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As long as we are on the foreign affairs beat, Bob Woodward has a new book coming out. It is called War (they must have worked hard coming up with that one), and it's a Woodward-esque, dirt-dishing exposé about much of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering during the three major conflicts of the present day (Afghanistan, Israel, Ukraine).
The book, perhaps in the interest of "balance," does have some revelations about Joe Biden. First, the President has a potty mouth that would make a sailor blush. He has called Benjamin Netanyahu a "fu**ing liar" on several occasions, along with other f-word-based appellations. And despite Biden's close relationship with Barack Obama, #46 has sometimes expressed pique with #44, particularly the fact that Vladimir Putin (sorry, Vladimir Fu**ing Putin) was allowed to get away with invading Crimea in 2014. Oh, and after the Afghanistan withdrawal, George W. Bush called the White House to empathize, telling Biden "I got fu**ed by my intel people, too." Clearly, Bush speaks "Scranton Joe's" language.
The great bulk of the book, at least judging by the excerpts already made public, is about Donald Trump. This is not a surprise, as there is so much there to work with, and also, that's what sells. Republicans buy Trump-branded shoes and watches and Bibles, Democrats buy muckraking works about The Donald. That's just how it is.
The revelations that are getting the most attention, and rightly so, involve Trump's relationship with Vladimir Putin. There are two biggies. The first is that, while the pandemic was underway, and supplies were very scarce, Trump sent a secret shipment of COVID testing equipment to the Russian dict... er, president. The second is that, since leaving office, Trump has spoken to Putin on the phone "as many as seven" times.
Trump promptly lashed out at Woodward in a statement:
None of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true and are the work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Woodward is an angry, little man and is clearly upset because President Trump is successfully suing him because of the unauthorized publishing of recordings he made previously. President Trump gave him absolutely no access for this trash book that either belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section of a discount bookstore or used as toilet tissue. Woodward is a total sleazebag who has lost it mentally, and he's slow, lethargic, incompetent and overall a boring person with no personality.
Trump might have written that one himself, given the personal attacks and poor grammar. In any case, Woodward is a veteran journalist who undoubtedly has multiple sources for his claims, and who generally shows his work in the book (for example, he recounts the story of a specific aide who was asked to leave Trump's office so Trump could hear Putin on the phone). Trump, meanwhile, is an inveterate liar. So, you can tell who we believe here.
Kamala Harris is already getting some mileage out of the Woodward book. During her appearance on Howard Stern's radio program yesterday, she lit into her opponent:
I believe that Donald Trump has this desire to be a dictator. He admires strongmen and he gets played by them because he thinks that they're his friends and they are manipulating him full time and manipulating him by flattery and with favor... [This] is just the most recent stark example of who Donald Trump is, that he secretly sent Covid test kits for the personal use of Putin, of Russia, an adversary to the United States," she said
Despite prompting from Stern, Harris did decline to say whether or not she wished Putin had died from COVID.
We wonder if, one day, it will be known if Harris has the right of it. That is to say, is Putin's power over Trump just a case of a master manipulator playing a useful idiot like a violin? Or is there some externality involved, as well, whether it's a blackmail pee pee tape, or promises of Trump Tower Moscow, or something else? The one thing we are sure about is that if Trump is reelected, he will promptly re-assume his position as Putin's lap dog. At that point, you can feel free to buy new maps without Ukraine on them. Or Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania. (Z)