Vice President Pence is largely absent from Bob Woodward’s new book about the Trump White House, but the Watergate reporter describes Pence as someone who tries to stay out of the president’s way.
USA Today reported that Pence only makes a handful of appearances in “Fear: Trump in the White House,” which hit bookshelves on Tuesday.
“As usual, Pence was staying out of the way,” Woodward reportedly writes at one point.
{mosads}The writer adds that Pence attempts to avoid taking any action or saying anything that would lead to Trump tweeting about him or bad-mouthing him, according to USA Today.
Pence does pop up a few times in the book, the publication notes. In one instance, he sits quietly during an April 2017 meeting in which Trump said he wanted to sign an order withdrawing the U.S. from the North American Free Trade Agreement.
In another case, Pence reportedly helped convince former economic adviser Gary Cohn to stay in the White House after he considered resigning in the aftermath of the Charlottesville, Va., white supremacist rally. Trump drew criticism after he blamed “both sides” for the violence at the rally.
Woodward’s book has garnered headlines since last Tuesday, when the first excerpts were published.
The book includes multiple specific allegations of high-ranking staff members questioning the president’s competence and circumventing some of his decisions, as well as Trump bad-mouthing top aides.
Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Woodward over the past week, calling him a “liar,” suggesting he’s a Democratic operative and labeling the book “fiction.”
The White House on Monday called Woodward’s work “reckless,” and did not rule out the possibility of a lawsuit.
Pence, in an interview that aired Sunday, pushed back against the book’s claims, but did not provide specific examples of inaccuracies.
“It shows a complete misunderstanding of how this White House works,” Pence said of the book.
The veteran reporter has stood by the book’s accuracy, and insisted that those denying the quotes attributed to them are “not telling the truth.”