One Woodward rule is that those promises of anonymity and a novelistic narrative style excuse reporters-turned-book-writers from the usual journalistic requirements of attribution. But the format itself — such as the appearance of verbatim dialogue and interior thoughts — provides ample clues as to which characters played ball. Among the longtime enablers who are depicted as attempting to get Trump to back off the “big lie,” or to intervene to stop the Jan. 6 riot, are White House aides Pat Cipollone and Hope Hicks, and former aide Kellyanne Conway; allies Chris Christie and Lindsey Graham; and, predictably, the image-conscious first daughter herself. (“As soon as she saw on the television in her second-floor office that the rioters were inside the Capitol, Ivanka Trump said to her aides, ‘I’m going down to my dad. This has to stop.’ ”)

Source: Washington Post July 15, 2021 20:37 UTC