U. S. President Donald Trump knew the coronavirus was “fatal” and worse than the flu, even though he had deliberately misled the American public in February and March about the risks, according to a forthcoming e-book through American journalist Bob Woodward.
Trump said in a verbal exchange recorded with Woodward that he had minimized the dangers of coronavirus from the start because it didn’t need to cause panic, according to a Washington Post report.
“Just breathe the air and that’s how it happened,” Trump told Woodward on a phone call on February 7.
“And it’s a very delicate question. This is a very sensitive subject. It’s also more fatal than even his intense flu,” Trump said.
“These are fatal things, ” repeated the president to insist, to the report.
Trump learned at an intelligence briefing by his national security advisers on January 28 that the virus posed a serious threat, according to Woodward’s e-book Rage, and is scheduled for September 15.
“This will be the biggest national security risk he will face in his presidency,” Robert O’Brien, the president’s national security adviser, told Woodward, who has held 18 individual talks with the president since December. 2019 to July 2020.
“It will be the hardest thing to face,” O’Brien told Trump.
After repeated warnings from intelligence agencies, Trump downplayed the virus threat in public in February and sounded a public alarm about the threat to the United States.
“We almost closed it from China,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity on February 2.
Critics say the president’s slow reaction and the inability to expand a national strategy to fight the virus have resulted in more deaths and continued economic damage from the pandemic.
The United States has suffered more than 190,000 deaths and recorded more than 6. 3 million cases of COVID-19 at Johns Hopkins University.
Trump’s mismanagement of the virus has harmed him politically. Trump has defeated his democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden in public polls because the electorate sees his reaction to the pandemic as inadequate.
“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 consciously and intentionally lied about the risk this posed to the country for months,” Biden said on a crusade in Warren, Michigan, wednesday.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement: “The president’s own words are the devastating truth: Trump was fully aware of the catastrophic nature of the coronavirus, but he hid the facts and refused to take the risk seriously, exposing himself to our entire country. . and un prepared. “
News of Woodward president’s audio recordings went viral Wednesday with #TrumpKnew, the number one trending hashtag on Twitter internationally in more than 615,000 tweets, about the site’s trends.
Pass.
– Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) September 9, 2020
Trump and his aides had said in the past that their slow early reaction to the epidemic was the result of China not kindly warning the world.
“The president has minimized the virus,” White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said at a press conference Tuesday after the Washington Post report.
“The president never lied to the public about COVID. The president has expressed his peace of mind and his movements,” McEnany said.
However, Woodward’s reports turn out to undermine this narrative.
“I tried to minimize it,” Trump told Woodward on March 19.
“I like to decrease it because I don’t need to panic,” Trump told Woodward on recordings released through The Washington Post.
– The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 9, 2020
The public alarm didn’t go off in the United States until February 25, when dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases, said at a press conference that the virus is coming.
“It’s not so much about whether it’s going to take place anymore, it’s precisely about when it’s going to take place,” Messonnier said.
U. S. stock markets fell 3 percent off the news that day, and Trump, who returned from India on Air Force One, became infuriated in the headlines. Messonnier then overlooked the new public statements at the White House.
“One day it’s like a miracle, it happens to pass,” Trump said publicly on February 27.
Woodward’s ebook Other derogatory comments by Trump on US military leadersU. S. , his negotiations with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and his perspectives on Black Lives Matter protests that have reformed U. S. policy. But it’s not the first time For more than 3 months.
Trump is for crowds who circumvent viral controls, while Biden is limited to small occasions with the threat of infection.
Trump said a vaccine could be available by November, despite warnings from fitness experts that it is unlikely.
Harris comes amid considerations that President Donald Trump would possibly check to speed up a vaccine before the November 3 election.
© 2020 Al Jazeera Media Network