Veteran reporter Bob Woodward questioned President Trump’s grasp on reality following criticism of his book Rage.
Woodward told CNN host Anderson Cooper that he does not know if Trump can remember what is real and what is not real. He pointed to a moment in one of his 18 interviews, during which Trump said he did not remember national security adviser Robert O’Brien saying that the coronavirus would be a top national security threat but that he knew O’Brien said it at some point.
“I said, ‘Do you remember your national security adviser saying that this virus is going to be not the biggest national security challenge, it’s going to be the biggest national security threat to your presidency? You’re president of this country.’ And you know what the president said? I asked, ‘Do you remember it?’ He said no, but then he said, ‘But I know he said it. I know he said it.’ So, he doesn’t remember it, but twice he tells me he knows that O’Brien said it.
Woodward also said that Trump’s criticisms of the book are another example of his detachment from reality. He noted that Trump tweeted that the book would include lies but then told Fox News that the book was “OK” and “fine” in a recent interview.
“I don’t know, to be honest, whether he’s got it straight in his head on what is real and what is unreal. That is why, at the end of the book, I say, in totality, my judgment is this is the wrong man for the job,” Woodward said.
Woodward has previously said that he would not comment on Trump’s mental fitness. During a 2018 interview with MSNBC, Woodward said, “I’m not a psychiatrist, and I don’t dig into that.”
