WH staff didn't want Trump to talk directly to Woodward.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

That's obvious from the fact that Woodward contacted a number of people about setting up an interview and nobody ever got back to him. The transcript of the conversation with Trump and Conway shows that Conway was contacted but she tap-danced around the question of whether or by whom the request was forwarded to Trump. I'm sure the reason the request was not sent to Trump was because they didn't want him talking to Woodward - the reporter who helped bring down Nixon - for the same reason Trump's lawyers don't want him to talk to Mueller. The reason is that Trump loves to talk about himself and if he'd known about the interview request he'd have accepted it, and he then would have blabbed all manner of crazy and deeply incriminating stuff. His staff knew exactly what would happen and that's why they kept Woodward away from him.

[bearsfootball516]

1. Not a surprise. Woodward is probably one of the most skilled interviewers in the world.

[marylandblue]

2. Too bad he didn't just walk into Trump's office like everyone else does.

[AndJusticeForSome]

3. I had a very different interptetation

That Trump was just lying about it, "nobody told me" aka "the check is in the mail."

And although Woodward tried hard to break through Trump's blabbering on, I didn't hear him vigorously try to object when Trump kept repeating how "you can't deny" that the country is doing great. I was disappointed in Woodward's relative silence and assumed agreement with Trump's self-congratulatory statements. Woodward's main point just sounded like him defending his book, which he was doing. But Trump's ultimate conclusion was that the book would be wildly inaccurate because he himself was denied (by himself) the opportunity for an interview. SOP, IMHO.

When Conway was put on the phone, in Trump's presence, I thought she was just too afraid to admit that of course he was told. Instead she just says she took it up the appropriate channels.

I mean, how in the world could Trump NOT have known that Woodward was trying to get ahold of him?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. It's hard for me to believe that Trump wouldn't want very much

to be interviewed by Woodward. Trump loves nothing more than to talk about himself, and Woodward is a well-known, credible reporter - unlike Omarosa and Michael Wolfe. His book will probably out-sell either of theirs. I can imagine Trump thinking he could tell his self-glorifying side of things to Woodward, who would publish the interview in his best-selling book and everyone would then see how awesome Trump is! What I thought Trump was doing was trying to get a few plugs in for himself after the fact, while at the same time claiming he never knew Woodward wanted to interview him (and if that's the case a few more heads might roll). I got the impression that in the phone conversation Woodward was just listening, which is what good interviewers do; they don't argue. If they listen and don't argue they are more likely to get the real goods from the interviewee. Woodward has been in the business long enough to know that. He just listens.

[AndJusticeForSome]

5. I hear you

Trump is such a micromanager, esp when it comes to publicity, that's like the only thing he really cares about. I just cannot fathom him not somehow knowing Woodward was heartily reaching out to him, y'know? OTOH, I agree that he loves to talk about himself (!) but I wonder if he made the calculation that since BW *is* so respected, that he'd be better off with saying he never got interviewed, so that he could credibly (!) claim, as he did, that the book would only be "about 50 percent" accurate due to (of course, since he's the final authority) him, Trump, having not been allowed input.

Who knows? I'm sure we will, eventually.

[underpants]

6. Woodaward left Naval Intelligence to work at the Post

Never forget that.