Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury has been questioned for its truthfulness, but as critics read through the salacious material in a supposed exposé tell-all on President Donald J. Trump's administration, it is apparent that Wolff gets basic facts wrong and has other editing errors.
One such example is his claim that Donald Trump did not know who Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) was in 2015. But, as pointed out by Buzzfeed’s Henry Gomez, the author also gets the year that Boehner resigned incorrect as well.
So, not only does Trump not knowing Boehner ring false, Wolff also writes that Boehner was forced out as speaker four years earlier than he actually was. pic.twitter.com/CEgu9287Qx
— Henry J. Gomez (@HenryJGomez) January 8, 2018
Boehner actually became Speaker of the House in 2011 and resigned in 2015. It may be understandable if this was a simple editing oversight. But another sign that whoever edited this book did their job poorly is the fact that the word “public” is mistyped as "pubic" at least two times in the book. Those two instances are seen here, per a Google books search:
The fact that the book has so many other factual errors in addition to these simple editing mistakes makes one question how much scrutiny it was actually given by the publisher. But it should not surprise readers that there are incorrect "facts" in the book. In the Author's Note, Wolff writes that “looseness with the truth” is an “elemental thread of the book.” He also adds that in many instances, he “has settled on version of events I believe to be true.” Meaning, based purely on sources that he trusts without any evidence or other first hand witnesses, Wolff is saying many of these stories should be taken as fact because he believes them. Again, as shown here by a Google Books search:
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Wolff never really distinguishes whether the anecdotes he presents are "version of events" that he thinks are real, or are actually true. That clearly did not matter to the editor and neither did the spelling mistakes. It should matter to the reader, but it probably will not. In truth, this book is simply fodder for bored liberals in Washington, DC who want to abdicate responsibility for blowing an election by reassuring themselves with some false hope that the real estate mogul - turned reality TV star - turned politician who drubbed Hillary Clinton in the electoral college will someday get impeached.
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