Bob Woodward on Friday agreed that it's right to be suspicious over President Donald Trump's tweets accusing former President Barack Obama of wiretapping activities at Trump Tower, but he would not agree with MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski that the president lied.
"Well, there's a lot of dancing going on by the White House press secretary [Sean Spicer] and I agree — the inconsistencies in this are endless," the veteran journalist said during a "Morning Joe" panel discussion. "At the same time, a lie is an intentional deception. It may turn out to be the case. In Trump's memoirs someday, he'll say, ‘You know, I made that all up.' I don't know that yet."
Brzezinski argued that if there was not enough evidence to show Trump's claims of wiretapping, then Trump had lied.
"You have to be suspicious, [but] at this point I would not agree with you, Mika, and say at this point that Trump lied," Woodward responded.
He did note that during Trump's transition period, when the president said the wiretapping activities occurred, Trump Tower was extremely busy with many people coming in and out.
"I was there in January, and there were all kinds of strange things going on — all kinds of private security guards, people," Woodward said. "Anyway, I'm just saying, let's look at it. I would not close the case at this point. At the same time, I don't know why we're spending time on this or why Trump is spending time on it."
Brzezinski said she was also at Trump Tower during the transition, and saw an "endless stream of guests coming, one after another," and there was also added security.
"How does that back up any claim that president Obama wiretapped trump tower in the course of the election?" she said. "It almost seems fantastical. I understand you want to have an open mind but what is your advice about covering this in the days and weeks to come? Let it go?"
Woodward said the reporting should continue, but there should be "strict accountability" on the matter.
"It goes on forever and ever to say, 'Well, now we really didn't mean wiretapping,'" said Woodward, referring to Spicer's comments this week that "wiretapping" meant general surveillance activities.
"Well, hypothetically, suppose you are the Russians and you want to find out what is going on in Trump Tower. You've got all of these people coming in. I mean, as you say, I think it would have been impossible for anyone to monitor who these people were, what was going on."
He continued that there is an "absurdity in all of this" as there has been a "polarization that has taken place."
"People look at this, lots of people, and say 'it's a lie, it's unsupported,'" said Woodward. "Other people say, 'oh, no, we love Trump, he is our president, he can say anything, he can do anything.' I gravitate toward the middle on something like this. Let's find out. We don't have to answer this, this week or next week, and there are avenues to pursue."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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