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A new book puts President Trump in dire straits: He makes it clear that he knew the danger posed by the corona virus early on, though he often expressed himself differently in public. Trump now defended his approach.
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 U.S., around 190,000 people died after being infected with the coronavirus, in part because they didn’t take expert warnings and precautionary measures like masks seriously.
Published excerpts from Woodward’s book
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. Trump can be heard saying on March 19, “I always wanted to downplay it. I still like to downplay it because I don’t want to panic.”
“This is deadly”
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.
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. At the same time, he publicly claimed that the death rate was lower than that of the flu.
Trump defended his course of action. “The last thing you want is to panic in the country,” he said. “We want to show confidence, we want to show strength.” At the same time, he noted that he had taken steps such as restricting travel to China. “We did well in every way,” he said at an event at the White House. “The fact is, I am a cheerleader for this country. I love our country and I don’t want people to freak out.”
“He lied to the American people”
Trump’s challenger in the White House race, Joe Biden, lashed out at the president. “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.
Criticism at time of publication
Woodward defended the timing of its publication. His colleagues had accused him of only making Trump’s remarks public to make his book better sell a few weeks before the election. In this way, Woodward puts business interests above public health.
Woodward, however, said Trump was saying things that did not stand up to scrutiny. When he learned in May that Trump actually relied on reliable information in his interview statements about the virus, the pandemic had already spread throughout the United States: “If only he had told the story about what he was at that time. He knew, wouldn’t he have told us anything that we didn’t already know. ” That is why he focused on publishing his book before the election date.
