“There’s a lot we don’t know. We have 20 people working on Trump, we’re going to do a book, we’re doing articles about every phase of his life.” – Bob Woodward
During an appearance on Fox’s Media Buzz this morning, host Howard Kurtz asked the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward about the report that his newspaper has a team of 20 reporters assigned to a Donald Trump book project. The paper will also periodically publish findings in the Post.
His above response reminded me of a discussion about then Sen. Barack Obama, who was running for president in 2008. NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Tom Brokaw, appearing on the Charlie Rose Show on PBS less than a week before the presidential election, responds to Rose’s statement, “I don’t know what Barack Obama’s worldview is” saying “No, I don’t either.”
Two mainstream journalists, Tom Brokaw and Charlie Rose, admit they didn’t really know Barack Obama less than a week before his 2008 election. (youtube.com)
Rose followed with, “I don’t know how he really sees where China is.” Brokaw comments, “We don’t know a lot about Barack Obama and the universe of his thinking about foreign policy.”
“I don’t know, and do we know anything about the people who are advising him?” asks Rose. “Yeah, it’s an interesting question,” Brokaw answers.
Rose then points out that Obama “is principally known through his autobiography and through very aspirational (sic) speeches.”
“What do we know about the heroes of Barack Obama?” asks Rose, to which Brokaw responds, “There’s a lot about him we don’t know.”
There they were, for all of their viewers to see and hear, two supposedly sophisticated, erudite and brilliant newsmen, exposing their ignorance. It didn’t matter to them because they no doubt couldn’t wait to see the first black man in the White House.
Back to the Woodward quote above. If you’re thinking the Washington Post move to look into all facets of Trump’s past is just a CYA move to prevent another Obama disaster, don’t kid yourself. They are out to muddy the going for Trump.
When asked about coverage of Hillary Clinton, Woodward said the paper is trying to get to the “essence” of her, but dismissed suggestions that she used a personal e-mail server to distribute classified information. She did. And the FBI knows it.
I was disappointed that Kurtz didn’t press his former Post colleague on the over-reaching investigation of Trump’s past. He should have asked him how many people the Post assigned to the story of Clinton’s e-mails, the Benghazi terrorist attack, the swap of five Gitmo terrorists for Bowe Bergdahl, the cover-up of the IRS scandal and Fast & Furious. And, he could have reminded Woodward that just he and his partner Carl Bernstein took down the Nixon administration.
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