Woodward: Trump testing how far people will go along with him

Watergate reporter Bob Woodward on Monday said President Trump is intentionally pushing the boundaries of his presidency as his final days in the White House approach. 

Woodward, who covered the final days of President Nixon’s administration closely, said Trump may be testing whether people will still go along with things he suggests after MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell asked him about a report that Trump was considering a new military strike on Iran.

“There are people in the military, in the White House, in the intelligence community who just won’t do certain things. They just say no,” Woodward said Monday on MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” which is hosted by O’Donnell.

“I can see Trump discussing possibilities … maybe kind of testing the waters to see if people would kind of go along with this.” 

Trump has yet to concede his loss in the presidential election to Joe Biden, and has only been seen on camera once in the last 10 days or so. He has been active on Twitter, though on Tuesday he was quiet. Trump has alleged, without evidence, that voter fraud led to a “rigged” election against him. 

Woodward was critical of congressional Republicans who have offered support for Trump’s claims of fraud.

“Like so many Republicans have gone along with this idea, this declaration that he has won and given him running room on the issue, which they shouldn’t have done,” Woodward said. 

Woodward, who earlier this year published a scathing book about the president’s conduct in office, compared Trump’s final days to Nixon’s.

“When Nixon started talking about maybe taking his own life, [his chief of staff] ordered all of Nixon’s pills taken away so he could not take his life that way,” Woodward said. “There are people who will step up and stop things.”