Robert Gates Wanted to Recruit Bob Woodward for the CIA

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates shared an interesting detail during a conversation with POLITICO’s Mike Allen about his new book: he wanted to recruit iconic Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward for the Central Intelligence Agency. Yes, that’s right, Gates wanted one of the men who broke Watergate wide open to move to the government side because of his “extraordinary ability” to pry details out of people.

Gates admitted he wasn’t exactly happy with Woodward’s assessment of his book, but beyond that he said he has great respect for Woodward, and admitted he would have liked to bring Woodward into the CIA because he has a gift that not everyone has.

“He has an extraordinary ability to get otherwise responsible adults to spill his guts to him, on background, nothing there for the historians, but his ability to get people to talk about stuff they shouldn’t be talked about is just extraordinary and maybe unique.”

And while it never came to fruition, it’s amusing to imagine if he might have ended up being the W. Mark Felt to some other brash young reporter.

Gates admitted that he himself rarely spoke with Woodward, and the one time he did (towards the end of the Bush administration) he made sure to ask for questions in advance and have a witness in the room to hear everything he said just in case.

Watch the video below, via POLITICO:

[photo via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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