconstrued what he had been told about the trade document. “The suggestion that materials were ‘stolen’ from the president’s desk to prevent his signature misunderstands how the White House document review process works,” Porter said in a statement.

The “Access Hollywood” tape

Woodward’s book, if correct, shows that the majority of his most trusted advisers had little confidence Donald Trump would weather the scandal of the “Access Hollywood” tape. In October, the tape, published by the Washington Post, revealed Mr. Trump in conversation with host Billy Bush over a decade earlier, in 2005, bragging that with his celebrity, women allow him to “grab them by the p****.”

Reince Priebus strongly advised Mr. Trump to drop out because he had lost Republicans — from leadership to rank and file, and he informed him that Mike Pence and Condoleezza Rice were ready to step onto the ticket. Former strategist Steve Bannon calls the idea “f****** absurd” because the polling gap had been cut “in half” since he had started running the campaign. Rudy Giuliani estimates he has under a 50 percent chance of winning.

Kellyanne Conway proposed a kind of TV Hail Mary — a confessional interview with candidate Trump seated on a couch between his wife and daughter, crying and apologizing. Woodward says Melania Trump waved her hand “dismissively” and said, “Not doing that…No way. No, no, no.”

Trump:  “It’s all Jeff Sessions’ fault”

Mr. Trump wanted to fire Comey early on in the administration.

Bannon advised him against it, saying, “Seventy-five percent of the agents do hate Comey. No doubt. The moment you fire him he’s J. f****** Edgar Hoover. The day you fire him, he’s the greatest martyr in American history. A weapon to come and get you. They’re going to name a special f***ing counsel. You can fire Comey. You can’t fire the FBI. The minute you fire him, the FBI as an institution, they have to destroy you and they will destroy you.”

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein drafted a three-page memo outlining his reasons for Comey to be fired. Later, Rosenstein appointed a special counsel, and the cable news coverage made Trump erupt into “uncontrollable anger, visibly agitated.”

In a fit of paranoia, Mr. Trump said, “They’re out to get me. This is an injustice. This is unfair. How could this have happened? It’s all Jeff Sessions’ fault. This is all politically motivated. Rod Rosenstein doesn’t know what the hell he is doing. He’s a Democrat. He’s from Maryland.” (Rosenstein is a Republican.)

Trump on Kim Jong Un 

“Little Rocket Man,” Woodward shows Mr. Trump musing. “I think that may be my best ever, best nickname ever.”

“This is all about leader versus leader. Man versus man. Me versus Kim.”

Mattis and the Sunday shows

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer tried repeatedly to get Secretary of Defense James Mattis to do an interview with a Sunday broadcast show, and Mattis repeatedly refused.

Finally, he told Spicer, “Sean, I’ve killed people for a living.  If you call me again, I’m going to f****** send you to Afghanistan.”

CBS News’ Blair Guild, Jack Turman, Katie Watson, Ellee Watson, and Clare Hymes contributed.

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