[ad_1]
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump insisted Thursday (Sept. 10) that he never lied to Americans about the dangers of the coronavirus after an explosive new book by journalist Bob Woodward revealed that he deliberately tried to downplay the crisis.
Trump’s recorded admission to Woodward that he downplayed the pandemic in public, while aware of the unique danger of COVID-19, has sounded alarms less than eight weeks before Election Day.
Asked bluntly at a hastily organized White House press conference “Why did you lie to the American people?” Trump replied, “I didn’t lie.”
The Republican, who is down in the polls against Democrat Joe Biden and faces overwhelming disapproval from Americans for his handling of the coronavirus crisis, insisted that he had softened the dangers in public to remain calm.
“I think we did a great job,” Trump said. “I don’t want to jump up and start yelling ‘Death! Death!'”
But Trump has been thrown to the defense after several excerpts and recordings from Woodward’s book Rage were released on Wednesday.
That night he declined with a call to his friend, Fox News personality Sean Hannity. Early Thursday morning, she followed up with a Fox News Radio interview focused on her nomination by a right-wing member of Norway’s parliament for the Nobel Peace Prize.
He then sent dozens of tweets in wildly random directions throughout the day, from extolling the “good health” of North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un to criticizing Woodward and retweeting a fan whose dress he admired at a recent election rally.
Trump was to continue his public relations blitz with another rally in Michigan later Thursday.
DISCLOSURES
The rage is rife with startling episodes, including the assessment by Trump’s then-national intelligence director, the respected Dan Coats, that the president “doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies.”
But the segments in which Trump frankly discusses the coronavirus pandemic, which has already killed nearly 200,000 Americans, are receiving the most attention.
Despite openly describing to Woodward the terrifying characteristics of the then-unknown virus, including the fact that it is transmitted through the air, Trump said “I always wanted to downplay it.”
Washington Post associate editor and author Bob Woodward recorded his conversations with President Donald Trump. (Photo: AFP / Jim Watson)
Trump went on to explain to Woodward that he wanted to avoid causing panic. However, his acknowledgment that he had deliberately failed to tell the country the plain truth has caused a firestorm.
“I knew how deadly it was,” Biden said Wednesday. “She lied to the American people. She consciously and willingly lied about the threat she posed to the country for months.”
I CAN’T SHOOT THE MESSENGER
Trump generally fights criticism by blaming what he calls “fake news” and stating that there are no anonymous sources commonly used in White House reports.
But shooting the messenger won’t work in Rage’s case. The shocking revelations are largely based on Trump himself and Woodward, famous for taking down Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal, has released recordings.
At an excavation in Woodward Thursday, Trump tweeted that if the legendary reporter thought the quotes were “so bad or dangerous, why didn’t he immediately report them in an effort to save lives?”
“Because I knew they were good and appropriate answers. Take it easy, don’t panic!” Trump argued.
Yet many in Washington wonder why Trump would grant Woodward so much access in an election year. The reporter obtained 18 interviews with the president and was completely open about his recording.
LEE: From Nixon to Trump: Bob Woodward, chronicler of US presidents
“I did it out of curiosity,” was Trump’s explanation on Thursday.
According to White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Trump went ahead “because he is the most transparent president in history.”
Trump, who has a lifetime of experience in the art of selling and acting on television, has in fact set a new record for his unprecedented number of press conferences and impromptu question-and-answer sessions.
But the performances often leave his own staff struggling in damage limitation mode, such as when he reflected at a press conference on the potential benefits of injecting bleach into COVID-19 patients.
In the final race before Election Day on November 3, aides and allies grit their teeth again.
“Honestly, (Woodward’s) access to the White House is probably something that he wouldn’t have recommended if he had been in the chief of staff position from the beginning,” Trump’s current chief of staff Mark Meadows told Fox News.
Karl Rove, the mastermind of the Republican campaign in the George W. Bush era, warned the headline: “If the president is not focused … the occupant of the Oval Office is ready to change.”
