Trump on the coronavirus: 'To be honest with you, I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.'
President Trump warned respected journalist Bob Woodward early in the pandemic that the novel coronavirus was “deadly stuff,” even as he minimized the health threat publicly by telling Americans that COVID-19 was “under control” and “going to disappear.”
“I wanted to always play it down,” Trump told Woodward on March 19, days after he had declared COVID-19 a national emergency. “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.” — President Trump, on March 19, 2020 In early February, he told reporters that by early April, “when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.” And during a Feb. 26, White House news conference, he said that, “We’re going to be pretty soon at only five people [with COVID-19]. And we could be at just one or two people over the next short period of time. So we’ve had very good luck.”“You just breathe the air, and that’s how it’s passed. And so that’s a very tricky one.
“The president has never lied to the American public on COVID,” she said. “He makes clear that he doesn’t want to see chaos.”
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Useful Idiots: Donald Trump and the Bob Woodward BombshellUsefulIdiots hosts mtaibbi and kthalps delve into the news around Bob Woodward's book 'Rage' and the Trump tapes. Plus, filmmaker jlpassarelli talks about the Julian Assange trial
Read more »
Lindsey Graham slams Khashoggi verdict as Woodward reveals Trump boast he saved MBSA Saudi court on Monday sentenced eight unnamed people for between seven and 20 years for killing the journalist in 2018, but critics say the masterminds have escaped punishment.
Read more »
Trump stands by comments made in Woodward interview: 'I didn't lie'President Donald Trump, at a White House news conference Thursday, continued to defend comments he made to journalist Bob Woodward in which he admitted he deliberately downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus to the public despite knowing its deadly danger, and argued that if the comments were so
Read more »
Defensive Bob Woodward Claims He Withheld Interview Since Journalism Hasn’t Worked On Trump So FarWASHINGTON—In response to criticism for withholding “bombshell” audio of the president, veteran Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward defended his actions Friday by noting journalism has had no effect on Donald Trump so far. “In my defense, I only kept this damning interview with the president from the American people because it’s not going to make any difference whatsoever,” said the reporter famous for breaking the Watergate scandal, adding that he has filed hundreds of hard-evidence-backed stories on the myriad unspeakable things Donald Trump has said and done in the past four years and none of the articles resulted in a single consequence. “Trust me, I would have released this tape of Trump openly brushing off the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans back in February if we lived in a world where ironclad evidence of the president’s dishonesty would lead to repercussions—but we don’t. All I’m saying is there were plenty of other stories that made you say, ‘Oh my God, the president behaved unprofessionally,’ back in March, and not one of them moved the needle. I actually thought I was helping by not piling on.” Woodward added that the only way he could see Trump being affected in the slightest by the damning audio would be if someone threw the recording device at him.\n
Read more »
Trump loses significant voter support after allegedly disparaging U.S. soldiers, Woodward COVID tapes23 percent of Americans surveyed said journalist Bob Woodward's revelations had changed their perception of the president.
Read more »