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Bob Woodward is writing another Trump book with the Washington Post's Robert Costa

07 December 2020
 Dan Ackermann
Woodward with Robert Costa. Photo via YouTube.

When Bob Woodwardcalled President Trump to warn him that "Rage" would be "a tough book," Trump replied, as Woodward recounted on "60 Minutes": "Well, I didn’t get you on this book. Maybe I’ll get you on the next one." He'll get a chance sooner than he thought.

Driving the news: Bob Woodward and Robert Costa,both of The Washington Post, are teaming up to write a book on the final days of the Trump presidency and the first phase of the Biden presidency.

  • It'll be Woodward's 21st book, all published by Simon & Schuster, and Costa’s first.
  • "We're two pure reporters — what happened and why — and this is a perfect landscape for that kind of work," Woodward told me.

No title or publication date are being given, but I'm told this'll be done on a compressed timeline.

  • Robert Barnett represented both. Jonathan Karp, CEO of Simon & Schuster, will edit the book. 

Woodward will remain an associate editor of The Post, and Costa will remain a national political reporter, on leave. 

  • Costa is also moderator and managing editor of "Washington Week" on PBS, a job he's held since 2017. And he has been a political analyst for MSNBC and NBC News since 2015. Costa is expected to focus entirely on the book in the coming year, according to a person familiar with the project.

⚡ Also in Woodwardland ... After working feet away from Bob in his Georgetown home office for six books 13 years, editor and researcher Evelyn M. Duffy is going full-time with her book-doctor practice, Open Boat Editing.

  • "While working in-house with Woodward, Duffy spent nights and weekends building her company, ... editing book proposals and manuscripts for journalists and other nonfiction writers." Follow her: @_EvelynMDuffy.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.