FILADELFIA – President Donald Trump denied downplaying the threat of the coronavirus and said Tuesday in the city corridor that he “played with it” despite his statement in a recorded interview this year that he “still needs to minimize it. “
Trump made the statements on a 90-minute municipal corridor hosted through ABC News on Pennsylvania’s must-see battlefield, an occasion that served as a preview for presidential debates that will begin later this month.
“Well, I didn’t minimize it. In fact, in many ways, I played it in terms of action,” Trump said in reaction to a consultation on an interview with journalist Bob Woodward in which he said he knew the most fatal and contagious coronavirus. than the flu, but kept comparing the two so that other people wouldn’t panic.
The city council, which aired two weeks before Trump participated in its first debate with Democratic candidate Joe Biden, presented a lengthy verbal exchange about the president’s reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump defended his earlier statement that the virus would disappear, even without a vaccine, bringing up what he called “herd mentality”. , an obvious reference to “herd immunity”.
Collective immunity is the perception that the virus is eliminated after a higher percentage of the population is infected, which restricts its spreading capacity.
“And you will grow, expand a herd, like a herd mentality. It’s going to be, it’s going to be an evolved herd, and it’s going to happen,” Trump said. “All this will happen. “
ABC described the occasion as aimed at un engaged voters, some of whom asked Trump about the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, climate change, and other problems, but the forum, which was previously recorded Tuesday night, also served as a preview of the presidential. discussions beginning on 29 September.
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos has taken hold at City Hall and has continually tried to reject some of Trump’s claims at election rallies and at the White House in recent months. Under existing conditions, Trump said he “already” had a plan, but refused to provide main points on when it would be released. When he claimed that “many people” thinks the mask is “not good” to control the spread of the virus, Stephanopoulos asked for an example of someone saying that.
“I’ll tell you who those other people are: waiters,” Trump said. “They come and serve you, and they have a maskArray. They play with the mask, so the mask is finished, and they touch it, and then they touch the plate. This probably wouldn’t be good. “
The president rejected the idea that he had minimized the severity of the virus, despite recordings of Woodward’s interviews in which he told the journalist that the idea of minimizing it would help panic.
“I sought to minimize it. I like to minimize it, because I don’t need to create panic,” Trump told Woodward on March 19 on excerpts from audio interviews received through CNN.
At the time, Trump compared the coronavirus to influenza, saying that “nothing stops, life and the economy continue” even during the deadliest flu seasons.
The president’s responses to the virus have attracted the fire of democrats.
“This is the current PRESIDENT of the United States, whose duty is to protect the American people,” Biden spokesman Andrew Bates said of Trump’s reaction to collective immunity. “That would literally mean millions of dead. “
“The city corridor shows Trump who he is. He’s not a ccorridorenger, he’s a starter who can’t protect his record,” said Ronald Klain, an ex-treasurer of Biden. “People know that COVID kills Americans and other people don’t have a job. Trump may lie, but that doesn’t mean other people lie. “
At one touching time, a Dominican woman who had recently become an American citizen recounted how her mother had recently died of cancer and told Trump that he “joined other people” in the pandemic because they “learned to love” their families.
Trump responded to the woman about immigration before returning to the coronavirus.
“We’ll take care of him. We’ll take care of him,” he said. ” Vaccines are going to make a difference. “
More: Pelosi Says House Will Remain In Consultation Until A Coronavirus Stimulation Agreement Is Achieved
Trump recorded the mayor’s office of the National Constitution Center, whose lobby offers panoramic views of Independence Hall a few blocks away, was the site of former President Barack Obama’s high-profile speech on race in the 2008 presidential campaign.
Behind him from Philadelphia, Trump tweeted a picture of himself on Air Force One with a giant Philadelphia cheese steak sandwich on his desk.
“It’s great to be in Philadelphia,” he wrote.
The first of the three debates, scheduled for September 29, will position itself as an increasingly tight race on some battlefields, adding Florida and North Carolina.
Trump took Pennsylvania to less than 1 percentage point in 2016. Philadelphia’s suburbs are among the most competitive in the country, Trump is also looking to increase participation in the most conservative parts of the state.
“With the suburban voter, we take care of them; it’s security, it’s a security issue, it’s a matter of law and order,” Trump said as he left the White House, echoing what has a central precept of his response. -electoral candidacy. ” We have a very strong and tough police campaign. “
Polls lately show Democratic nominee Joe Biden with a unique advantage in Keystone state.
The retransmission of the city corridor on a day when the president achieved a historic victory in foreign policy: a couple of agreements formalizing diplomatic relations between Israel and two Persian Gulf countries, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the South Garden of the White House the previous Tuesday for a signing ceremony.
More: Israel’s agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain at the White House ceremony
Contributor: Jeanine Santucci