SIMPLE OBSTRUCTION:

The first question Dowd threw at Trump was about former national security adviser Michael Flynn's conversations with the former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Flynn was forced to resign in February 2017 when reports surfaced that he had discussed the issue of sanctions with Kislyak, despite repeated denials--including to Vice President Mike Pence--that the topic had ever come up. Not only were the sanctions discussed in every phone call, Woodward writes, but transcripts obtained by the White House in February, as they were weighing whether or not to fire Flynn, showed that it was Flynn, and not Kislyak, who first brought up the sanctions that President Obama had issued in December in response to Russia's election interference. Acting Attorney General Sally Yates warned White House Counsel Don McGahn in January that Flynn had misled Pence and the FBI about the calls. Still, the White House waited 17 days to fire Flynn, and the day after he was ousted, Trump met with then-FBI Director James Comey and asked if he would consider letting Flynn "go." That 17-day gap and Trump's subsequent request to Comey have come under scrutiny by Mueller.

"When did you first learn that there was a problem with General Flynn?" Dowd asked Trump in their mock interview, Woodward writes. "I'm not sure," Trump replied. "I think when McGahn had talked to Sally Yates. But John, I'm not sure." Dowd, playing the role of a prosecutor, retorted: "What'd you do about it?" "I think Don took ahold of it," Trump said. "Did you call Flynn in?" Dowd asked. "No," Trump said.  "Did you talk to Flynn at all?" Dowd pressed. "I don't know," Trump replied. "Well, Mr. President, did you ever ask him if he talked about sanctions with Kislyak?" "No," Trump said. Dowd, Woodward writes, was unrelenting: "Are you sure about that, Mr. President? We have some evidence that there may have been such a conversation. Are you sure about that?"

At that point, Trump  went off on a tangent that was difficult to follow, according to Woodward, eventually reiterating that he "felt very bad" for Flynn, whom he "admired," but that McGahn and the then-chief-of-staff Reince Priebus had recommended that Flynn be fired.

Dowd then posed a question that is considered central to  whether Trump was trying to obstruct justice when he fired Flynn and then asked Comey to consider letting him go: Did McGahn and Priebus "ever tell you about an FBI interview?" "I don't know," Trump replied. "I can't remember." This back-and-forth is notable in light of Trump's tweet in December, one month before this mock interview with Dowd, in which he appeared to admit that he'd known Flynn had lied to the FBI. "I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI," Trump wrote. "He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!" (In an ironic twist, Dowd later took responsibility for writing that tweet.)

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