WOODWARD BOOK: TRUMP CALLED PRIVATE COVID-19 ‘DEADLY’ EARLY
Highlighting the national death toll from coronavirus, Biden noted that “the day we reached 190,000 deaths in the United States due to COVID-19, we just learned from Washington Post columnist Bob Woodward that the president of the United States admitted on a tape in February that is aware of COVID-19, passing through the air.
Woodward reports that the president deliberately downplayed the coronavirus to create panic and gave the public a positive assessment despite what he knew privately.
“He knew how fatal it was much more fatal than the flu. He knew it and intentionally minimized it. Worse, he lied to the American people. He knowingly and deliberately lied about the risk this posed to the country for months,” Biden said.
And Trump’s Democratic challenger claimed that the president “knew how damaging it was. And although this fatal disease wrecked the country, it did not do its homework on purpose. It is a life or death betrayal of the American people. … It is more than despicable. It is negligence in the line of duty. It’s a shame. “
The former vice president for months accused Trump of minimizing the severity of the pandemic in the first place, and also continually accused the president of mishandling the federal government’s reaction to the epidemic.
CASA BLANCA DEFENDS TRUMP ON THE WOOD BOOK
The president recoiled, highlighting his early ban on flights from China, where the virus originated, and the management of his administration of testing and the provision of non-public fans and protective devices to others on the front line.
But Trump repeated several times in February and early March that the epidemic was under control.
“The coronavirus is very low in the United States. We are in contact with all and all affected countries,” the president tweeted on February 24.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the country exceeded 6. 3 million people. The United States has recorded more cases and deaths than any other country. And millions of people remain unemployed after a giant component of the economy closed in the spring to save it from spreading the virus.
The communications director of Trump’s re-election crusade, Tim Murtaugh, in response to Biden’s comments, told Fox News, “Joe Biden hasn’t done anything yet, stay out of it, and recommended moves the president has already taken, and presented only hyperpartisan criticism. If Biden had warned others about the virus since January, as he claims, why did he continue to conduct electoral rallies as before until the week of March?
Biden’s comments came when Woodward’s reports went viral. According to Woodward, the president gained a warning on January 28 from national security adviser Robert O’Brien that the coronavirus outbreak would be his presidency’s “greatest risk to national security. “
“The president reportedly told Woodward in a call on February 7, ‘Just breathe the air and you did. So this is a very tricky question. This is a very sensitive issue. It is also even more fatal than his severe flu, “The Washington Post reported.
“These are fatal things,” the president added.
The quotes come from recordings of Woodward’s conversations with the president that were made for Wednesday on the Post’s website.
Trump told Woodward on March 19: “I tried to minimize that. “I had declared a national emergency because of the virus a few days earlier, but I had also said, “I still like to minimize it, because I don’t need to cause panic. “
The Trump Crusade and the White House also highlighted Wednesday’s statements through Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the president’s top visual and well-known member of the president’s coronavirus working group.
“No, no. I didn’t feel like he was distorting anything,” Fauci said in an interview with Fox News “The Daily Briefing,” when asked if the president was downplaying the seriousness of the problem. coronavirus.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany also defended the president wednesday and told reporters that “when you face unsurpassed challenges, it is vital to have explicit confidence, it is vital to express your calm. “
On why Trump sat down with Woodward, McEnany said so Wednesday because he is the “most transparent president in history. “