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WASHINGTON (REUTERS) – President Donald Trump acknowledged in February that he knew how deadly and contagious the new coronavirus was, but did not convey that information to the American people because he did not want to create panic, according to Trump interviews cited in a new book. .
The taped interviews, obtained by CNN and based on a new book titled Rage by journalist Bob Woodward, were released just weeks before the November 3 presidential election and as Trump’s efforts to combat Covid-19 have come under fire. intense criticism for being too little too late. .
The Republican president, who has been beaten by Democratic opponent Joe Biden over the US government’s slow response to the coronavirus, played down the virus for months as it took hold and spread rapidly across the country.
“I always wanted to downplay it,” Trump told Woodward on March 19, days after he declared a national emergency.
“I still like to downplay it, because I don’t want to create panic.”
In that conversation, Trump also told Woodward that some “surprising facts” had just been revealed about the virus’s targets: “It’s not just about old people, old people. Also young, many young people.”
Trump on Wednesday defended his handling of the virus, which has killed more than 190,000 people in the United States so far, with new cases increasing in the Midwest.
“The fact is, I’m a cheerleader for this country. I love our country and I don’t want people to freak out,” Trump said at an event at the White House.
“We have done well from any point of view,” he added.
According to interviews, reported by CNN and The Washington Post, Trump knew the virus was especially deadly in early February.
“It’s on the air,” Trump said in a recording of a Feb. 7 interview with Woodward.
“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.”
A week after that interview, Trump told a briefing at the White House that the number of coronavirus cases in the US “In a couple of days it will drop almost to zero.”
Some Senate Republicans defended Trump’s response to the coronavirus on Wednesday.
“His actions to shut down the economy were the right actions,” said Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally. “And I think the tone during that time spoke for itself.”
Woodward conducted 18 interviews with Trump for the book, which will be published on September 15.
Other revelations in the book include Trump’s disparaging comments about American military leaders. He received criticism this week after reports that he was vilifying fallen military personnel and veterans.
In Woodward’s book, an aide to former Defense Secretary James Mattis overheard Trump say at a meeting, “My bloody generals are a bunch of jerks” because they cared more about alliances than trade deals.
Mattis asked the aide to document the comment in an email, CNN reported.
Regarding the Black Lives Matter movement, Woodward asked Trump for his views on the concept of white privilege and whether he feels isolated by that privilege from the plight of African Americans.
“No. You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to it,” Trump responded, according to media reports about the book.
“Wow. No, I don’t feel that at all.”
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