Sarah Sanders said in a new rebuttal of Bob Woodward book on Wednesday that a damaging characterization of the White House as 'crazytown' and the president as 'unhinged' can't possibly be true.
'I don't think you can have the type of success that we've had in this White House under this president if that book was an accurate reflection of what is taking place,' she told reporters after blasting the book on two morning shows.
Sanders denied that current aides to Donald Trump believe he is an imbecile, as the president is portrayed in excerpts from the book that emerged as the White House was focused on another fight — the one to get Brett Kavanaugh on the high court.
She said a series of matching accounts across bombshell books that have humiliated the White House are works of 'fiction' from anonymous sources with axes to grind against the president.
Sarah Sanders said in a new rebuttal of Bob Woodward book on Wednesday that a damaging characterization of the White House as 'crazytown' and the president as 'unhinged' can't possibly be true
Sanders avoided calling Woodward himself a liar, avoiding a trap laid by the president in an interview when he suggested the respected journalist 'made up' anecdotes in his book that is based on hundreds of hours of recorded interviews.
The president in a Wednesday tweet encouraged Congress to take a fresh look at libel laws as he desperately searched for ways to retaliate.
Sanders wouldn't take the bait, telling a reporter who asked if the book was met the current standards, 'I think we have to see the rest of the book.
'We've seen a few excerpts that have been pretty widely pushed back on by some of the most-respected people in our country,' Sanders said. 'We'll see what happens.'
Sanders on 'GMA' said the book is based on the claims of anonymous sources and disgruntled former staffers. 'This is just another repeat of pure fiction.'
'I don't think there are that many current staffers that are painting that picture,' she asserted to assembled journalists later.
She told reporters after the interview that Woodward's sources were sharing the same rehearsed stories they'd shared with other authors writing shock-and-awe books about the sitting president.
'Certainly, just because they keep getting told doesn't make them more true,' she said of the pattern of degrading comments. 'I think that's a ridiculous accusation.'
She said the fact that the 'same people keep writing the same type of books' about Trump proves nothing.
Trump slammed Woodward's book as a 'fraud' and labeled him a 'Dem operative' after the famed Watergate journalist wrote that John Kelly called the president 'an idiot' and James Mattis compared him to a 'fifth grader'.
The president said in a tweet on Tuesday night: 'The Woodward book has already been refuted and discredited by General (Secretary of Defense) James Mattis and General (Chief of Staff) John Kelly. Their quotes were made up frauds, a con on the public. Likewise other stories and quotes. Woodward is a Dem operative? Notice timing?'
Mattis and Kelly both dismissed claims they had questioned Trump's intellect.
The president personally denied a claim in the book that he used a slur to describe Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
'The already discredited Woodward book, so many lies and phony sources, has me calling Jeff Sessions “mentally retarded” and “a dumb southerner". I said NEITHER, never used those terms on anyone, including Jeff, and being a southerner is a GREAT thing. He made this up to divide!'
Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday to accuse famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward of fabricating quotes and information in his new book, Fear: Trump in the White House
![At 11pm [ET] Trump went on to deny another claim in the book regarding slurs he allegedly made against Attorney General Jeff Sessions](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/05/05/4FB6B58500000578-6131729-image-a-31_1536120021137.jpg)
At 11pm [ET] Trump went on to deny another claim in the book regarding slurs he allegedly made against Attorney General Jeff Sessions
Trump (left) dismissed as 'made up frauds' quotes from James Mattis and John Kelly which were deeply critical of Trump. Woodward is pictured on the right
Trump has repeatedly ripped into Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia probe.
In addition to calling him a 'traitor,' the president allegedly said, 'This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner. … He couldn't even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.'
Woodward also said that Kelly castigated Trump as 'an idiot,' saying, 'It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails.
The White House chief of staff allegedly said, 'We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.'
Kelly denied making the claims in a statement put out by the White House.
'The idea that I ever called the President is not true, in fact it's exactly the opposite,' he said. 'This is both a pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from his many successes.'
In another episode, Trump is said to have questioned the utility of U.S. early warning systems in Alaska to identify a nuclear attack from North Korea.
Mattis is said to have schooled him. 'We're doing this in order to prevent World War III,' he reportedly said.
The Pentagon chief is said to have told colleagues after the incident that Trump had the mental ability of 'a fifth- or sixth-grader.'
On Tuesday he denied the account, saying in a statement of his own: 'The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence.
'While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility.'
A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Rob Manning, said Mattis was never interviewed by Woodward.
'Mr. Woodward never discussed or verified the alleged quotes included in his book with Secretary Mattis' or anyone within the Defense Department, Manning said.
Previous accounts during Trump's first year had former secretary of state Rex Tillerson calling Trump a 'moron,' and Tillerson did not explicitly deny it. This would mean three of Trump's most senior advisors have ridiculed his mental capacity.
Woodward also reported that after Syria's Bashar Assad launched a chemical weapons attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted the Syrian leader taken out, saying: 'Kill him! Let's go in.'
Mattis assured Trump he would get right on it but then told a senior aide they'd do nothing of the kind, Woodward wrote. National security advisers instead developed options for the airstrike that Trump ultimately ordered.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley denied Tuesday that Trump had ever planned to assassinate Assad. She told reporters at U.N. headquarters that she had been privy to conversations about the Syrian chemical weapons attacks, 'and I have not once ever heard the president talk about assassinating Assad.'
She said people should take what is written in books about the president with 'a grain of salt.'
Defense Secretary Mattis (left, at the Pentagon on August 28) and Kelly, White House chief of staff, (right, in the White House on August 27) both questioned quotes attributed to them
Trump also tweeted official statements from Kelly and Mattis as part of a barrage of posts on Tuesday evening
In a taped phone call with Trump that the journalist released hand-in-hand with excerpts from the forthcoming book on Tuesday, Woodward recounts how he tried to reach the president to fact-check claims he had made.
Trump says he wished he had known about the book – which was already coming out at the time of the call.
'I never got a call. I never got a message,' the president said at first. 'Who did you ask about speaking to me?'
Woodward told him he had lunch with counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway where he pressed her on getting a Trump interview – prompting Trump to admonish his former campaign manager while she was in the room.
At one point during the back-and-forth, Conway walked into the room where Trump was speaking, and he invited her to jump on the call.
'You and I spent a whole lunch on it, Kellyanne ... And you said you would get back to me. Nothing,' Woodward told her.
Conway then told Woodward, 'yeah. So, I did. I presented it to the people here who make those decisions,' without naming names.
'Who are the people?' Woodward asked, but he received no response. At that point, without answering, Conway jumped off the call, and Trump hopped back on.
Trump then faulted Woodward for not calling him directly.
'But you never called for me. It would have been nice, Bob, if you called for me in my office,' Trump said.
'Kellyanne went to somebody, but she didn't come to me. And she should have come to me,' Trump said.
The president noted that the book was almost certain to contain embarrassing information about his administration - and that it would probably be 'very inaccurate' as he geared up for the coming bloodbath.
Woodward assured him that it wouldn't, and the two ended the call that took place in August amicably.
MAYBE HE MADE IT UP: That was Trump's charge on Tuesday as he tried to get out from under Woodward's damaging allegations. Ari Fleisher, the former press secretary to George W. Bush, said in a tweet that the charge didn't add up
Trump was once a fan of Bob Woodward - but now the president says he might be a liar
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders dismissed the work of the famed journalist as 'nothing more than fabricated stories'
The president was singing a different tune on Tuesday, hinting that Woodward could have 'made up' anecdotes in his book, including a story about Gary Cohn absconding with an order to end the United States' trade deal with South Korea to keep Trump from making an international mess.
'That's false. It's just made up,' Trump told The Daily Caller in a furious response to the book. 'There was nobody taking anything from me.'
Trump suggested that 'disgruntled employees' may have made the claims -- or that they could have been falsified Woodward in their entirety.
'It could just be made up by the author,' Trump said of the journalist he once defended on Twitter against slights levied against him by the Obama administration.
The damaging statement about the widely respected journalist had former President George W. Bush's White House Press Secretary Ari Fleisher shaking his head.
Extracts from veteran Watergate reporter Bob Woodard's new book set off explosions across the political world
'I've been on the receiving end of a Bob Woodward book. There were quotes in it I didn't like. But never once - never - did I think Woodward made it up,' Fleisher said. 'Anonymous sources have looser lips and may take liberties. But Woodward always plays is straight. Someone told it to him.'
Trump's press secretary piled on with a statement that said: 'This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad.'
In the response to Woodward's book, Sanders argued that 'sometimes' Trump's approach to the office is 'unconventional' but it 'always gets results.'
'Democrats and their allies in the media understand the President's policies are working and with success like this, no one can beat him in 2020 – not even close.'
The White House did not hold a televised question and answer session with reporters on Tuesday, choosing instead to respond to the explosive book that hits shelves on Sept. 11 through written statements.
Trump held off on eviscerating Woodward on Twitter, as well, responding to him in the interview with The Daily Caller before lashing out at him later on Twitter.
The book recounts efforts by Cohn to try to head-off what he considered rash or ill-advised policy moves by Trump.
Cohn 'stole a letter off Trump's desk' to prevent the president from executing a planned withdrawal from the United States-South Korea trade pact.
Mattis told colleagues Trump had the mental ability of 'a fifth- or sixth-grader', according to the book
It even ventures into the advice Trump received from his former lead lawyer on the Russia investigation, John Dowd.
'Don't testify. It's either that or an orange jumpsuit,' he advised Trump, according to the book.
Dowd is also said to have explained to special counsel Robert Mueller face-to-face that he didn't want his client to testify, because he feared that Trump would be cast as an imbecile.
He reportedly told him: 'I'm not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, 'I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?''
According to Woodward, Mueller replied: 'John, I understand.'
Trump insists Bob Woodward's book interview request never made it to the Oval Office
President Donald Trump complained on a recorded phone call no one ever contacted him about veteran journalist Bob Woodward's interview request – then complained advisor Kellyanne Conway should have come to him directly.
The Washington Post released a recorded August 14 phone call between the famously well-sourced author and the president soon after the paper reported on a copy of 'Fear,' Woodward's forthcoming book on Trump.
Trump does admit at one point during the call that a senator had passed along Woodward's request for an interview, but at other times says he had no idea about it.
The call begins with Woodward, after alerting the president he was recording, regretting the two hadn't been able to connect and Trump saying he wished he had known about the book – which was already coming out at the time of the call.
'She should have come to me,' Trump said of Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, (seen at the White House on August 29) during a conversation with Bob Woodward about an interview request Trump claims he never was told about
'I never got a call. I never got a message,' the president said at first. 'Who did you ask about speaking to me?'
Woodward told him he had lunch with counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway where he pressed her on getting a Trump interview – prompting Trump to admonish his former campaign manager while she was in the room.
At one point during the back-and-forth, Conway walked into the room where Trump was speaking, and he invited her to jump on the call.
'You and I spent a whole lunch on it, Kellyanne ... And you said you would get back to me. Nothing,' Woodward told her.
Conway then told Woodward: 'Yeah. So, I did. I presented it to the people here who make those decisions,' without naming names.
'Who are the people?' Woodward asked, but he got no response. At that point, without answering, Conway jumped off the call, and Trump got back on.
Trump then faulted Woodward for not calling him directly.
'But you never called for me. It would have been nice, Bob, if you called for me in my office,' Trump said.
'Kellyanne went to somebody, but she didn't come to me. And she should have come to me,' Trump said.
Dowd said Tuesday in emails to the Washington Examiner that anecdotes and quotes attributed to him – including a claim that he called Trump a 'f**king liar' and that a mock session with Trump in advance of a potential interview with Mueller revealed the 'full nightmare' he was dealing with – are not true.
'I have not read Bob Woodward's book, which appears to be the most recent in an endless cycle of accusations and misrepresentations based on anonymous statements from unknown malcontents,' he told the outlet.
'I do not intend to address every inaccurate statement attributed to me – but I do want to make this clear: there was no so-called 'practice session' or 're-enactment' of a mock interview at the Special Counsel's office. Further, I did not refer to the President as a 'liar' and did not say that he was likely to end up in an 'orange jump suit.'
The email from Dowd concluded: 'It was a great honor and distinct privilege to serve President Trump.'
'This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner,' Trump reportedly said of his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia probe. He is pictured in DC on August 31
Trump said his former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, (pictured in DC on February 7) scurries around 'like a rat'
Former director of the U.S. National Economic Council Gary Cohn snatched a letter off Trump's desk to keep him from precipitously moving to pull out of a trade deal. Cohn is seen on the right next to Jared Kushner on March 8
Woodward also described an argument between Ivanka Trump and then chief White House strategist Steve Bannon.
'You're a goddamn staffer!' Bannon allegedly screamed at her, explaining she had to work through Priebus like other aides. 'You walk around this place and act like you're in charge, and you're not. You're on staff!'
Ivanka replied: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter.'
According to another anecdote, Trump told former staff secretary Rob Porter that former chief of staff Reince Priebus was 'like a little rat. He just scurries around.'
Porter in turn allegedly said on Trump: 'A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas.'
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, 80, a billionaire investor, wasn't spared Trump's criticism, either.
'I don't trust you. I don't want you doing any more negotiations. … You're past your prime,' Trump reportedly told him.
Trump also reportedly called his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani a 'baby', and compared former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster to a 'beer salesman'.
Ivanka Trump 'got into an expletive-laden screaming match with Steve Bannon'
By Ariel Zilber
Woodward described an argument between Ivanka Trump and then chief White House strategist Steve Bannon.
'You're a goddamn staffer!' Bannon allegedly screamed at her, explaining she had to work through Priebus like other aides. 'You walk around this place and act like you're in charge, and you're not. You're on staff!'
Ivanka replied: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter.'
Ivanka Trump reportedly was offended when she was told by strategist Steve Bannon she was merely a White House 'staffer' by answering: 'I'm not a staffer! I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter,' it has been claimed. She is seen outside her Washington, D.C. home last month
Bannon was said to have been upset with Ivanka's reported tendency to bypass the standard chain of command and take up issues directly with her father.
Every other White House aide was required to report to the chief of staff at the time, Reince Priebus.
But the reported exchange apparently highlighted the fact that Ivanka felt she was not bound by the same rules.
Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, are senior advisers to the president even though they have no previous experience in government.
The book follows the January release of author Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury,' which led to a rift between Trump and Bannon, his former chief strategist, who spoke with Wolff in terms that were highly critical of the president and his family. Wolff's book attracted attention with its vivid anecdotes but suffered from numerous factual inaccuracies.
Woodward's work also comes weeks after former White House aide and 'Apprentice' contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman published an expose on her time in the West Wing, including audio recordings of her firing by Kelly and a follow-up conversation with the president in which he claimed to have been unaware of Kelly's decision.
While White House aides have become increasingly numb to fresh scandals, the latest book still increased tensions in the West Wing, especially given the intimate details shared and the number of people Woodward appeared to have interviewed.
Some White House officials expressed surprise at the number of erstwhile Trump loyalists willing to offer embarrassing stories of the president and his inner circle.
White House aides on Tuesday coordinated with other officials quoted in the book to dispute troublesome passages. But insiders speculated the fallout could be worse than that from 'Fire and Fury,' given Woodward's storied reputation.
Woodward's book was already ranked the top-selling book on Amazon on Tuesday.
Trump has been increasingly critical of anonymous sources used by reporters covering his administration. Woodward's account relies on deep background conversations with sources, meaning their identities are not disclosed.
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2018/09/06/sanders-if-woodward-book-was-accurate-no-way-wed-be-successful/
Main photo article Sarah Sanders said in a new rebuttal of Bob Woodward book on Wednesday that a damaging characterization of the White House as ‘crazytown’ and the president as ‘unhinged’ can’t possibly be true.
‘I don’t think you can have the type of success that...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/05/15/4F84761500000578-6134521-Sanders_avoided_calling_Woodward_himself_a_liar_avoiding_a_trap_-m-38_1536156695524.jpg
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