Peril

Book Rating 3 of 5

Super short summary Bob Woodward and Robert Costa detail Trumps attempt to overturn the 2020 election and cover Biden’s election campaign and first 100 or so days in office.

Peril is a typical Bob Woodward book. I read “Fear” in 2018. I liked Fear better. Peril is fairly boring in the Joe Biden parts. Especially the “drama” around Biden deciding to run or not.

I would say Woodward is pretty hard on Trump and pretty easy on Joe Biden.

Notable insights.

• If the book is accurate I think Trump is guilty of insurrection on Jan 6th.
• General Mark Milley the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff thought Trump was unstable on and around January 6th and that Trump had attempted an insurrection. He was willing to execute a soft coup d’é·tat rather then obey any order from Trump that he perceived was not in the best interest of the Untied States as defined by Mark Milley.
• The “Election Fraud” legal team of Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell were total clowns. Rudy Guiliani is a dumb ass. There appears to be no proof that there was fraud during the election.
• I don’t understand the motivations of Bill Barr He seems willing to accept Trump doing illegal stuff when it suits his ends.
• If Mike Pence had gone along with what Trump wanted him to do it would have triggered a constitutional crisis. The consequences would have been enormous and terrible for the country. I’m glad Mike Pence followed the law.
• Representative James Clybrun was the key to Biden winning the 2020 Democratic Primary. Transactionally for this Representative Clybrun got a black woman on the supreme court and strong black representation in Biden’s cabinet. Biden selecting Kamala Harris as VP does not appear to have asked for by Representative Clybrun however.
• Biden orchestrated the August 2021 troop withdrawl from Afghanistan. People in my orbit tried to blame Trump that the withdawl was such a mess, I think Biden should “own” this. My opinion is I’m fine with it being a mess, I was very tired of having US troops there forever and wanted the “war” to end.
• Obama was talked into a troop “surge” of 30,000 troops into Afghanistan in 2009. The book makes Obama out to be a very immature president in 2009.

Its surprising to me that Trump remains free to do as he pleases. I hope his 2024 presidential run fails.

I’ll probably try to read Rage. I’ve heard its more interesting the Peril. I don’t know how accurate any of these books really are. Bob Woodward is hardly unbiased, but I still find them interesting. If nothing else they are some fun political porn.