NYT columnist: Woodward’s book will have a ‘decisive effect’ on midterms

Conservative New York Times columnist Bret Stephens on Monday said that the revelations made in Bob Woodward’s new book could have a “decisive effect” on the upcoming midterm elections.

“My question is, does the book move voters at the margins?” Stephens asked while speaking on MSNBC about Woodward’s explosive book, “Fear: Trump in the White House.”

{mosads}”And I suspect that it is going to move voters at the margins. I suspect that it is going to have a decisive effect on the midterms.”

Stephens, a regular critic of the president, said he doesn’t think that the passages in the book, which hits shelves on Tuesday, will sway Trump’s base, but he said he thinks it could convince voters who were unsure about voting for Trump or his 2016 Democratic presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton.

“You are going to convince the people who struggled really hard in 2016 between Hillary Clinton, not liking her, and Donald Trump, not liking him and suddenly saying, ‘you know what, this guy, we’ve been in Crazytown for too long, we need a correction,’ ” Stephens said, referring to a passage in one of the pre-released excerpts from the book where White House chief of staff John Kelly reportedly referred to the administration as “Crazytown.” 

The comments come about a week after The Washington Post published a number of excerpts from the book. The book paints a portrait of an administration that is increasingly at odds with the president’s impulses. 

Among the anecdotes included, former top economic adviser Gary Cohn is reported to have removed paperwork, unnoticed, from Trump’s desk that the president intended to sign to withdraw the U.S. from trade agreements.  

Trump and the White House have pushed back hard against details included in the released excerpts, with many high-ranking officials denying the reports.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called it “nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the president look bad.”

Woodward defended his reporting on Sunday, saying that “people better wake up to what’s going on,” inside the Trump administration.