welcome to flashpoints good to have you
with us this morning this was quite the
week if you are someone who is perhaps
wondered or worried about the future of
the written word maybe haven't been
bullish on the future of books or you no
doubt know that newspapers are in
trouble and yet this week we found
ourselves transfixed by a column in a
newspaper
and by excerpts from a book that is
gonna be released the day after tomorrow
the book comes courtesy of a man who
helped inspire many in my generation to
become journalists Bob Woodward his book
describes a white house in chaos a zoo
without cages just about the time we
digested the released excerpts here came
an op-ed piece from the New York Times
anonymously written we're told by
someone on the inside of the
administration not only confirming
Woodward's descriptions but also
describing a resistance inside the White
House working against the president my
my look at all of the writing and
reading going on but still so many
questions the New York Times without a
line and publishing such an incendiary
piece anonymously no matter how you feel
about President Trump does it amount to
a kind of treason to be actively working
against a democratically elected
president and when you take it all
together is it a white house that is
spiraling out of control meanwhile at
the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue
high political theaters Democrats did
all they could to wreck a Supreme Court
appointment that they really can't do
much about we're gonna dig into all that
this morning will also talk about
Republicans in Lansing trying an
end-around on voters on the minimum wage
issue and then a little later on the
rest of the country is now being treated
to a story we know so well the odyssey
of white boy Rick it's all coming up
this morning on flashpoint
[Music]
all right let's talk about another
extraordinary week in fact if they're
all extraordinary nothing is truly
ordinary that is the problem good they
had with the great round table this
morning Stephen Henderson from Detroit
today on WDET Dennis counting back with
us former mayor of Royal Oak now an
attorney with Plunkett Cooney so we
Clark back where this program director
from Michigan radio and the former state
Senate majority leader Randy
richardville gang good to have you all
here I find myself really struggling to
digest what the big story of the week
was which one will have the longest legs
clearly a Supreme Court justice will
have the longest legs of all of these
but let's stick with the white house for
a second Steven I thought a little bit
for Bob Woodward just as he was starting
to get all this attention here came
enough if you think those things are
unrelated but as a former editorial page
editor of a major newspaper yeah would
you have printed an anonymous piece like
that I certainly would have given a lot
of hesitation to the thought process
there right I mean the immediate answer
would be no that's not how we do that
and it's not that kind of protection we
afford to people expressing their
opinions in the newspaper at the same
time I want to know more about the
circumstances here and I'm a little
disappointed in James Bennett who's the
editorial page editor at the time
someone I've met and talked with about
you know our craft where I'm a little
disappointed that they didn't explain a
little more about what they did and why
if you think about the process that we
go through in the newsroom for vetting
anonymous sources it's a pretty lengthy
/ exhausting yes and there are a lot of
things we do to make sure that we're
affording that anonymity to someone
under the right circumstances and
there's a very very good reason for it I
would have wanted the times to assure me
that they did that did go through that
same process here with someone writing
this out that and and that they that
they did find for instance corroborating
information from other sources right
it's one of the things that you do with
an anonymous source is this person
telling me something that I can also
confirm a little bit yeah we got none of
that from them
I think that makes you give a little bit
of pasta to why we didn't get it and
then what that means about who this is
and their decision I think what's so
fascinating about all of it yet again is
this idea that somehow again it seems
that journalists and journalism and the
craft is on defense yet again right yes
that here is this I think some folks
would say bombshell op-eds words keep
using with every week in Washington
movie but yet again here you have
journalists having a deeper conversation
about was it right was it wrong and
almost the narrative of the story arc
about there's a senior official that
feels this way allegedly is almost
taking a back seat and and how
fascinating it is that the Trump White
House continues to be able to put
journalists and journalism it seems like
as sort of this either on defense or as
the opposition party yet again in fact
Dennis because of all of the swirl
around it we talk about whether or not
this amounts to treason as I said off
the top or something like sedition we
also talked about whether the
appropriateness of this may be getting
lost in all that though I'm wondering if
we now start to look at the mass of
between the books that we've seen that
have come out and now this column are
you concerned that all of this speaks to
a kind of truth if one person tells you
you're drunk it doesn't mean anything if
two people tell you you're drunk you
need to lie down
well not really because I think there's
a lot of people making money off of
Donald Trump with the books that they're
writing so that they're selling big-time
as a lawyer as are the other books that
are the counter books though that have
been written by Gregg Jarrett as a
lawyer we looked at fact not fiction
almost everything we've talked about
would never be admissible in a court of
law but we're in the court of public
opinion and I understand that but I
think what you're seeing this past week
is a continued pattern by the left to
try and distract from what voters really
care about and how they're being
impacted by Donald Trump and his
presidency and that is three point four
million dollar for three point four
million more jobs two point million two
point eight million people off the Food
Stamp rolls the Dow Jones is up jobs are
up manufacturing jobs are up and right
here look at what is happening a Detroit
with the greater Ridge
where I live in Royal Oak we have over
250 million dollars worth of new
projects can I assume if I went back
into your Facebook page I would find you
giving credit to Barack Obama when the
stock market tripled under his
presidency there is plenty of room on
the Trump coattails with this economy
for president Madea in this in this
piece was that a lot of things that
Dennis is talking about are happening
not because of but in spite of a
president who needs to be kept away from
his own impulses oh for cryin out doors
which one was Bob Woodward was that
Dustin Hoffman or was that no didn't
they have anonymous sources back then
wasn't a deep throat they were in the
parking lot yes
so that whole that whole thing started
from anonymous sources right one one one
we did what so but it turned out he was
right well okay it turned out that it
was right so isn't that what this is
about what the New York Times does
doesn't really matter does it
I mean do you care that much about what
they wrote at that thing because I don't
well either a lot of people talking
about it and I think it does matter
newspapers have tremendous influence we
are also guardians of the very first but
we won't know the true amendment we find
out usually this was and whether this
story are you not concerned that it
might be true that there is this
movement inside the White House that is
working against the president
I think himself I'm really not that
concerned about it
you know I I think I think Dennis did a
real good job of saying this is what the
president has done this is what's been
happening since his administration came
and it's been incredible
I talked to Marco Rubio a couple weeks
ago and I said you two used to be on the
same stage now what's it like being in
the Senate when you've got him out being
president how do you work together as
well if you had told me when I was
running two years ago that this would be
the bottom line I probably wouldn't run
the results are that good so he's got
some character persona kind of flaws
that he talks this way and this I've
been defending that for - yeah I think
that's a real problem so what we're
talking about here
is somebody who's not just somebody with
a big mouth I mean it's someone who's
saying and doing things that are not
just offensive to the people who are the
targets of the things they say they are
offensive to the constitutional
principles that we have in this country
and the idea that that's all okay
because you've got a little more money
in your pocket I think is a real problem
for what it is I think if you go back
using what he said no we had people the
whole group of people in this country
Democrats independents and Republicans
and said we are tired of the status quo
we are tired of Republicans and
Democrats all saying the same thing
doing the same thing but nothing gets
done and they pick somebody who had
nothing to do with what they did they
actually picked the other person well
that's that's what's at issue here is
the fact that there is a group within
the administration and I would call it
sort of the foreign policy the Hawks
right that are having issues with the
president that it seems that
evangelicals conservative socially
conservative Republicans are still okay
with this president because he's
appointing judges that they believe in
Republicans business minded Republicans
are happy because of the tax cuts right
but what this Bob Woodward a book and
I've read some of it and what this op-ed
is about is really this group of folks
that has real concerns about national
security and that's really I think what
is bubbling up now is that it's less
about the economy it's less about social
issues and it is about the concern of
bombing North Korea I mean and that's
what this is specifically about you can
agree with that or not but that's what
this focus is about is over the
president's handle it break Dennis I'll
give you the first shots as we get back
you're watching flashpoint I'm looking
for that's 19
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