On CNN Monday, Watergate reporter Bob Woodward outlined how former President Donald Trump's relationship with North Korean despot Kim Jong-un "traumatized" his own national security officials.
This came amid the release of tapes of Woodward's conversations with Trump, during which he dismissed the CIA's claims Kim was "stupid" and that he knew better because the two of them have great "chemistry."
"So, you're saying this about Kim Jong-un and you have this chemistry and the purpose is what?" said anchor Jake Tapper. "And he says it was designed for whatever reason. It was designed, who knows, instinctively. Let's talk instinct. There's no substance there at all."
"And here he's saying his decision is instinct," said Woodward. "I mean, what a casual way, as I point out in one of my 200 commentaries in the audiobook, this traumatized his national security team. Kim Jong-un, the thuggish leader of North Korea, had nuclear weapons. He had missiles that he got from — missile launchers from China. And then he concealed them and he hid them in a way that the CIA was, my god, this guy, if we ever have to have a war or some sort of nuclear exchange with him, he's really advanced. And the defense secretary, Mattis, used to sleep in his gym clothes because he knew if a missile was coming to the United States, he would be called to an emergency conference."
"I asked Trump about this," Woodward continued. "Trump had given the authority to Mattis to shoot down an incoming missile like that. Mattis was going to the national cathedral to pray, to make peace with his god, that as defense secretary, he might have to use nuclear weapons to defend our country. And this, the president's presentation on this is, well, it's instinct. Who knows? I mean, come on."
"I am increasingly baffled the more I hear the casual disconnect, the sense he has of obligation to himself, I guess, I mean, about Kim Jong-un," added Woodward. "'I'm the only one that knows.' I mean, come on. I've never heard — I've interviewed lots of presidents and people that work with them and got notes and transcripts of meetings in the White House — never heard another president say anything like that. Lots of big egos in the presidency. Never heard one say, I'm the only one that knows."
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