claims always, that it s fake news, that is not one of their assessments. we should also point out, wolf, that we do not necessarily know if it is a he. the new york times mentioned on social media earlier, used the word he, but then a spokeswoman for the newspaper said that that was not necessarily accurate. someone did not know the identity who wrote that. so we do not know tonight if it s a he or a she, but we know their feelings about the president and his impulses. wolf? very interesting. a lot of people are speculating. we might know sooner rather than later who this individual is. jeff zeleny at the white house, thank you very much. let s bring in our cnn political director, david chalian. david, this is truly another bombshell. first, the woodward book and now this. and i know, wolf, that sometimes it is hard for us inside the newsroom to deal with each day s developments and sort of calibrate them. it must be hard for the viewers at home. but that double whammy o
blistering assessment of the president that echoes themes in the new bob woodward book, portraying mr. trump as amoral, impulsive, misguided, and detrimental to the united states of america. tonight, mr. trump is lashing out at the new york times and claiming that bob woodward s book is all fiction, timed to interfere with the confirmation hearings of his supreme court nominee, brett kavanaugh. this hour, i ll talk to republican senator lindsey graham. he s a key member of the judiciary committee questioning kavanaugh. and our correspondents and analysts are also standing by. first, let s go to our senior white house correspondent, jeff zele zeleny. jeff, first the woodward book b bombshell and now this extraordinary op-ed. reporter: good evening, wolf. it s an extraordinary back-to-back blistering assessment of this president by someone inside his own white house. and they make the same point. they believe the president is not must be protected from doing his own impulses of wha
theme of a bombshell new book by bob woodward. the book means nothing. it s a work of fiction. reporter: president trump tonight, trying to downplay and discredit bob woodward s new book, which offers a devastating portrait of deep dysfunction inside his white house. in the oval office, the president settling on one word again and again to describe the explosive book. fiction. fiction. fiction. fiction. fiction. fiction. it s fiction. it s more fiction. reporter: but behind the scenes, cnn has learned he s enraged and on a mission to find out who cooperated with woodward for his book. fear, trump in the white house. it s his own west wing witch hunt, with one official telling cnn, he wants to know who talked to woodward. but now there s another mystery sure to outrage the president. the official who wrote this anonymously in the times. the dilemma, which he does not fully grasp, is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within