Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: Joining us now on this election eve, Bob Woodward. It's
Speaker 2: four hundred pages. The book is war. He's done many
Speaker 2: many interviews on it. It is an insight into the
Speaker 2: Biden administration.
Speaker 1: I love what Robert.
Speaker 2: Gates has said, who's served both political persuasions on Woodward.
Speaker 2: He has an extraordinary ability to get otherwise responsible adults
Speaker 2: to spill their guts to him.
Speaker 1: Bob Woodwards joins us on Election Eve, Bob.
Speaker 2: This weekend I discovered someone in the keyhouse so who
Speaker 2: had not seen all the president's men. I tried to
Speaker 2: explain to them that I was interviewing Robert Redford on Monday.
Speaker 2: In that movie, you show up with mister Katie in
Speaker 2: the courtroom and you say, my name's Bob Woodward. I'm
Speaker 2: from the Post and I wanted to ask you how
Speaker 2: you happen to come.
Speaker 1: On this case.
Speaker 2: The rudeness and direction of Redford's question is appalling.
Speaker 1: It's shocking.
Speaker 2: Where did you learn to ask questions so abrupt, so direct,
Speaker 2: so as Robert Gates would say, they all spill their guts?
Speaker 1: Where did you learn that skill? Well?
Speaker 3: Look, that morning I got called to the courthouse. This
Speaker 3: was the morning of the Watergate burglary. I've been covering
Speaker 3: night police for nine months and I go to the
Speaker 3: courthouse and income these burglars dressed in business suits. I
Speaker 3: had never seen a burglar in a business suit. I've
Speaker 3: never seen a well dressed burglar. And the lee burglar
Speaker 3: announced reluctantly to the judge that he'd worked at the CIA,
Speaker 3: and I what CIA business suits? Five burglars, elder. I mean,
Speaker 3: it was just like, Oh, how do you not follow
Speaker 3: this story again?
Speaker 2: I want to drive the conversation forward, Bob, on this
Speaker 2: election for a nation some would say fighting with its
Speaker 2: concept of democracy. In the epilogue to War, you have
Speaker 2: a brilliant two sentences. Often I have said, only half jokingly,
Speaker 2: that when I wake up in the morning, my first
Speaker 2: thought is, quote, what are the bastards hiding? Unquote? So
Speaker 2: let's get two answers. What is mister Trump hiding this morning?
Speaker 3: Well? Trump is making very clear who he is, and
Speaker 3: it's too it's so visible. Let me just give you
Speaker 3: an example. I'm sorry this may sound a little boring,
Speaker 3: but it's right at the heart of your question. The
Speaker 3: people Trump, when he was president chose to be close
Speaker 3: to him. People who've spent their lives defending our country.
Speaker 3: And let's look at what these people that Trump picked
Speaker 3: for key positions say about Trump. Now, former Chief of
Speaker 3: Staff John Kelly, you know, one of the most respected
Speaker 3: people in the military. This was Trump's selection to be
Speaker 3: the chief of staff at the White House. Kelly says
Speaker 3: of Trump, he's an idiot. It's pointless to try to
Speaker 3: convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails were
Speaker 3: in crazytown.
Speaker 1: Bob.
Speaker 2: Let me ask, also to your wonderful quote, what are
Speaker 2: the bestards hiding? What is Vice President Harris hiding into
Speaker 2: this election?
Speaker 3: Well, I think there are actually things that we don't
Speaker 3: know enough about. I had some time to work on
Speaker 3: how she deals with lots of issues, and it's very
Speaker 3: let me get the right selection here, because she is tough.
Speaker 3: She is the person who goes and has meeting with
Speaker 3: net Yahoo, which I got the notes of and really get.
Speaker 3: This was July twenty fifth of this year, just a
Speaker 3: couple of months ago, and she is she could not
Speaker 3: be tougher with net Yahoo, and the notes show her
Speaker 3: saying the following in a closed meeting with bb net Yahoo.
Speaker 3: I'm disturbed by the humanitarian situation in Gaza. People are
Speaker 3: star there are four thousand people per toilet. She really
Speaker 3: gets on him about this, and then she goes out
Speaker 3: in public and doesn't pull any punches and says, I'm
Speaker 3: not we cannot look away and become numb about what
Speaker 3: is happening in Gaza, and I will not be silent.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I'm giving a long answer.
Speaker 4: No, it's excellent, Bob stepping away here. As we think
Speaker 4: about this election here, I can't help but wonder thinking
Speaker 4: about your work, your earliest work back of the Washington Post.
Speaker 4: What has become of the GOP party? It seems like
Speaker 4: it is now clearly the party of one former president
Speaker 4: dot Donald Trump. Is that the new GOP going forward?
Speaker 3: Well, it is at the moment. We'll see. I know
Speaker 3: lots of republics and I know some who will say
Speaker 3: kind of public oh, I support Trump. I like Trump
Speaker 3: because he's the force in the party. But privately it's
Speaker 3: thumbs down. They don't like Trump. Look who is Trump?
Speaker 3: This is the question that people need to answer. He
Speaker 3: doesn't like advice, he doesn't like democracy, doesn't like the Constitution,
Speaker 3: doesn't like truth.
Speaker 2: Joining us, Bob Woodward, we will continue with mister Woodward.
Speaker 2: We said good morning to all of you across the
Speaker 2: nation on this election eve. Under four hundred pages, War
Speaker 2: by Bob Woodward is simply a look into the Biden administration,
Speaker 2: framed by Netna who in putin Zelensky and of course
Speaker 2: Vice President Harris war spent out some time now, Pauls,
Speaker 2: when you pick it up with Bob Woodward, please.
Speaker 4: Bob tomorrow obviously election day, what will you be focusing on?
Speaker 4: Is it a state, is it a certain candidate? Is
Speaker 4: it an issue? What are you going to be focusing on?
Speaker 3: Going to well, I need to look at what happens,
Speaker 3: and all the Poles say it's razor thin. So who knows.
Speaker 3: I hope and that people will look at the candidates,
Speaker 3: particularly he was president for four years. He has said
Speaker 3: some things in this campaign that really and he really
Speaker 3: shows what's at state in this election. He is a
Speaker 3: danger to democracy. He is a danger to the United States.
Speaker 3: Why go back? My first interview with him was thirty
Speaker 3: five years ago when he was a real estate king
Speaker 3: in New York City, and then and even in interviews
Speaker 3: I did in the Oval Office with him when he
Speaker 3: was president, he's's driven by instinct. He's got this idea
Speaker 3: that his instincts, what his gut feel is is perfect.
Speaker 3: That's the way to go. Yeah, both don't run a
Speaker 3: government on anyone's instincts. You need a aim, you need
Speaker 3: some alternative views. And Brump is locked, as we know,
Speaker 3: locked into himself for the nation.
Speaker 2: In the selection, Bob Woodward joins us, of course, forever
Speaker 2: with the Washington Post. Bob, I had to do something
Speaker 2: for the youngest afterthought. A while back, I had to
Speaker 2: look at her Vietnam paper and that, and like a
Speaker 2: lot of us, you were in nrotc at Yale, and
Speaker 2: I was doing another act out at the time at Boulder.
Speaker 2: I completely avoided reading or thinking about Vietnam. And I
Speaker 2: enjoyed Max Hastings. You know him well from a telegraph
Speaker 2: and his one volume on Vietnam as well. The crucible
Speaker 2: of the modern Democratic Party is McGovern and hjh in
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy two. The legacy that Vice President Harry.
Speaker 3: Khs being Hubert Humphrey.
Speaker 2: Hubert Humphrey, thank you. But the legacy that Harris carries forward.
Speaker 2: Do you see her as a change agent for Democratic
Speaker 2: Party theology? Or is the critics would say Obama version four.
Speaker 3: Well, look she's tough. She's going to President's school. She's
Speaker 3: very lucky in a sense, the country is very lucky
Speaker 3: that Biden, who was vice president, wants himself and didn't
Speaker 3: like to be cut out of things. He's made sure
Speaker 3: that she really is is getting a graduate course in
Speaker 3: the presidency. She's at the meetings, the discussions, the debates.
Speaker 3: There are lots of signs of two qualities, independence and determination.
Speaker 3: And I think that that is a good thing. That's
Speaker 3: not a political judgment. It is what I was able
Speaker 3: to do in the reporting about what her course of
Speaker 3: going to President's school is. She's got a national security
Speaker 3: advisor named Phil Gordon, who is really experienced. Billy goes
Speaker 3: back a long time into the White House and the
Speaker 3: State Department and brings a lot of knowledge. Who's Donald
Speaker 3: Trump's national security advisor? His mouth, he will say whatever
Speaker 3: he wants, whatever springs in. That is the danger we face.
Speaker 2: But what one final question, the dedication for my lifelong
Speaker 2: friend and reporting partner, Carl Bernstein. Do you guys talk
Speaker 2: a lot like is there a Bernstein? What would take
Speaker 2: on where this nation is going?
Speaker 1: Right now?
Speaker 3: Well, we do talk all the time three four times
Speaker 3: a week. For sure. We saw each other. Recently we
Speaker 3: did an appearance together and just a few days ago
Speaker 3: in New York City. The question here is who's Trump?
Speaker 3: Who's Harris. One important credential that Harris has is the
Speaker 3: Secretary of Defense. Austin has a lot of respect for her.
Speaker 3: I describe new scenes in the book about what Austin
Speaker 3: has done and how he's been very tough with the
Speaker 3: Russian defense minister, showgu and there's some transcripts I have
Speaker 3: that are in the book and you can see exactly
Speaker 3: what they said to each other. So there's hope. But
Speaker 3: to be a president and deal with this world situation
Speaker 3: now would stretch. Anyone would stretch. White Eisenhower would stretch.
Speaker 3: It is a very dangerous time. We've got to get
Speaker 3: it right and we got to be careful. And Trump
Speaker 3: is not a manager. Trump is not a person who
Speaker 3: understands what the national interest is because there is a blockage,
Speaker 3: and that blockage is he only cares about himself on
Speaker 3: this election.
Speaker 2: We continue with Bob Woodward in a few more minutes,
Speaker 2: with mister Woodward in celebration of his book War in
Speaker 2: the twenty books or so before that as well.
Speaker 1: We welcome all of you across.
Speaker 2: This nation an Apple CarPlay Android Otto, and of course
Speaker 2: this new technology YouTube.
Speaker 1: Paul, there was no YouTube. No, there was not when
Speaker 1: the Watergate thing was going on.
Speaker 4: No, exactly, Hey, Bob, if a former president Trump were
Speaker 4: to lose this election, is there an air apparent? Does
Speaker 4: trump Ism remain a political force? Is a jdvans Er
Speaker 4: someone like that out there in the wings?
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean, that's you know, that speculation. I
Speaker 3: don't know. What is very interesting is to listen to
Speaker 3: Trump in the last couple of days. He's in a
Speaker 3: very sour mood. And I think it was yesterday or
Speaker 3: the day before he said, and this is the man
Speaker 3: who wants to be president again. He's very dark, very
Speaker 3: profane comments, and he said, this is a crooked country.
Speaker 3: Now imagine somebody, this is not a crooked country. It
Speaker 3: may become one if he becomes presentent.
Speaker 2: Bob Woodward, I got to ask one final question, and
Speaker 2: this is immense respect, and you know, we get a
Speaker 2: huge response. Republicans hate you, Democrats love you.
Speaker 1: I get it, folks, Bob Woodward, without.
Speaker 3: No, that's just not I know lots of Republicans who
Speaker 3: don't follow, don't march in line with Trump.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm running out of time, Bob Woodward, but he
Speaker 2: got one final question. With great respect for your career,
Speaker 2: should newspapers endorse presidents.
Speaker 3: We that's obviously up to them. At the Washington Post,
Speaker 3: there's a big controversy about the non endorsement. Now the
Speaker 3: Washington Post I know very well for over fifty two years.
Speaker 3: Is I say it's strong when the reporting is strong
Speaker 3: as it has been now. I think it's been magnificent,
Speaker 3: and the editorial page should deal with the strength of
Speaker 3: that reporting. The editorial page needs to deal with reality,
Speaker 3: and the reporting is real and incredibly strong. To ignore
Speaker 3: it is to ignore reality. Not a good thing for
Speaker 3: any institution.
Speaker 1: Right Bob.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Bob Woodward on the selection eve.
Speaker 2: Across the nation, of course, forever where the Washington Post,
Speaker 2: the book is at war.