In a speech that referenced Watergate, Nixon and subsequent presidencies, Bob Woodward, the award-winning journalist and author, underscored the seriousness of the current times.
“We are at a real pivot point in history for this country and the world and the Trump presidency,” Woodward told members who attended the New Jersey State Bar Association’s 2019 Annual Meeting and Convention in Atlantic City on Wednesday.
Woodward spoke about the role of the United States presidency and its power. He recounted that after Archibald Cox, the Watergate special prosecutor who was fired during the Saturday Night Massacre in 1973, Cox said, “The president can always work his will.”
Woodward said there are two important lessons about the American presidency. First, the president wields an enormous amount of power, particularly in deciding to engage in war, and second, being elected president has a “huge, unimaginable impact” on an individual’s psyche.
Woodward said being elected president creates a “sense of self-validation that no one really can understand from the outside."
“This particularly is the case with Trump of course, who loves support and adoration,” he said.
“Presidents need restraints,” Woodward said.
Woodward said Trump, who once told him “real power is fear,” has created a culture of fear around him.