Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday accused Bob Woodward of acting as former White House adviser Steve Bannon’s “stenographer,” and said Woodward hadn’t performed “rudimentary journalistic fact checking.”
“To be clear, a number of the statements attributed to me and from others to me in the Woodward book are incorrect,” Christie said.
"Unfortunately, it appears Bob Woodward has used perpetual leaker Steve Bannon as a co-author for his book. His non-stop, self-centered leaking is why Steve was fired from the White House in the first place.
— Governor Christie (@GovChristie) September 11, 2018
If Mr. Woodward would have performed rudimentary journalistic fact checking with those he was quoting, he would have had a more accurate book rather than just being a stenographer for Mr. Bannon's self-aggrandizing revisionist history.
— Governor Christie (@GovChristie) September 11, 2018
To be clear, a number of the statements attributed to me and from others to me in the Woodward book are incorrect. I would have been happy to correct them if Mr. Woodward or any member of his staff would have called me, as a person they were quoting, for standard fact checking.
— Governor Christie (@GovChristie) September 11, 2018
This is especially true when you hear from people like me who he directly quotes in his book that he never fact checked with in any way. https://t.co/43Nig0RFH8
— Governor Christie (@GovChristie) September 11, 2018
Numerous current and former administration officials and Trump affiliates have disputed Woodward’s claims in the book, but Woodward has consistently stood by his work.
On the New York Times’ “The Daily” podcast Tuesday, Woodward said: “After the information in ‘Fear’ started breaking last week, one key person, who’s in office, called me and said ‘Everyone knows what you’ve said here is true. It’s one thousand percent correct.’ And then this person has said some public things that contradict that. And I’m not happy, but I have a smile on my face because the truth in all of this is going to emerge.”
