Bob Woodward: Joe Biden referred to Donald Trump as a ‘f—ing a—-e’

Biden Attends a Virtual Bilateral Meeting with President Obrador of Mexico

Bob Woodward has a new political book out. The Trump years were good to Woodward. His Republican sources were still very eager to speak to him and his coauthor Robert Costa as the last gasp of the Trump administration involved chaos, insurrection and Rudy Giuliani’s Covid farts. The book is called Peril, and Woodward and Costa summarize the past two years basically, from the last full year of the Trump administration into the transition and the first eight months of the Biden administration. There are already the usual complaints, all of them needing to be repeated: Woodward relies too much on unnamed sourcing, even when it’s perfectly clear that William Barr (Trump’s former AG) and Mark Milley (the chairman of the Joint Chiefs under Trump and Biden) are the ones spilling their guts. Still, some of the early excerpts from Peril are kind of interesting:

Biden hurt Vladimir Putin’s feelings. “I’m upset you called me a killer,” Putin said to Biden on an April 13 phone call. Biden told Putin his comment, made in a March 16 interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, was “not something premeditated,” according to the book. “I was asked a question. I gave an answer. It was an interview on a totally different topic,” Biden said, before he invited Putin to meet with him in person.

The Biden people hate saying Trump’s name. The book also describes how Biden and his aides reportedly refer to Trump in private: The president and his advisers “hated to utter Trump’s name,” and aides avoided using “the ‘T’ word,” the authors claim.

Biden thinks Trump is an a–hole: “Trump’s existence permeated the White House, even the residence. One night, Biden wandered into a room where a huge video screen covered the wall. To relax, Trump used to upload programs to virtually play the world’s most famous golf courses.
‘What a f—— a——,’ Biden once said as he surveyed the former president’s toys.”

Dan Quayle talked sense into Mike Pence. Trump had suggested to Mike Pence that he had the power to essentially rejigger the electoral outcome as head of the Senate, an idea that Quayle told Pence was “preposterous and dangerous.” Woodward and Costa write, in a rare bit of deadpan: “Pence finally agreed acting to overturn the election would be antithetical to his traditional view of conservatism.”

Biden was against the surge in Afghanistan when he was VP: He felt that the addition of 30,000 troops was, Woodward and Costa write, “a tragic power play executed by national security leaders at the expense of a young president.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley spoke to China: Last October and again in January, after the riot, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had secret conversations with his Chinese counterparts to assure them that the United States was “100 percent steady,” despite what they might be seeing and hearing. “Everything’s fine,” he told them, “but democracy can be sloppy sometimes.” The Chinese were concerned that Trump might lash out on a global scale in a desperate attempt to secure his power. Milley went over the process for nuclear strikes and other acts of war with his colleagues, to make sure nothing was instigated without his awareness. He was, Woodward and Costa write, “overseeing the mobilization of America’s national security state without the knowledge of the American people or the rest of the world.”

[From The NY Times & ABC News]

I mean, China had every right to be concerned. China holds trillions of dollars of America’s debt. They have a financial incentive for America to remain a stable republic. And during the Trump administration, we were not a stable republic. We were basically the Confederacy, only somehow less competent. Also, I love that Joe Biden just walks around the White House calling Trump a f–king a–hole. We need that energy. “Let me tell you something about my predecessor, folks: he was a f–king a–hole,” Biden should start every speech that way.

Biden Signs First Executive Orders

Donald Trump holds a news conference in Washington DC

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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42 Responses to “Bob Woodward: Joe Biden referred to Donald Trump as a ‘f—ing a—-e’”

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  1. TIFFANY says:

    And water is wet.

    News at 10.

  2. Ann says:

    I love that he calls him an a-hole because Biden doesn’t just throw ill will around, or curses. It has more impact when it is used sparingly and in his case it is. I know Joe isn’t always the avuncular figure we see in public but I also know he’s genuinely decent and appreciates people and probably gives them the benefit the doubt. But Trump? Forget it.

    • superashes says:

      My husband was reading the news on this over the weekend and laughing hysterically. Apparently there were some choice quotes from Bill Barr as well. Everyone was calling him an a-hole.

    • minx says:

      Joe can be charmingly salty. He’s the one who memorably called Obamacare a “big fcuking deal” when it passed in 2010.

      • Arwen says:

        President Biden is a Scorpio and Irish, both known to be charmingly fiesty. 😀

        Fun fact, my son was born on Bidens’s birthday last year and is also Irish. We call him Mr. President.

  3. JRenee says:

    Show me the lie…

  4. Myra says:

    I admire his restraint.

    • BothSidesNow says:

      As do I. I would have thought that his disgust would have been about 30 words with a generous amount of profanity, as I know mine are!

      That Time cover says it all what we all know to be true. And I hope that as each day passes, more secrets come out of the wood work and there are criminal charges filed. The fact that they have the tapes/notes on his illegal conduct to sway the election, with all of the parties involved, gives me hope for an orange jumpsuit in the end.

  5. Rapunzel says:

    No lies detected from Uncle Joe. But dammit, I hate we’re talking about the former guy again.

    • BothSidesNow says:

      @ Rapunzel, I agree!! I never want to hear that name uttered again. For me, it instantly brings up anxiety and hatred. He has destroyed a majority of the American citizens. We will have to deal with his shenanigans for years, all while we all try to fight off those still in power who are vying for a continued assault of the equal freedom that every person deserves. In addition to the attempts to eliminate Roe v Wade and the gerrymandering that the GOP are creating to cause great disadvantages for those that are lower income and POC. Including the refusal to protect ALL Americans from a deadly virus.

  6. lucy2 says:

    You and me both, Joe.

  7. beff says:

    Funny, I have referred to the former president as “low t” for years.

  8. Teebee says:

    What a cover. Really puts that whole shit show of an election, the aftermath, and just how tough it’s been to clean up that mess in stark relief. Biden deserves a ton of back pats for not complaining about that mess of an administration and just getting to work. Trump is a f**king a*****e. And then some…

  9. EnormousCoat says:

    Honestly, f***ing a****le is high praise for Trump. It’s almost flattery.

  10. Nic919 says:

    It would have been nice if Woodward has reported on this stuff as it was happening so that the public could be aware of just how dangerous the orange idiot was and potentially this could have forced a few more centrist GOP senators to impeach him after the insurrection.

    Hearing about this months later reduces the shock value of the news… and it should be shocking. (Not the Biden stuff, that’s pretty tame to be frank)

    Instead he keeps this secret in order to have more book sales.

    • LaurieLee says:

      It’s probably partly that he kept information for the book, but I think it’s also likely that some of his sources wouldn’t have talked until after the administration was over and they couldn’t be punished by their boss Trump. Anyone who was paying attention knew how dangerous he was, and for those that weren’t going to believe it then, there’s not much that would have changed their minds. I would also have liked to see a lot more of this type of information in the news during the T administration, but I don’t think it’s all just self interest that kept it from coming out.

      • BothSidesNow says:

        @ LaurieLee, I agree with you wholeheartedly! We saw what Drumpf would do to any Senator/Governor/House member that spoke openly about him. He got his maggots to do his dirty work, which put people’s lives in danger. I will never forgive his supporters for what they did on January 6th., as they should ALL be imprisoned for their actions. This includes ALL members of Government that aided in committing this horrendous crime. We have millions of crazy people in this country who are willing to continue to fight for Drumpf and they are all dangerous to our country.

      • BC says:

        Worked at the Post with Woodward a while back, although not in his department, rumor was he was always holding things back for books then. If he had a strong editor, sometimes he held back less, but still. Also, according to people who worked for him, you’d be surprised the amount of people who would just talk to him and spill their guts. It’s actually kind of amusing, I mean he’s Bob Woodward why would you just talk to him forever and let him tape it. He has a lot of his stuff on tape. It’s really kind of funny. He was not my favorite though. He’s a bit stuffy. Loved Ben Bradlee and Shirley Povich even though they were retired basically and just in for a bit. They were very personable got stuck in the elevator with Ben once. He was nice.

  11. psl says:

    I cannot wait for the day when I don’t hear about Trump ever again.

  12. Izzy says:

    I mean, haven’t we all?

  13. Kristin says:

    I think the only part of this interview that actually surprises me is that DAN QUAYLE talked sense. What fucking alternate universe are we living in,LOL!

    • mellie says:

      No $hit, it’s a damn sad day when Dan Quayle is talking sense into anyone. I’m from Indiana so I know the history of both of these dumba$$es.

    • lucy2 says:

      Darkest timeline indeed.

    • Concern Fae says:

      Dan Quayle’s problem was that he’s not too bright. (I know people who’ve dealt with him directly.) He did, however, have a sense of right and wrong. Not enough of one to not be a Reagan Republican, but enough to stand up to Trump.

    • BothSidesNow says:

      I know!!! Quayle reaching out to Pence for the good of the of the country?!?!! Though, it was mostly to save Pence from political suicide.

  14. Sunshine says:

    No lies detected.

  15. Lizzie says:

    Who hasn’t?

  16. Leah says:

    He’s not wrong and I’ve called Trump worse, lol. As a matter of fact when he called him TFG I thought “okay, that’s diplomatic and fit to print, but how does he really feel?”.

    Uncle Joe is like still water IMO, water that runs deep that can make its way around objects and reshape the earth. Still water can also be dangerous so when the GOP underestimate him, they are making a huge mistake. He knows that they are a bunch of traitorous clowns who tried to subvert an election and he hasn’t forgotten. They even tried locking him out. I mean hell, when he and his family got to the WH, they couldn’t get in because orange dummy had ordered the doors locked. I didn’t even know the White House had a front door that locked, because like what is the point? Who does Trump think he is, locking up the people’s house anyway?

  17. Valerie says:

    He is one. Too bad the illiterate MAGAts who read this story will be too busy clutching their pearls and thumping their bibles to take the time to think about why he said it. Why, in fact, this is such a popular opinion about “their president”—who, by the way, doesn’t give a shit about them and said as much as he watched them storm the Capitol on Jan 6th.

  18. Tim Peterson says:

    How is this news? I would imagine even the people that LIKE Trump call him a F-A-. I know I do.

  19. Deering24 says:

    1) Hee. Putin has feelings to hurt? 2) What–did he spend his KGB time making cookies, or something?🤣🤣🙄🙄🤪🤪

  20. L4frimaire says:

    I think the amount of damage Trump did is far worse than we will fully know. Look at how his court picks are coming home to rose with the Texas abortion ban and now they want to fully overturn Roe. Looking at the current heat on Biden, regarding exit from Afghanistan, Covid surge, and the mess at the border with Haitian asylum seekers being brutalized on horseback, it’s obvious that a change in administration isn’t going to automatically fix the mess, and it’s ugly. The asylum process was hollowed out, State Department was hollowed out, foreign policy is a mess. The structure has to be rebuilt. I can’t believe anyone would want or re-elect that man and continue to give him so much leeway and grace, while he wants to go all out facist in this country.

  21. The Recluse says:

    One dreads to think of what else the Bidens found in the residential portion of the White House. It must have been an excursion into Bizarro World, especially the lock Drumpf put on his own bedroom door and whatever nightmare the trophy wife imposed on her rooms.

  22. Margaret says:

    Well, he is!