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US President Donald Trump has defended his decision to downplay Covid-19 risks, saying his responses to journalist Bob Woodward were “adequate.”
Woodward, known for his reporting on the Watergate scandal, interviewed Trump 18 times from December to July.
Trump said in February that he downplayed the severity of the virus to avoid panic.
He tweeted Thursday that Woodward did not report his appointments for months. “I knew they were good and appropriate answers. Easy, no panic!”
He later told reporters that he never lied, when they suggested that he deliberately misled the American public about how dangerous the virus was.
At a press conference at the White House on Thursday afternoon, he said in response to a journalist’s question: “I didn’t lie, what I said is that we have to be calm, we cannot panic.”
He added: “I don’t want to jump up and down and start screaming ‘death, death’ because that’s not what it’s about.
Some 190,000 Americans have been recorded to have died with Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.
What did Trump say?
“Bob Woodward had my dates for many months. If he thought they were so bad or dangerous, why didn’t he immediately report them in an effort to save lives?” Trump said.
“Didn’t I have to? No, because I knew they were good and appropriate answers. Calm down, don’t panic!”
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The president, who is running for reelection in November, told reporters Wednesday that Woodward’s book was “a political success.”
What did Woodward say?
Woodward has been criticized for withholding the president’s comments on the pandemic, with some saying it was an unethical decision.
The journalist offered a defense in the Washington Post and Associated Press on Wednesday, saying he needed to verify whether what Trump told him was correct.
“The biggest problem I had, which is always a problem with Trump, is that I didn’t know if it was true,” Woodward told The Post.
He also said it was important for him to tell the story before the election, telling the Associated Press: “If I had decided that my book would come out at Christmas at the end of this year, it would have been unthinkable.”
The book, Rage, will be published on September 15.
What does the book say about Trump and the virus?
Trump indicated that he knew more about the severity of the disease than he had publicly said.
According to a tape of the call, Trump told Woodward in February that the coronavirus was more deadly than the flu.
“It goes through the air,” Trump told the author on February 7.
“That is always more difficult than touch. You don’t have to touch things. Right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that’s how it happens.”
“And that is very complicated. It is very delicate. It is also more deadly than even her exhausting blush.”
Later that month, Trump promised that the virus was “very under control” and that the case count would soon approach zero. He also publicly hinted that the flu was more dangerous than Covid-19.
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Speaking on Capitol Hill on March 10, Trump said, “Just keep calm. He will go.”
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Nine days later, after the White House declared the pandemic a national emergency, the president told Woodward, “I always wanted to downplay it. I still like to downplay it, because I don’t want to create panic.”
What Trump was saying to Woodward v publicly
January 28: National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien tells the President: “This is the greatest threat to national security you will face.”
February 7: “This is deadly,” he tells Woodward, much more serious than the flu.
February 23: “We have it very under control,” President Trump tells reporters.
February 26: Of the 15 confirmed cases at that time, he says in a briefing: “in a couple of days it’s going to drop to almost zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done,” which implies that the flu it is much more dangerous.
February 27: The virus will “go away,” he says.
March 10: “We’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just keep calm. It will go away,” says the president on Capitol Hill.
March 19 – Tells Woodward that he wanted to downplay it to avoid panic.
What else did the book reveal?
In race
Woodward writes that he mentioned the Black Lives Matter protests in a conversation with the president on June 19, suggesting that “white and privileged” people like them should work to understand how black Americans feel.
“You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you?” Trump said. “Just listen to yourself.”
Nationwide protests against police brutality and racism were sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minnesota in May.
Trump also repeated the suggestion that he had done more for African Americans than any president apart from Abraham Lincoln, who abolished slavery.
Later, on July 8, Trump reiterated that he had “done a lot for the black community,” but that he “felt no love.”
The Washington Post also cited an interview in which Woodward asked the president if the United States has systemic racism.
Trump said that while these problems exist everywhere, “I think probably less here than in most places, or less here than in many places.”
The president also acknowledged that racism affected the lives of people in the United States and said it was “unfortunate.”
In North Korea
Woodward’s book also cites dozens of letters between Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. In the letters, filled with flowery language, Kim reportedly referred to Trump as “Your Excellency” and noted that their “deep and special friendship will function as a magical force.”
According to US media, Trump told Woodward of his connection to Kim: “You meet a woman. In a second, you know if it’s going to happen or not. It doesn’t take you 10 minutes or six weeks. It’s like, wow. Okay. You know, it takes a little less than a second. “
In a tweet Thursday, Trump wrote: “Kim Jong Un is in good health. Never underestimate him!” There have been sporadic reports of Mr. Kim’s health, including one in April that he was seriously ill or even dead.
About new weapons
The president also reportedly told Woodward about nuclear weapons systems in his talks on North Korea. Other sources also confirmed the existence of a new weapon system, Woodward reported.
“I’ve built a nuclear weapons system that no one has ever had in this country before. We have things that you haven’t even seen or heard of,” he said, according to the Post.
“We have things that [Russian President] Putin and [Chinese President] I’ve never heard of Xi before, “Trump added.
About its predecessors
Trump also reportedly told Woodward that he felt his predecessor, Barack Obama, was “very overrated.”
“I don’t think Obama is smart,” Trump said. “And I don’t think he’s a great speaker.”
According to CNN, Trump told Woodward that he made President George W Bush “look like a stupid idiot, which he was.”
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