White House denies staffer threatened Watergate journalist Bob Woodward

Journalist Bob Woodward is locked in a war of words with the White House.

The veteran Watergate journalist said he received "threats" from a member of the administration who said Woodward would "regret" publishing a story challenging President Barack Obama's version of how the looming sequestration came about.

Woodward said the senior White House official "yelled at him for about a half-hour" when the journalist originally called to tell him about the piece, National Public Radio reported.

According to ABC News and other reports, that official was the director of President Obama’s National Economic Council, Gene Sperling.

Woodward said he then got a follow-up email that said "perhaps we will just not see eye to eye here… I think you will regret staking out that claim."

Woodward told CNN's Wolf Blitzer "it makes me very uncomfortable to have the White House telling reporters, you're going to regret doing something that you believe in."

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The White House responded "of course no threat was intended" and said the email exchange, obtained by Politico, was far more innocuous than portrayed.

Bob: I apologize for raising my voice in our conversation today. My bad. I do understand your problems with a couple of our statements in the fall — but feel on the other hand that you focus on a few specific trees that gives a very wrong perception of the forest. But perhaps we will just not see eye to eye here. But I do truly believe you should rethink your comment about saying saying that Potus asking for revenues is moving the goal post. I know you may not believe this, but as a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim.