Bob Woodward's Ominous Reaction To Trump Tape: 'Never Seen Anything Like This'

Watergate journalist Bob Woodward said he’s “never seen anything like” Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents in five of decades reporting on national security.

Woodward joined CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday to discuss a bombshell 2021 audio recording obtained by CNN earlier this week. In the tape, recorded at a meeting with people working on the memoir of Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump boasted that he had secret documents from the Defense Department about a potential attack on Iran that he didn’t declassify as president.

“It really shows that Donald Trump is an alarming, dangerous threat to national security,” said Woodward, who has interviewed the former president extensively and authored several books about his presidency.

Woodward said Trump’s “cavalier” attitude about national secrets in the recording was deeply concerning, especially because it sounded as if he might have been “showing it around.”

“If there’s something to not joke about, this is it. Look, I’ve spent 50 years reporting on national security and I’ve never seen anything like this from anyone.”

“It shows he does not understand the obligations of the presidency,” he added. “He’s running for that office again. And whether you like him or don’t like him, people ought to look at the question: What does this mean about our national security?”

Trump, the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, was indicted this month on 37 felony counts in connection with his handling of classified materials after leaving the White House. Federal prosecutors allege he risked national security by taking sensitive documents to his Mar-a-Lago resort and obstructed repeated government efforts to retrieve them.