Legendary journalist Bob Woodward speaks at Roanoke Fowler event

Renowned journalist Bob Woodward offered this overarching assessment of the latest presidential election on Thursday evening at Roanoke College: No one knows what's coming, good or bad.

"We don't know what Trump's going to be," Woodward said. "We don't know what we're in store for. Keep your seat belts on and consider a shoulder harness."

For about an hour, Woodward entertained a crowd packed into the College's Bast Center with analysis and anecdotes from this year's presidential election and his own stories of interviews with past presidents and both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The event was sponsored by the Henry H. Fowler Program at Roanoke.

At various times throughout his talk, Woodward referenced the media's inability to understand ahead of the election the reasons why Americans voted for Trump as president. He said many journalists "frankly are rattled and emotionally shocked for this. We had no plan B."  

"We've become lazy in the media," Woodward added, explaining that some reporters didn't interview people in states that largely voted for Trump. "We missed it, because we didn't show up."

He went on to encourage the crowd not to judge Trump as president yet, despite many concerns about him. Woodward shared a personal story of his past reporting on former President Gerald Ford's announcement to offer a Watergate pardon to former President Richard Nixon. At the time, Woodward said he didn't understand the reasons for Ford's decision.

Later, he learned more and said he saw Ford in a new, positive light.

"We look at what's happened with the Trump election, and there's all kinds of speculation - 'It's going to work, it's not going to work,'" Woodward said.  "I am reminded, which you get reminded of in my business, that you can get things really wrong."

Woodward answered questions from the audience and signed copies of his newest book, "The Price of Politics," after the talk.