Bob Woodward Tells Bill Maher That Republicans ‘Fear’ Donald Trump On ‘Real Time’

Last night on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward appeared as the host’s one-on-one guest to promote his book, Fear: Trump In the White House. During the late night show, Maher and Woodward discussed Donald Trump’s fear tactics and how even his own party is afraid of him.

Talking about his book, Woodward noted that Trump actually gave him the title during an interview in which 45 declared that real power is fear, which consequently gave the author chills.

“It was almost like Hamlet in Shakespeare,” Woodward recounted, explaining that “it’s his way of scaring the bejeezus out of people.”

“People ask why Republicans fall in line behind him. They fear him,” added Maher, who reiterated that even his own party is afraid of him and that the current state of affairs is “a lot worse” than people think.

“The country fears him, so the world fears him,” Woodward insisted, referring to POTUS’ foreign diplomacy and the NATO contributions meant “to prevent World War III.”

“The fear has worked,” he concluded, warning viewers that the current president is “gambling with who we are and what the country is.”

“I don’t think he’s leaving, even if he loses the election in 2020,” Maher said with conviction, noting that his challenging of Florida’s midterm election results is just “a dress rehearsal for what we’re going to see if he loses in 2020.”

“I don’t see a scenario where he welcomes the new winner graciously,” the host affirmed.
Woodward then compared Trump to Richard Nixon, noting that Nixon also “had a lust for political power.”

“Trump understands lust, to say the least,” Woodward said as the audience chuckled. “It is part of his being, to get power over people and to crush them, to demean them. People in his own party – no one is free from that kind of lashing criticism.”

Talking about Trump’s cabinet and some of the behind-the-scenes decisions that are being made, Woodward blamed the president’s ignorance. “This is a year into office that the president has to be tutored on what the job is. I have done this 47 years, and when I learned about that I got a chill.”

Lastly, talking about Matt Whitaker, who replaced AG Jeff Sessions this week as Acting Attorney General, Maher insisted that again, we crossed a line.

“To me, this Whitaker guy, that’s a red line: When the top cop of the country is just a stooge, there to do the bidding of the Supreme Leader… That’s the slow moving coup.”

You can check out the full interview above.

Michael is a music and television junkie keen on most things that are not a complete and total bore. You can follow him on Twitter — @Tweetskoor

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