FEAR & LOATHING
As release of White House tell-all nears, Prez calls for pols to change libel laws
President Trump has a new mission for Congress — change the libel laws so critics can’t write bad things about him.
“Isn’t it a shame that someone can write an article or book, totally make up stories and form a picture of a person that is literally the exact opposite of the fact, and get away with it without retribution or cost,” Trump wrote on Twitter Wednesday, a day after excerpts from a book about the President made the rounds..
“Don’t know why Washington politicians don’t change libel laws?”
Trump’s tweet was part of a White House campaign to discredit Watergate scribe Bob Woodward, whose latest book paints an unflattering picture of the Trump administration.
The book, out next week, quotes a top aide calling Trump an “idiot” who has the capacity for understanding of a “fifth or sixth grader.”
“The book means nothing, it’s a work of fiction,” he told reporters.
Woodward’s “Fear: Trump in the White House” paints a picture of a West Wing in a state of utter dysfunction, staffed by officials who have no respect for the former reality TV star. The Washington Post published excerpts Tuesday. Trump tweeted nine times in less than 12 hours after they began appearing online.
White House chief of staff John Kelly, Defense Secretary James Mattis and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders all released statements disputing Woodward’s reporting, with Mattis calling the book “a product of someone’s rich imagination.”
The book says aides snatched sensitive papers off Trump’s desk to keep him from making dangerous and impulsive decisions.
Trump made similar suggestions about libel law in January after writer Michael Wolff released “Fire & Fury,” another inside look at the White House.
In rants about “fake news,” Trump has blasted reporters
using unnamed sources.
But critics have noted Trump seemed less concerned about unnamed sources when he was the one said to have planted stories anonymously; “John Barron” and “John Miller” were among his pseudonyms.
Meanwhile, Trump was taken down by another anonymous source, a senior administration official who, in a New York Times op-ed, said several insiders have “vowed to thwart parts of his agenda.”
“Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations,” the essay said. “We believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.”
Woodward writes that Kelly described Trump as an “idiot,” “unhinged” and told staffers working for him was “the worst job I’ve ever had.”
In a stunning revelation in the book, being released Tuesday, Woodward writes that Trump thought his attempts to walk back his widely condemned “both sides” remark about violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., last summer was “the biggest f---ing mistake I’ve made.”
Trump also blasts attorney and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani after he appeared on talk shows to defend then-candidate Trump after the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape.
“I’ve never seen a worse defense of me in my life,” Trump said. “They took your diaper off right there . ... When are you going to be a man?”
Giuliani disputed that. “His incident about me is entirely false. Twenty to 30 witnesses saw it and can say he or his source are liars. Most important for libel purposes, he never called me,” Giuliani tweeted. “Didn’t want to know truth.”
Trump openly suggested Wednesday that Congress should change libel laws so that he would be better positioned to seek “retribution” against Woodward.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Fox News she hasn’t spoken with Trump about filing any libel lawsuit.
Woodward, a Pulitzer Prize-winner, stands by his work.
Former George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer defended the author’s reporting as well.
“I’ve been on the receiving end of a Bob Woodward book,” he tweeted Tuesday. “There were quotes in it I didn’t like. But never once — never —did I think Woodward made it up.”
He added: “Anonymous sources have looser lips and may take liberties. But Woodward always plays it straight. Someone told it to him.”