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President Donald Trump told journalist Bob Woodward that he intentionally downplayed the severity of the coronavirus in public feedback to keep away from triggering a panic.
“I wanted to always play it down, I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic,” Trump told Woodward, the creator and affiliate editor for the Washington Post, on March 19 in one among a sequence of interviews for his ebook, “Rage,” due for publication this month. CNN printed audio recordings of excerpts of the conversations on Wednesday.
Trump told Woodward on February 7 that the virus was transmitted via the air — whilst Trump stated publicly it was no worse than the seasonal flu and would rapidly go away.
“It goes through air, Bob, that’s always tougher than the touch,” he stated. “The air, you just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed.”
He additionally told Woodward it was extra lethal “than even your strenuous flus.”
That identical day, Trump had tweeted reward for Chinese president Xi Jinping for his dealing with of the pandemic.
Woodward’s ebook says Trump was warned by National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien in an Jan. 28 assembly that the virus “will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency,” based on a Washington Post report on the ebook.
“This is going to be the roughest thing you face,” O’Brien stated, based on Woodward, who wrote that Trump’s head popped up on the dire warning. Trump told Woodward in May that he didn’t bear in mind being told that.
Trump restricted journey from China shortly after. “The risk of infection for Americans remains low,” his well being secretary, Alex Azar, stated on Jan. 31.
The ebook is predicated on 18 interviews that Trump gave Woodward between December and July, the Post reported. It additionally is predicated on background conversations with officers and different sources.
The ebook comes as Trump trails Democrat Joe Biden in polls, with surveys exhibiting Americans are displeased with Trump’s dealing with with the virus. Trump has sought to shift blame over the pandemic, which has killed greater than 189,000 Americans, often calling it the “China Virus.”
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany stated Trump by no means lied or mislead the general public. “We want to keep the country calm, that’s what leaders do,” McEnany told reporters on the White House. “The president never downplayed the virus.”
Woodward experiences that prime US infectious illness official Anthony Fauci stated the White House has “rudderless” management, and criticized Trump.
“His attention span is like a minus number,” Fauci stated, based on the Post’s account of Woodward’s ebook. “His sole purpose is to get re-elected.”
On Wednesday, McEnany quoted Fauci praising Trump over the virus. “There’s a litany of praise,” McEnany stated.
The ebook stated Trump’s former Defense Secretary James Mattis referred to the president as having “no moral compass” and that he is “unfit” for workplace.
According to the Post account of the ebook, former intelligence director Dan Coats told Mattis that, to Trump, “a lie is not a lie. It’s just what he thinks.”
Trump additionally criticized prime navy leaders, based on the Post account of the ebook.
“Not to mention my f—–g generals are a bunch of p—–s. They care more about their alliances than they do about trade deals,” Trump told one adviser, based on the Post account.
Trump has been beneath fireplace for every week after a report by the The Atlantic that he made disparaging feedback about American Marines killed in World War I and questioned the worth of navy service. The White House has disputed elements of that report.
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