Bob Woodward book Rage - interesting take on it on CNN this afternoon

[avebury]

OK there have been a lot of comments on DU and elsewhere about why didn't Woodward talk up sooner about Trump's true understanding about how bad Covid was and that Trump lied to the American people.

I have been listening to CNN as they talked about the book on Brianna Keilar's show just now with Jamie Gangel and Sanjay Goupta that was interesting. At the interview where Trump started talking about Covid Woodward was taken aback. This was just after Trump beat the impeachment trial and that was what Woodward went into the conversation prepared to talk about. Trump went sidewise and began talking about Covid. Woodward was - okayyy and the discussion took place. Woodward supposedly did not think that he had a gotcha moment in that discussion because we all know what Trump is like. He exaggerates, he lies, etc. and you can't automatically believe what he says at first blush.

Anyway, Woodward continued to going through process of working on the book. It wasn't until sometime in May when something came up that made Woodward sit up and think back to the early February interview with Trump and he put 2 & 2 together to realize exactly what Trump gave him back in February - kind of a holy sh*t moment. It wasn't until that moment that he realized just how bad the consequences to Trump's actions was resulting in so many deaths.

Honestly, given the fact that Trump has gotten away with everything in the past I don't buy for one minutes that, had Woodward spoke up even in May, anything would have changed. Instead of shooting someone on 5th Avenue, he killed thousands of Americans from the White House. And the Republicans in Congress refuse to turn on him and put Country before Trump. As horrible is the sheer volume of loss of life, releasing the information now has a better shot of ramping up the get out the vote efforts in November. Our only hope is to have such an overwhelming victory (hopefully including down ballot races).

[Greybnk48]

1. This makes more sense to me that the notion that

Woodward sat on this info deliberately. I’ve been super upset and ripping on Woodward today, hoping to get a decent explanation here. This one makes sense. I always doubt him because he’s a lifelong Repuke of the 1st order.

I’ll stop being an “outrage junky” and a “whiner” (names called by Duers) toward Woodward over those thousands who have died, and focus on all of the Republicans who will be exposed as having known this in January and early February.

[grumpyduck]

2. I agree with the OP.

The MSM has to create controversy to get people talking and coming back, so bringing this up is just a way to do that.

In the final analysis (mine, anyway), it wouldn't have made any difference if Woodward had ratted the PoS out back then. It would have just denied it, the GOP wouldn't have done anything, and its followers wouldn't have believed it. And I think the MSM and the GOP would have made up stories about Woodward ("this long-time respected reporter who helped bring down Nixon, blah blah" ) jumping out there to get credit for exposing the issue without taking the time to really dig into it (like he did before). There's more to the story now than he had back then. And, honestly, I don't think the death rate would have been any different given the so-called administration's refusal to do anything about it regardless of who knows about it.

So fine, get pissed off at him if you want to. Me, I'll save my galaxy-class disgust and loathing for the PoS who is ultimately responsible for this fucking disaster.

[Awsi Dooger]

3. Situational evaluation is routinely butchered

I've emphasized that here dozens of times. People embrace here and now and assume what we know today is what we always knew

The same people who believe Woodward's revelation would have changed everything are the ones who believed Trump was going to resign 25 times, or that Trump's approval was going to drop to 30%, or that the USPS story or losers/suckers story were going to top every news cycle until election day.

[orwell]

4. Why is Woodward being singled out?

...Dozens of people inside his administration knew what he was briefed about and what he knew. Almost none of them came forward and if they did it was too little too late. These deaths are on their heads as well.

How about Hannity, Limbaugh, Ingraham, Carlson and the rest of the bloviating Trump propaganda machine, all graduates of the Leni Riefenstahl school of public disinformation. How many dead are they responsible for? They knew he was gaslighting. They were handing him the matches and turning up the flame.

What about Dr. Birx? She stood before a camera and talked about his "remarkable grasp of the science". At least Dr. Fauci was signalling that he was blowing BS out of his piehole at the daily briefings.

This isn't only true of Covid-19 but of the many other scandals in which he breached his oath of office.

What about Mattis, Kelly, Bolton, and the rest of the "national security" team? They are secretly dealing with Hothead45 playing Dr. Strangelove, then meekly leaving out the back door so as not to tarnish their "sacred duty" as RepubliCons first and upholding their oath to defend the Constitution a distant second.

Patriots turn out to be Vindman, Yovanovich et al who spoke up in real time and stood up when it counted. They withstood death threats, losing their jobs, public ridicule because they took their oath seriously.

This is typical Con rhetorical sleight of hand with deadly consequences. The real watchdogs, our "liberal media" should be all over this bs narrative. Sadly, with few exceptions, they fall into the shiny object "suckers and losers" camp that Trumpolini has exploited his whole life.

There is plenty of blood to go around here. Unfortunately, the guilty will once again circle the wagons to avoid looking in the mirror.