AfterFearandRagecomesPeril, the third of Bob Wooward’s dispatches from insideDonald Trump’s administration and, like those two previous books, featuring an array of headline-making anecdotes and claims.
Among them:
First LadyMelania Trump’s “hint of tears” as she departed the White House.
An expletive-filled outburst: “You’re not the president! I’m the g—— president!”
Co-written with fellowWashington Postreporter Robert Costaand based on interviews with more than 200 sources,Perilis filled with alternately ominous and colorful scenes.
“Real power is—I don’t even want to use the word—fear,” he told the authors five years ago, according to the book’s epilogue.
“I bring rage out. I do bring rage out. I always have,” he continued then. “I don’t know if that’s an asset or a liability, but whatever it is, I do.”
Continue reading for more highlights fromPeril.
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Attempts to rein in then-President Trump
When Ryan told Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had worked with him to “manage Trump,” Ryan “thought McConnell might cry,” according toPeril.
In the book’s description, McConnell worried there would be no one to keep the president in check with Ryan gone. For four years, the senator worked with people like former Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Attorney General Bill Barr and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly “to push Trump toward normal.” But the efforts of the “brotherhood,” as McConnell called their group, were “routinely a losing exercise. Futile,” thePerilauthors write.
(A spokesperson for McConnell did not return PEOPLE’s request for comment; a Ryan rep could not be reached.)
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Hesitation — and a “kick in the a–”
PerPeril,Joe Bidentook his time deciding if he should run in the2020 presidential election.
But run Biden did — with the promise to “battle for the soul of the nation.”
“I just feel like I have to do this,” Biden reportedly said in March 2019 to Ron Klain, who had served as chief of staff during part of Biden’s vice presidency and returned to that position in the White House. “Trump represents something fundamentally different and wrong about politics.”
Biden continued, per the book: “This guy just isn’t really an American president.”
In April 2020, Biden faced a major controversy during his campaign whenLucy Flores, a former Nevada lieutenant governor nominee, and other women came forward alleging that he had touched them or behaved physically in ways that made them uncomfortable.
A spokesperson from Biden’s office told theWashington Postand other outlets that neither Biden nor his staff had “an inkling that Ms. Flores had been at any time uncomfortable, nor do they recall what she describes.”
“But Vice President Biden believes that Ms. Flores has every right to share her own recollection and reflections, and that it is a change for better in our society that she has the opportunity to do so,” his spokesperson said. “He respects Ms. Flores as a strong and independent voice in our politics and wishes her only the best.”
(Separately, a former aide while Biden was in the Senate claimed he had sexually assaulted her decades ago — which he and those around him ardently denied.)
President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden.Shutterstock
After the seven women came forward with their allegations, “Jill was firm with Joe: You need to change, fast,” Woodward and Costa write inPerilof Dr.Jill Biden.
There were political hurdles as well: Biden fared poorly in the initial Democratic nominating contests. But his campaign kicked into high gear after South Carolina Rep. James E. Clyburn, the House majority whip, gave his endorsement. But first, according toPeril, Clyburn needed some promises from Biden.
“If Clyburn were going to play savior, he wanted a political guarantee in exchange: Biden would make Black voters his priority, in the campaign and in the White House,” the authors write. “Clyburn also thought Biden was rusty and needed a kick in the a–.”
Biden promised to shorten his speeches, adopt Clyburn’s antipoverty plan for federal spending and to help get a Black woman on the Supreme Court should there be a vacancy.
The Capitol riot
While Trump privately admitted defeat after Biden won the presidency last November, that changed after Rudy Giuliani came on board, according toPeril. Giuliani (whom PEOPLE could not reach) was determined to contest the election — despite lack of evidence.
“You have any idea how easy it would be for me just to leave on January 20th and get in Marine One and fly away?” Trump said in a December 2020 meeting with Sidney Powell, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and former Overstock.com chief executive Patrick Byrne, per the book. “I’ve got my golf courses. I’ve got my friends. I’ve had a really good life.”
Trump “seemed tired,” Woodward and Costa write. But he also wasn’t giving up.
“He said the presidency was stolen so he would fight,” they continue. Fighting equated to bullying his Vice President Mike Pence. Trump urged Pence to “throw Biden’s electors out.” According toPeril, he told Pence, “I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.” (A spokesperson for Pence did not respond to a request for comment.)
From left: Mike and Karen Pence.Rob Carr/Getty
Trump also inflamed his supporters at a rallyon Jan. 6, after which many of those supporters then marched on the Capitol.Perildetails the deadly insurrection that ensued and how members of Congress responded while trapped inside, some in hiding.
In Gen. Milley’s mind, Trump wanted the riot, according to the book.
“I think he wanted this. I think that he likes this,” Milley told Rep. Elissa Slotkin. “I think that he wants chaos. He wants his supporters to be fighting to the bitter end.”
In recent testimony before Congress, Milley confirmed he had spoken to Woodward for the book but said he hadn’t read the final manuscript to comment on its accuracy.
Farewell tearsand “vengeance”
Perildescribes how, on Jan. 8, not long after Pence helped certify Biden’s presidency, the departing vice president and his wife, Second Lady Karen Pence, walked into the staff farewell party.
“When she and Pence entered the vice president’s office that Friday afternoon for the party, about 70 staffers erupted in applause. She began to cry,” write Woodward and Costa. “Mike Pence’s eyes welled up and his face grew red, with a smile clenched as the staffers kept applauding for minutes. This was a world where feelings about Trump were always left unspoken, where angst was packed away. The applause said everything they wanted to say to Pence, and he seemed to know it.”
“It has been an emotional week,” Vice President Pence told the crowd, per the book.
The Trump children watched as Marine One took off with the couple inside.
The former president has yet to confirm whether he plans on running again, even as he has repeatedly teased a potential 2024 run. Shortly after he held his first post-presidential rally in June, he told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he had privatelymade up his mind.
The authors.MediaPunch/Shutterstock
The answer is most likely yes, according toPeril. During a July phone call with Brad Parscale, Trump’s former campaign manager, Trump said, “I’m really strongly thinking about running.”
Trump then wondered if his successor suffered from dementia — which Biden has repeatedly laughed off — and referred to Biden as “decrepit,” according toPeril.
“He had an army. An army for Trump. He wants that back,” Parscale later told others, per the book. “He feels a little pressure of not being in the fight like he was and he’s wrapping his head around how to get back there.
“I don’t think he sees it as a comeback. He sees it as vengeance.”
Perilis on sale now.
source: people.com
