“Do you feel any responsibility to have said that beforehand, before waiting until the week after Labor Day to print that if you felt that strongly?” Perino asked.
“I felt strongly in May, when I learned about that January 28 meeting,” Woodward said. “I did not know about that meeting at that point. I — if there was at any point, Dana, here where I could have printed something in The Washington Post — I have access to the editor, Marty Baron, directly, his subeditors, if I think some story should be printed. All the discussion was about China. And, in May, I learned the truth. Quite frankly, when I learned it, I was shocked that the president did not step up in the opportunities he had, like the State of the Union message.”