‘Don’t Do What the President Says’: Bob Woodward Sums Up Trump White House Lawyer’s Attitude Toward Him

Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward summarized Trump White House Counsel Pat Cipollone’s attitude toward his boss: “Don’t do what the president says.”

Appearing on CNN Tonight on Tuesday, Woodward, who along with fellow Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein took down President Richard Nixon with their investigative reporting into the 1972 Watergate break-in, compared Cipollone to Nixon White House Counsel John Dean.

Following Tuesday’s hearing by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol, Woodward said,

I’ll tell you, one of the things that struck me, if I may say say in all of this testimony, it connects to John Dean going back to Nixon 50 years ago. Cipollone, the White House counsel for Trump, if you follow the testimony and other things that have come out, he’s just running around the White House bursting with, “Don’t listen to Donald Trump, don’t do what the president says, I’m worried about this, I’m worried about that.”

And Carl and I were speculating today with knowledge that one of the things the White House counsel does is sit in on national security council meetings and is involved in some of the most sensitive issues. If I recall correctly, John Dean, as he was coming out against Nixon, socked away some top secret documents which Nixon had signed to say that he was lifting restrictions on wiretapping and break-ins and so forth. So what else does Cipollone know? I think he knows volumes.

On Tuesday, Cassidy Hutchinson, former senior adviser to former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified to the Jan. 6 committee that Cipollone warned against Trump marching to the Capitol on Jan. 6 when Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s electoral win as president.

“We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen,” Hutchinson recalled Cipollone telling her.

“In the days leading up to the 6th, we had conversations about potentially obstructing justice or defrauding the electoral count,” Hutchinson elaborated.

Cipollone threatened to resign were Trump to install Justice Department official Jeffery Clark as acting Attorney General. Clark supported Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.

The committee’s vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), has called on Cipollone to come forward and testify.

Watch above, via CNN.

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