the political distracks are a problem. distractions are a problem. chris: bob, a big part of the story of watergate was not political, it was psychological and what led president nixon to do things that, in the end, only ended up hurting himself and were totally self-inflicked and totally unnecessary. i guess the question i have is when you see what s happening now with reports the president was furious about comey s testimony on tv, that he s watching hearings and going through tivo on them, do you see any similarities? we don t know yet. i mean, the great question in washington, the country and the world is what s inside of trump, what s driving him. as we look at the comey firing, it was karl rove s declaration to me many years ago, you always have to look at consequence and outcome. and the consequence and outcome of the comey firing, some people
the political distracks are a problem. distractions are a problem. chris: bob, a big part of the story of watergate was not political, it was psychological and what led president nixon to do things that, in the end, only ended up hurting himself and were totally self-inflicked and totally unnecessary. i guess the question i have is when you see what s happening now with reports the president was furious about comey s testimony on tv, that he s watching hearings and going through tivo on them, do you see any similarities? we don t know yet. i mean, the great question in washington, the country and the world is what s inside of trump, what s driving him. as we look at the comey firing, it was karl rove s declaration to me many years ago, you always have to look at consequence and outcome. and the consequence and outcome of the comey firing, some people
greatest inventions of all time. i happen to agree with him on that. it s that or the george foreman grill. but i agree with him on the tivo. i m fascinated by how much he watches news, watches himself. so many people i know at a high level choose not to look at themselves or read about themselves because it doesn t help them. at the same time he made the point and he described everything that s been said about him as well so he s paying attention. he made the point that he s been trying not to read everything about himself. he said at one point i can t believe i m able to do it, i m surprised i ve been able to tune some of this out. he found in office it s more different than in his private life in which his media clips were his life. he has more responsibilities here. he s trying to figure out how to fit the donald trump he knows and loves, this gut instinct person who has been very successful into the box of the presidency which has a different set of rule and restrictions.
people read this in time. what struck you most about your conversation with the president? he kept switching back and forth between different views of the world. and one moment he d be saying he admitted at one point he may have been too combative of his time in office so far and that could be his fault. the next moment he was name calling his opponents again. we watched him watch tv calling former federal officials dogs. they choked like dogs. they choked like dogs, he said. i think there s really attention. he flits back and forth between the two views. all of it comes back to a very deep sense of grievance he has about the way he s been treated. it animated our entire we were with him for 2 1/2 hours monday night through different settings throughout the white house. but that sense of grievance followed him throughout the whole time he was there. there was one detail. he talked about he fired up his tivo while you were there which he said called one of the
i also wonder if donald trump is capable of holding, you know, to one particular chronology if it s not getting the reaction he wants. i think he cares. do we have the quote from politico? if you can get that up. because he says, this is according to politico, trump did the lengthy interview with holt even though his staff believed it was a bad idea and gave his answers off the cuff. he had been fixated on news coverage and believed his press team was failing him and he needed to take the situation into his own hands. was that a good idea for him to do, douglas franklin? no, of course not. donald trump s obsessive about watching cable tv. all he does is quarterback it, tivo it and it s caused him nothing but trouble. but he can t help himself. but in a way he s a character in crime and punishment. only donald trump knows where the guilt is on all of this.