NEW YORK (AP) — Bob Woodward, facing widespread criticism for only now revealing President Donald Trump's early concerns about the severity of the coronavirus, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he needed time to be sure that Trump's private comments from February were accurate.
In Woodward’s upcoming book on Trump, “Rage,” the president is quoted saying the virus was highly contagious and “deadly stuff” at a time he was publicly dismissing it as no worse than the flu. Woodward, the celebrated Washington Post journalist and best-selling author, spoke with Trump more than a dozen times for his book.
“He tells me this, and I'm thinking, ‘Wow, that’s interesting, but is it true?' Trump says things that don't check out, right?” Woodward told the AP during a telephone interview. Using a famous phrase from the Watergate era, when Woodward's reporting for the Post helped lead to President Richard Nixon's resignation, Woodward said his mission was to determine, “What did he know and when did he know it?”
On Twitter and elsewhere online, commentators accused Woodward of valuing book sales over public health. “Nearly 200,000 Americans have died because neither Donald Trump nor Bob Woodward wanted to risk anything substantial to keep the country informed,” wrote Esquire's Charles P. Pierce.
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Former Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward throughout his career
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Former Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward throughout his career
Author and journalist Bob Woodward. His new book , 'Obama's Wars' is his about the Obama adminstration's decisions on Afganistan and the war on terror. Photographed in NYC. 29th September 2010. (Photo by David Howells/Corbis via Getty Images)
(Original Caption) 5/7/1973-Washington- The Washington Post won the 57th annual Pulitzer Prize for distinguished public service in journalism for its investigative reporting of the Watergate scandal. In annoucing the gold medal award, the trustee of Columbia University cited two Post reporters, Carl Bernstein (left), 29, and Robert Woodward (right), 30. Both are shown in the city room shortly after the announcement. UPI Photograph BPA2# 2696
Former Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward (L) and Carl Bernstein (R) speak at the head table before the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, U.S. April 29, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Bob Woodward (Photo by � Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 3: Journalist Bob Woodward (L) arrives at Trump Tower, January 3, 2017 in New York City. President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team are in the process of filling cabinet and other high level positions for the new administration. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Bob Woodward arrives for meetings with US President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower on January 3, 2017 in New York. / AFP / KENA BETANCUR (Photo credit should read KENA BETANCUR/AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 18: Journalist Bob Woodward and Elsa Walsh pose for a photo at an Afternoon Tea hosted by the British Embassy to mark the U.S. Presidential Inauguration at The British Embassy on January 18, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 29: Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Bob Woodward eulogizes his former boss and Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee at the Washington National Cathedral October 29, 2014 in Washington, DC. Bradlee died at his home in Georgetown October 21, 2014 at the age of 93. Bradlee was at the helm of the newspaper from 1968 to 1991, during which time it published the Pentagon Papers and stories documenting the Watergate scandal, leading to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Carl Bernstein, Nora Ephron and Bob Woodward (Photo by Ron Galella/WireImage) *** Local Caption ***
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - OCTOBER 08: Journalist Bob Woodward attends the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on October 8, 2014 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)
SLUG: NA/DEEPTHROAT DATE SHOT: 04/29/73 - April 1973 (Flatbed scan 05/31/2005 EEL) CREDIT: Ken Feil/TWP Bob Woodward (left) and Carl Bernstein in the Washington Post newsroom. (Photo by Ken Feil/The Washington Post/Getty Images)
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL - JANUARY 22: Two-time Pultizer Prize winning author and journalist Bob Woodward speaks at Broward College's A. Hugh Adams Central Campus Institue of public safety on January 22, 2014 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Photo by Vallery Jean/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - OCTOBER 08: U.S. Senator of Kentucky Rand Paul and The New York Post Associate Editor and Moderator Bob Woodward speak onstage during 'Why Can't Tech Save Politics?' at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on October 8, 2014 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)
UNITED STATES - JUNE 17: Bob Woodward and Ben Bradlee discuss Watergate - 30 years later;the second of the day;on George Washington University campus. (Photo by Robert A. Reeder/Washington Post/Getty Images)
MEET THE PRESS -- Pictured: (l-r) Bob Woodward, Associate Editor, The Washington Post, left, and Katty Kay, Anchor, BBC World News America, right, appear on 'Meet the Press' in Washington, D.C., Sunday, NOV. 3, 2013. (Photo by: William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 04: Bob Woodward, associate editor at The Washington Post, speaks during the annual conference of the National Association of Counties (NACo) March 4, 2013 at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC. Woodward discussed his new book 'The Price of Politics' and had a book signing for his readers. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
NEW YORK - JUNE 17: American journalist Bob Woodward making a phonecall before a radio show taping on June 17, 1974 in New York City. (Photo by Waring Abbott/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 18: Bob Woodward speaks during the 'All The Presidents Men Revisited' screening at The Newseum on April 18, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kris Connor/Getty Images)
MEET THE PRESS -- Pictured: (l-r) ? Andrea Mitchell, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, NBC News, left, and Bob Woodward, Associate Editor, Washington Post, right, appear on 'Meet the Press' in Washington D.C., Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012. (Photo by: William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON - NOVEMBER 02: Journalist Bob Woodward attends Chris Matthews' 'Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero' book release party at The Hay-Adams on November 2, 2011 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Paul Morigi/WireImage)
Spirit of Hope Gala guest, (L-R) CNN political analyst David Gergen, Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, former press secretary Robert Gibbs and Washington Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward talk during a press conference Tuesday May 31, 2011 at Beth Tzedec Synagogue. The expert panel was in Toronto to talk about some of the most critical issues in new today ranging from the Arab spring and the killing of Osama bin Laden to emerging threats to western democracies and the future of Israel. (Photo by Tara Walton/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
LS.Woodward#1.IS.7/11. Bob Woodward who has written a new book on the election called 'The Choice.' appearing on a TV show at K�CAL in Los Angeles. PHto Iris Schneider. (Photo by Iris Schneider/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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The issue of daily journalists presenting newsworthy information in books isn’t new. The competition for attention is intense, and headlines help boost sales and guest shots for interviews. Reporter Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times recently attracted attention for his book, “Donald Trump v. The United States,” by reporting new details on an unannounced visit by Trump to Walter Reed military hospital in November 2019. Schmidt reported that Vice President Mike Pence was put on alert that he might have to briefly assume the powers of the presidency if the president had to undergo a procedure that required anesthesia.
Pence later said he didn’t recall being put on standby for the Reed visit, which the White House has said was part of the president’s routine annual physical. But Schmidt’s book renewed speculation about Trump’s health.
Political figures with book deals also have been chastised for holding back timely material. Former national security adviser John Bolton, whose scathing memoir “The Room Where It Happened” came out in June, declined discussing Trump's actions towards Ukraine while the impeachment hearings were being held earlier this year.
Woodward's book, which comes out next week, draws from 18 conversations with Trump between December and July. During his AP interview, Woodward said Trump called him “out of the blue” in early February to “unburden himself" about the virus, which then had few cases in the U.S. But Woodward said that only in May was he satisfied that Trump's comments were based on reliable information and that by then the virus had spread nationwide.
"If I had done the story at that time about what he knew in February, that's not telling us anything we didn't know," Woodward said. At that point, he said, the issue was no longer one of public health but of politics. His priority became getting the story out before the election in November.
“That was the demarcation line for me,” he said. “Had I decided that my book was coming out on Christmas, the end of this year, that would have been unthinkable.”
Asked why he didn't share Trump's February remarks for a fellow Post reporter to pursue, Woodward said he had developed “some pretty important sources” on his own.
“Could I have brought others in? Could they have done things I couldn't do?" he asked. “I was on the trail, and I was (still) on the trail when it (the virus) exploded.”
