Carl Bernstein talks about Bob Woodward's new book on CNN this morning.
"It's not about pulling out a word, just saying idiot, moron, et cetera, which is reliable but it's about scene after scene after scene described in great detail in which the principals, not disgruntled former employees, show exactly what you're talking about," Bernstein said.
"That they see their job as protecting the country from the president of the United States, protecting the country from his ignorance, from his racism, from his recklessness and his unwillingness to put the interests of the country above his own interests.
"So you see it all stacked up. it's a coherent narrative in which we begin to say, 'Ah hah!' And the people that know Bob Woodward's work best are the Republicans in Congress because many of them have dealt with Bob Woodward in previous books. They know the reliance of his methodology. They've been quoted. I'm reminded when we wrote John Dean, who you'll hear from in a minute, when we wrote 'The Final Days' which was about Nixon's last days in office, and there's a scene in which we use this same methodology of going to source after source after source, recording the interviews and there's a scene where Nixon and Kissinger get down on their knees and pray on the rug in the Oval Office, and that scene was denied vehemently by those around Nixon and Kissinger, you made it up, it couldn't happen.
"This went on for months and months until finally, in their memoirs, Nixon and Kissinger both wrote about what happened. That will happen on this book," he predicted.
"If you go down to the University of Texas where our papers are and you see the Watergate reporting and you see The Final Days, you'll see the methodology laid out and you'll see the accuracy of it. This doesn't come from one source. This is a reconstruction in meeting after meeting after meeting which you wonder, why doesn't John Kelly, the chief of staff, go to the Congress of the United States in executive session, resign for the good of the country, go to Congress and say, 'I want to answer all of your questions about this president in full about what the context is, about what's in this book, et cetera, et cetera, and let's see how it holds up.'"
But we know that's not going to happen. Republicans put party and power first.
