The Daily Show: Ears Edition - ICYMI - Bob Woodward on "Fear" in America & President Trump's War on Truth (Rebroadcast)

Episode Date: December 23, 2019

Journalist and "Fear" author Bob Woodward discusses the threat posed by President Trump's sweeping ignorance and his administration's willingness to publicly defend his lies. Originally aired August 20, 2019. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. When 60 Minutes premiered in September 1968, there was nothing like it. This is 60 Minutes. It's a kind of a magazine for television. Very few have been given access to the treasures in our archives. But that's all about to change. Like none of this stuff gets looked at. That's what's incredible. I'm Seth Done of CBS News.

Listen to 60 Minutes, a second look on Apple podcasts starting September 17. Please welcome Bob Woodward. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Great to be here. Can I just tell you, one of my favorite experiences was I was doing shows in Washington, D.C. and I went to eat at a restaurant, and you were eating at the same restaurant and you got up to what you were just leaving the restaurant I guess but it felt like everyone in DC like turns to look at you like that's the guy who could write about us and end our careers you you remember that night my fly was down I don't remember because I was looking at your eyes Bob. You

have written about nine presidents. It feels like for a long time people always regarded yours. Bob Woodward, the journalist who is impartial, he writes the story as it is. I mean you wrote about Nixon as well, you wrote about nine presidents. This book feels different though. It still feels like you're impartial, but it feels it feels like it really really condemns President Trump. Because of the evidence. Time and time again. If you look for a summary, it's a war on truth and he's making all these decisions in foreign policy in the economy and and it the the the the, it feels, it's, it's, it's about, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it, it, it's like, it, it's like, it feels, it feels, it feels like, it feels like, it feels like, it's like, it feels like, it feels like, it's like it's like it, it's like it's like it's like it's like it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's th, it's like, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi, it's like, thi, it's like, it's like, it feels like, it feels like, it feels like, it feels like, it feels like, it feels like, it feels like, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, truth and he's making all these decisions in foreign policy and the economy. And it's not based on facts.

And so I think we're really, I think this is a pivot moment. Right. And the country needs to come to grips with what's going on. And there are going to be investigations going on for years probably. But here you have a situation where the president, people who work for him have to take papers off his desk in order to prevent him from beginning a catastrophe. Like there was an order about a trade agreement in South Korea and you think, oh, that's just a trade agreement.

But it's a part of an alliance with South Korea. Right. Where we have 28,000 of our troops there. We have top secret special access intelligence programs that allow us to detect a North Korean missile launch in seven seconds and Trump wants to begin that process and Gary Cohen his top economic aid says I have to take that in order to prevent a calamity. Now, I have done this for 47 years, and I've never seen people who felt

there was such an emergency. This is an interesting idea. A president who has people around him, who publicly defend him, but then privately seemed to lambast his every single move. Because this book is not written as an observation. You spoke to people who work in the White House, who work that, that, thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and thi, and that, and that, and that that, and that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that, that thi, that thi, thi, and I that that that thi, and I thi, and I thi, and I thi, and I that that that, and I that, and I that, and I thi, and I that, and I that, and I that, and I thi thi that, and I thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, that, that, that, that, thin, thin, thin, the, thin, the, thin, the, thin, the, thin, thin, thin, thi, thi.. Because this book is not written as an observation. You spoke to people who work in the White House, who work for the president. You have notes, you have tape recordings.

I'm constantly amazed, and I struggle to understand the fact that these people work for him. And they all seem to know that the Emperor has no clothes, but they tell us that he's wearing Vasaci. Yeah. Yeah. And what you find, because I have the time to really develop relationships of trust with people who are there, is the more they know, the closer they are to Trump, the more they are on the verge of having a cardiac arrest

because of what he does and what he does not know. And he will get locked into these ideas. Oh, like NATO, that security agreement that has kept the peace for 70 years. He said, oh, we're wasting our money. We're suckers for doing that. And finally, I mean, I never thought they're, I, I never thought the threat they are they. I, I, I, I, I, I they they they they they they they they they they they they they're they're th, I th, I th, I they're th, I they're th, I th, I they're they're they they're they they they they they they they're the the the their they're they they they they they they're they they they they're they're they they're they're they're they're their their their their their their their their their their their their th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I th. I thi thi thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi thi thi thi thi thi thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. their thi. said, oh, we're wasting our money. We're suckers for doing that. And finally, I mean, I never thought this would happen. The Secretary of Defense has to tell the president, oh, we're doing these things to prevent World War III. Job one for a president. Prevent World War III, right?

Just to put it in context, can you imagine Dick Cheney when he was Secretary of Defense to Bush Senior having to tell him, oh, by the way, this is all designed to prevent World War III. Inconceivable. It seems like the very basic understandings of the presidency and what's happening in the country are things that Trump doesn't grasp. But there's always something that people bring up in that is they say, this is just like Nixon now. You know, apart from his knowledge, they're saying, like, oh, the shady deal, this is just like

Nixon. You actually wrote about Nixon. You are in many ways part of the reason that Nixon got into the trouble that he got into. Now, do you think this is similar to Richard Nixon? We're going to find out, and it all depends on the quality of evidence. And there's a lot of aroma, there are lots of things going on, as you're rightly pointing out, wait a minute, these are violations of the law. Right.

When does it get so serious that the Republicans will wake up? That's the question. And they now are the enablers of Trump in all of this stuff. And you get to them privately and you say what do you think and they say my head hurts so hard tough we are you know this this look I mean just take in the book John Dowd who was trump's personal attorney in the Mueller investigation worked with him him for eight months, closely, big supporter, and said, OK, you're going to have to testify

to the special counsel, Mueller. And Trump says, OK, I can do that. No problem. So they do a practice session. And Trump starts making up things, lying, blows up, and... In the practice session, and this is his lawyer, so you can't testify. If you testify, you will perjure yourself,

and you'll wind up in an orange jumpsuit, like the one you picture Trump in. And then he finally concludes that... suit like the one you picture Trump in. Right. And then he finally concludes that Trump is effing liar. I know you're not supposed to say that word on the area. Oh, you can say it here. I mean.

I'm sorry. Here's something that you might be able to help me understand, because what I loved about this book is that honestly, it's a retelling of a story. I don't feel your personal attachment to it. It is a complete factual telling of a story and interviews that you have with people. But from your personal perspective, from the interactions you've had with some of the people who work with Trump, why don't they just move on? They have Pence.

What is the end game for them? What do they hope will happen? It's survival. And imagine where, I mean, Merrill Streep, the actress, great actress said just recently, imagine what Donald Trump's 3 a.m. is like. Just think of that. He gets up and he the the the the the the the th. the th. Tweets the th. Tweets th. They the th. They th. They th. They th. They th. They th. They th. They th. th. th. th. th. th. th. they they they they they they have they they they they they they they they just they just they just they just they just they just they just they just they just, they just, they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they they. They they. They they. They they. They they. They they. They th. They th. They th. They th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. t. t. t. t. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th a.m. is like. Just think of that. He gets up and he tweets. You look at this morning, he was tweeting from 7 to 10 or 11, and all about taking defensive positions on all of this.

You know, one of the things from doing nine presidents. You come to the moment when somebody asks you, well, what of the things from doing nine presidents, you come to the moment when somebody asks you, well, what's the job of the president? And my definition of the job of the president is to figure out the next stage of good for a majority of people in the country. Win a war, fix the economy. We could put a board up here. And we would come up with a list. Not for the base or one party or interest groups.

You know, there really is a next stage of good for this country. Right. As best I can tell, in Trump's world and presidency, that never comes up. It is not addressed. It's all about the moment of, you saw that 20-minute oval office. It's all about Trump and his emotions, his impulses. He got to the point of saying, well, I'll close down the government and be proud of it. That will be a good thing. Well, come on. I mean, he's, he to the point of saying well I'll close down the government and be proud of it right that will be a good thing well come on I mean he's I mean imagine the head of GM saying that oh we'll close down all the plants and I'll be proud of it so then do you think do you think if you just look at

this on the face of it one thing we've always said is he has earned the nickname the Teflon the teflon the the teflon the teflon. it th. it th. it th. it's th th th th th th thu. It's thu. It's thu-n. It's thu-I thu-I. It's th th th th thi. th thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. th th th th th th th th th th th thi. I'll th thi. I'll th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee to thin thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thing we've always said is, he has earned the nickname, the Teflon Don, it seems like nothing sticks to Donald Trump. Do you think there's a world where Cohen goes down, Flynn goes down, Manifort goes down, Papadopolis goes down, everybody around him goes down, and he miraculously comes out unscathed? We don't know, but having Cohen, the personal lawyer for 10 years, we know Cohen taped all kinds of things in the Nixon case, it was thousands of hours of tapes. I don't think those exist. But if there's one witness you want, it's the president's lawyer.

Because you see, when Trump was in New York real estate real estate they people would do deals with him and and they called it the Donald Risk taking any arrangement with him and what they made sure they did is they would structure the deal so he couldn't get his hand hands on the cash flow on the money because he would just they would structure the deal so he couldn't get his hands on the cash flow on the money because he would just take it out and they would try to prevent that from happening. So the operation, saddest moment in journalism and American politics of the last decade is we did not get his tax

returns. We should know his tax returns. If anyone out there has them, please let me know. Really? Thank you so much for being on the show. The book is phenomenal. A true legend. Bob Woodward, everybody. See it is available now. Go ahead and get it. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Ears Edition. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11th, 10th Central on Comedy Central and the Comedy Central app. Watch full episodes and videos at the Daily Show. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to the

daily show on YouTube for exclusive content and more. This has been a Comedy Central Podcast. When 60 Minutes premiered in September 1968, there was nothing like it. This is 60 Minutes. It's a kind of a magazine for television. Very few have been given access to the treasures in our archives. But that's all about to change. Like none of this stuff gets looked at. That's what's incredible. I'm Seth Done of CBS News.

Listen to 60 Minutes, a second look. Starting September 17th, wherever you get your podcasts.