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The veteran journalist discussed his new book, 'Fear: Trump in the White House,' with Stephen Colbert on Monday's 'Late Show.'
Transcript
00:00And Trump goes ballistic, makes things up, starts screaming.
00:04On Monday, journalist Bob Woodward made an appearance on CBS's Late Show to chat to
00:08host Stephen Colbert about his latest book, a dystopian work of fiction called
00:12Fear, Trump in the White House.
00:14It's not fiction.
00:16Wait, it's not fiction?
00:18Oh, that's right. It's real life. And Woodward's latest book is actually about
00:22President Donald Trump's administration because it turns out you can't make this stuff up.
00:27Referring to the book's title, Colbert asked Woodward what fills him with fear.
00:32Not knowing, the veteran journalist responded.
00:34The first is not knowing. And that's what we've got to do. We need to know what's going
00:39on.
00:40No one works in the White House who doesn't bring things home, Woodward told Colbert.
00:44On the third visit, they say, maybe I've got something upstairs. Then they come down with
00:48three boxes.
00:49Citing a section from the end of the book, in which Trump's attorney John Dowd is performing
00:53a mock trial with the president about the Mueller investigation, Woodward explained
00:58what the lawyer allegedly said in the situation.
01:00You can't testify. You are disabled. Imagine your lawyer telling you you are disabled, said
01:06Woodward.
01:07You can't testify because you can't tell the truth. You just make things up.
01:13When asked about whether Woodward's sources might only open up to him in order to be portrayed
01:16well in history, the legendary reporter replied,
01:20What you do is you take information and you check with other people. This is a little beehive,
01:24the White House. Someone will say something and someone else will have a document.
01:28And you can put it together often with microscopic detail.
01:32And when asked if he would lie to protect the identity of a source, Woodward stated simply,
01:36no.
01:37Speaking on Trump specifically, Woodward said,
01:39In many of these cases, he's just wrong. He'll find a few people who will agree,
01:43but we'd better wake up to what's really going on and people need to examine it. This is not partisan.
01:48The conversation then moved on to the president's favorite form of communication,
01:52with Colbert asking Woodward how he feels when Trump tweets about him.
01:55What is the contest in America other than the political contest?
01:58It's a contest for the truth, Woodward said.
02:01I'm willing to put myself out here. I've done the work.
02:03This is the best reporting you can do, or that I can do.
02:08Earlier on Monday, Woodward appeared on NBC's Today where he said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis
02:13and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly are not telling the truth when they deny making
02:16disparaging statements about Trump attributed to them in his book.
02:20Both Kelly and Mattis are quoted in the book as calling the president an idiot
02:24and has the understanding of a fifth or sixth grader.
02:27And that's how you end the book. I think you buried the lead.
02:31To read more on this story and to watch full clips of Stephen Colbert's interview with Bob Woodward,
02:35head to THR.com. For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Lyndsey Rodrigues.
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