Veteran journalist Bob Woodward said that he did not plan on releasing the audio tapes of his interviews with President Trump for his book, Rage, but was convinced to do so by his wife and by CNN reporter Jamie Gangel.
“Being honest, the book would have not received the attention, the focus, and the kind of, ‘Oh, it’s all true. We can hear it,’ if I did not have those two women ganging up on me,” Woodward said on Tuesday during an interview with CNN President Jeff Zucker at the network’s “CITIZEN by CNN” conference.
The Watergate reporter said that he was not planning on releasing the tapes until Gangel and his wife, Elsa Walsh, a reporter who helps edit his books, persuaded him to release them. CNN and the Washington Post were the first media outlets that obtained and published portions of audio from the 18 interviews Woodward did with Trump for the book.
“It’s not the same as it is on the page,” Woodward added, according to the Associated Press. “The microphone really is a microscope.”
Zucker said that the public is “all better” for Woodward having released the tapes.
Woodward’s book revealed new information about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s letters to Trump, former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats fearing that Russian President Vladimir Putin had dirt on Trump, and Trump talking about how he was “playing [the coronavirus] down because I don’t want to create a panic.”
Trump has repeatedly bashed Woodward over the book, including calling it a “fake.”
