Bush and Clinton veterans race to defend Bob Woodward

President Trump is rushing to discredit a new book by investigative journalist Bob Woodward, but former government officials agree with what the president himself told Woodward on the phone: that his reporting may be tough, but it's always "fair."

Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, who worked under former President George W. Bush, tweeted that Woodward "always plays it straight," explaining that even though the reporting could be unflattering, it wasn't necessarily untrue.

Richard Stengel, an undersecretary of state during the Obama administration, said Woodward "has the facts on his side," while fellow Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein told CNN that the book would be proven correct. "This is an irrefutable picture, because of Bob Woodward's methodology," he said. Paul Begala, an adviser to former President Bill Clinton, also stood up for the veracity of Woodward's reporting, saying he was quoted accurately 24 years ago.

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While Trump repeatedly called the book "total fiction," and his attorney Rudy Giuliani said the book's depiction of him was "entirely false," Woodward offered one simple response: "I stand by my reporting."