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Donald Trump falsely claimed that he did not downplay the coronavirus pandemic in a city hall Tuesday night, saying, “Actually, in many ways, I played it, in terms of action.”
His comments came in response to an unengaged voter at the ABC News event, who asked Trump why he would “downplay a pandemic known to disproportionately harm low-income families and minority communities.” The president said he did not minimize the threat of the virus: “My action was very strong. I’m not trying to be dishonest. I don’t want people to panic. “
Trump’s misleading response comes a week after investigative journalist Bob Woodward revealed that the president explicitly admitted to playing down the virus in interviews with him. Woodward has reported that although Trump’s national security adviser gave him a “jarring” warning in January about the virus, calling it the “greatest threat to national security” of his presidency, Trump continued to underestimate the risks in public statements.
On February 27, Trump said publicly: “He’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear. “On March 9, he compared it to the flu, tweeting:” Nothing closes, life and the economy continue. “
On March 19, Trump declared a national emergency. But at the same time, he told Woodward, “I always wanted to downplay it. I still like to downplay it, because I don’t want to create a panic. “
In an interview with CNN on TuesdayBob Woodward said of Trump: “I don’t know if he is clear in his head, to be honest, what is real and what is unreal.”
At the ABC town hall, Trump also responded to voters’ question by repeating misleading claims about his first travel restrictions during Covid, falsely calling them “bans” in China and Europe.
The president made other questionable claims about the virus Tuesday night. When asked by an unengaged voter why he doesn’t do a better job promoting the use of masks and why he doesn’t wear masks more often, the president again cast doubt on the scientific consensus of his own administration, which has strongly urged the use of masks. Of the face. coatings.
“There are people who don’t think masks are good,” Trump said, adding that the masks cause problems for “waiters.”
When asked why he doesn’t support a national mask mandate, the president suggested that the voter could ask that question of Democrats and their rival Joe Biden, saying, “He didn’t. They never did. “It is unclear what the president was referring to, given that the former vice president is not currently an elected official and does not have the authority to implement any mask policy.
The president further defended his initial praise of China’s handling of Covid-19 at the start of the pandemic. He said he trusted Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, at the time: “He told me that it was under control, that everything was and it turned out that it was not true.”
In the election campaign, Biden has repeatedly criticized the president for misrepresenting the threat of the virus at the beginning of the crisis. At a recent event in Michigan, the Democratic nominee said: “He knew how deadly he was. It was much more deadly than the flu. He knew it and he purposely downplayed it. Worse still, he lied to the American people. He consciously and willingly lied about the threat he posed to the country for months. “
The president has had a series of campaign events that have defied state orders on Covid, with large crowds inside, without practicing social distancing.
Biden will have his own chance to answer voter questions on Thursday when he participates in a televised town hall hosted by CNN, and Trump and Biden will meet for the first presidential debate in late September.
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