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Wednesday, September 09, 2020
No, of course, the president of the United States never lied to the American public about the dangers of the coronavirus. Donald Trump himself reports, however, that he deliberately misled US citizens about it. And pursue this strategy continuously.
In his own words, US President Donald Trump has deliberately downplayed the danger of the coronavirus so as not to cause panic. At the same time, excerpts from interviews with journalist Bob Woodward show that Trump was informed in early February that the virus is airborne and has a higher death rate than the flu. During this time, however, he publicly referred to the low number of cases in the United States and repeatedly claimed that the virus would simply disappear over time. In the United States, about 190,000 people died after contracting the coronavirus, in part because they did not take expert warnings and precautionary measures such as masks seriously.
Woodward has enjoyed legendary status in American journalism since he and his colleague Carl Bernstein were instrumental in the Watergate scandal that cost President Richard Nixon his job in 1974. His new book “Rage” (on: Anger) won’t appear until next week. Broadcaster CNN reported on the book in advance and also released short audio recordings of the interviews. Among other things, you can hear Trump say after the introduction on March 19, “To be honest with you, Bob”: “I always wanted to downplay it. I still like to downplay it because I don’t want to panic.”
In a conversation on February 7, according to the recordings, Trump said, “This is deadly.” People don’t have to touch contact surfaces to get infected: “You just breathe air and that’s how it spreads.” The disease is also “deadlier” than the flu, which kills between 25,000 and 30,000 Americans each year. “Who would have thought that, right?” The president commented. Meanwhile, at a press conference at the White House in late February, Trump spoke of the importance of washing his hands frequently and not touching all the mangoes, and that he should treat the disease in the same way that he would treat the flu.
Trump’s spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany did not deny the authenticity of the recordings. But she said at the same time: “The president has never lied to the American public about Covid.” However, one of her tasks is to keep the population calm. “The president never played down the virus. The president radiated calm. He was hopeful,” McEnany said. At the same time, it took measures from the beginning, such as restricting entry from China.
“He lied to the American people”
Meanwhile, Trump’s challenger to the White House race, Joe Biden, attacked the president harshly. “He knew how deadly it was and deliberately downplayed it. Worse, he lied to the American people.” Tens of thousands of lives could have been saved if Trump had acted faster, Biden said.
The United States is the country most affected by the corona pandemic in the world. So far, around 6.3 million infections have been detected there. Trump is accused of long underestimating the danger posed by the pathogen and repeatedly misleading citizens with statements about supposedly promising treatment methods. In both national and multi-state polls deemed decisive for the election, Trump is behind Biden heading into the November 3 presidential election.
