Celebrated Washington Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward mocked President Trump’s demand for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and expressed shock that the administration would shut down parts of the government over it.

In front of a Maryland audience that opposed the wall, the author of Fear, a book about the first 18 months of the Trump administration, also referred to the wall as “tissue paper.”

Appearing in the speaker series at Frederick, Md.’s grand Weinberg Center for the Arts, Woodward said that he had no bias against the wall. “I approach this as not a partisan,” he said.



“The foundation of journalism is specifics.” -Bob Woodward pic.twitter.com/kHvK02gg32 — Flying Dog Brewery (@FlyingDog) January 6, 2019



Then he addressed Trump’s demand and the partial government shutdown.

“Of all of the problems this country has, the necessity of building any kind of wall, whether it’s cement or tissue paper or something you can see through, it’s not one of the pressing issues,” said the journalist and biographer.

“And the idea that we would close down the government as President Trump said, perhaps for months or years, over this is a stunning turn of events,” he added at the beginning of his presentation sponsored by the 1st Amendment Society established by top Maryland craft brewer Flying Dog.

The crowd agreed.

Woodward led his comments on the wall by asking for hands of those who thought the wall was necessary, unnecessary, or didn’t know.

He counted two hands in support of the wall. “Those two people are sitting in the back so that they can get out,” he said.