Bob Woodward Biography

Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward helped break the story of the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974.

Woodward and Carl Bernstein were young city beat reporters assigned to cover a 1972 burglary at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in Washington, D.C.’s Watergate Hotel. Their persistent investigation revealed a trail of political skullduggery that led directly to the White House and brought down Nixon two years later.

Woodward and Bernstein summed up the story in All the President’s Men, the 1974 best-selling book made into a 1976 film with Robert Redford as Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein. (The book also introduced the world to Deep Throat, the shadowy informant who helped the reporters crack the story.)

Woodward became one of America’s most famous journalists, with fans who applaud his attention to detail and detractors who question his credibility.

He has written or co-written several bestsellers, including The Final Days (1976, with Bernstein), The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court (1979, with Scott Armstrong), Veil: The Secret Wars of the C.I.A., 1981-1987 (1987) and The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House (1994).

He gained unusual access to the White House during the administration of George W. Bush, resulting in three books about the war in Iraq. Bush at War (2002) and Plan of Attack (2004) were both viewed as positive reviews of Bush’s presidency, but State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III (2006) depicted the president’s leadership as clumsy at best.

Woodward wrote two books on the presidency of Barack Obama, 2010’s Obama’s Wars, on foreign policy differences within the White House, and 2012’s The Price of Politics, on negotiations with Congress over the debt ceiling.

He landed back in the spotlight in 2018, with his depiction of a White House teetering on chaos, Fear: Trump in the White House. Woodward’s book showing President Donald Trump as an irrational goofus sold 750,000 copies by the end of its first day on sale.