Bob Woodward Claims White House Threatened Him

extraordinary public clash between the white house and bob woodward, escalating right now. The veteran journalist accusing a very senior person in the obama administration of threatening him over his... See More

extraordinary public clash between the white house and bob woodward, escalating right now. The veteran journalist accusing a very senior person in the obama administration of threatening him over his reporting on the massive budget cuts about to go into effect tomorrow. Abc's jon karl joins us, now, from the white house. What's going on here, jon? Good morning. Reporter: Well, robin, what's happening here is the white house suddenly finds myself in a war of words with the most famous investigative reporter in america. Legendary "washington post" reporter, bob woodward, is accusing the white house of threatening him. It makes me very uncomfortable to have the white house telling reporters, you're going to regret doing something that you believe in. Reporter: Woodward isn't just any reporter. He's the one portrayed along with carl bernstein, in the movie "all the president's men" as taking down richard nixon. Now, he's accusing the obama white house about being dishonest about the president's responsibility for those automatic spending cuts set to go into effect tomorrow. First, woodward reported that they were the president's idea. Then, he said the white house was trying to change the agreement by asking for tax increases, something the white house says is just flat wrong. That's nonsensical. Reporter: Woodward said a top white house official responded by yelling at him for 30 minutes. And following up with what he said was an e-mail threat. He read the e-mail to politico. I think it's important for people to understand, he says, you know, says, I think you will regret staking out that claim. Reporter: The white house acknowledges that that e-mail was sent. But that woodward is just wrong how he interprets it. Of course, no threat was intended. The note suggested that mr. Woodward would regret the observation he made regarding the spending cuts because the observation was inaccurate. Nothing more. And, robin, the white house says that woodward responded to that supposedly threatening e-mail with a friendly exchange back to that senior white house official.