Trump denies downplaying the coronavirus and questions the use of masks

President Donald Trump speaks with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos outside a city hall at the National Constitution Center, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo / Evan Vucci)

PHILADELPHIA – By raising compelling questions about voters’ real-world issues, President Donald Trump denied during a televised town hall that he had downplayed the coronavirus threat earlier this year, though there is an audio recording of him that he says he did. precisely that.

Trump, in what might well be a preview of his performance in presidential debates less than two weeks away, questioned his own administration’s widely accepted scientific conclusions strongly urging the use of face coverings and appeared to reject the suggestion. that the nation has racial inequalities.

“Well, I hope there isn’t a racial problem,” Trump said Tuesday when asked about his campaign rhetoric that appears to ignore the historical injustices carried out against African Americans.

Going head-to-head with everyday voters for the first time in months, Trump went on the defensive but resisted the upheaval when pressed about his administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and why he is not promoting in a way more aggressive use of masks to reduce the spread of the disease.

“There are people who don’t think masks are good,” Trump said, although his own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strongly urges their use.

The event, hosted by ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos, was a kind of warm-up before Trump faces Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the first presidential debate on Sept. 29. Recorded at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, it featured Trump answering questions from an audience. of just 21 voters to comply with state and local regulations on coronavirus.

Trump tried to counter his admission to journalist Bob Woodward that he was deliberately “downplaying” when he discussed the threat of COVID-19 to Americans earlier this year. Despite the audio of his comments being released, Trump said: “Yeah, well, I didn’t downplay it. In fact, in many ways, I took advantage of it, in terms of action. “

“My action was very strong,” Trump added. “I’m not trying to be dishonest. I don’t want people to panic. “

Trump also insisted that he was not wrong when he praised China’s response to the virus in January and February, saying he trusted Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader. “He told me it was under control, that everything was and turned out not to be true,” Trump said.

Trump also suggested that the virus would disappear without a vaccine, claiming the nation would develop a herd immunity over time, but did not mention the lives that would be lost along the way.

“It will develop in a herd, and that is going to happen. All of that will happen, ”Trump said. “But with a vaccine, I think it will go away very quickly.”

He concluded by praising his own handling of the virus, saying it had improved the reputations of some governors and that “we have made a lot of people look good that they shouldn’t look good, to be honest with you.”

The questions from unengaged voters were direct and poignant: a man with diabetes who said he felt he had been thrown “under the bus” for mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic; a black woman with an illness that left her uninsured until Obama’s health care bill, who worries she may lose coverage again; a black pastor who questioned the Trump campaign slogan of “Make America Great Again.”

“When has America been good for African Americans in the American ghetto?” asked the pastor.

When asked what he was doing to address protests against racial injustice, Trump lamented “disrespect” and the absence of “retaliation” for those who collide with or carry out attacks on police officers. Trump on Sunday called for the death penalty for the person who shot and seriously wounded two Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department officers over the weekend.

Trump has been unusually quiet in preparing for his debate ahead of the first debate, which will take place in Cleveland. On Tuesday, he told Fox News that he believes his day job is best practice for his three scheduled showdowns with Biden.

“Well, I prepare every day just by doing what I’m doing,” Trump said. He noted that he had been to California on Monday and had been to other states before that to make it clear that he is dating and even more than Biden.

One person who will probably study replay: Biden. Returning from a long campaign day in Florida, Biden said on his plane that he was preparing for the debates primarily by reviewing what Trump has said in the past. But he suggested that he had not started mock debates yet, and said he did not know who would play Trump’s role in his preparations.

Trump, in the Fox interview, lowered expectations for the performance of his Democratic opponent, calling Biden “a disaster” and “extremely incompetent” in the primary debates. He rated Biden “OK” and “fine” in his last one-on-one debate with Bernie Sanders before landing the nomination.

Trump’s rhetoric about Biden marked a departure from traditional efforts by candidates to speak out about preparing their rivals for televised debates, in hopes of setting an unreachable bar for their performance.

The second of the three scheduled debates, to be held in Miami on October 15, will feature a similar “citizens’ meeting” style.

Biden will have his own chance to hone his skills answering questions from voters on Thursday when he takes part in a televised town hall hosted by CNN.

The visit to Pennsylvania is Trump’s second to the state of the battlefield in the last week, after he attended a 9/11 commemorative event in Shanksville on Friday.

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