About the Author

Mike McCormick

A fifteen year veteran of the White House under three presidents, Mike McCormick provides an inside look at the pivotal moments of the 2016 election and what lies ahead as American democracy wrestles with an adversarial press in the era of Trump.

From the book

“My job was to record and type the public words spoken by presidents and vice presidents and senior officials for the official White House record, without opinion, embellishment, or omission.

One time just before deplaning off a C-17 into a hot zone, my transcription equipment caught the attention of a Secret Service Counter Assault Teamer. “What’s that for?” he asked.

“To protect his words,” I replied.

“Roger that,” he said with a taut nod.

...my transcription had to be as fast and accurate as humanly possible. Accomplishing that day in and day out, with demanding deadlines — “The President wants that transcript ASAP. How much longer?” — required not only me, but a team of five other stenographers, six of us in all.

Whether he was going to Peoria or Paris, one of us accompanied the President on every trip outside of Washington, D.C.”