" />

The Moderate Voice

An Internet hub with domestic and international news, analysis, original reporting, and popular features from the left, center, indies, centrists, moderates, and right


You are here: Home / Health / coronavirus / Woodward book bombshell: Trump knew in February coronavirus was deadly and worse than flu and intentionally misled public (AUDIO and VIDEOS)

Woodward book bombshell: Trump knew in February coronavirus was deadly and worse than flu and intentionally misled public (AUDIO and VIDEOS)

by Leave a Comment

Dreamstime

President Donald Trump admitted in taped interviews with journalist Bob Woodward that in February he knew the coronavirus was deadly and worse than the flu but he downplayed it. In fact, Trump not only downplayed it but repeatedly said it was like getting the flu and a “hoax.” The Washington Post:

President Trump’s head popped up during his top-secret intelligence briefing in the Oval Office on Jan. 28 when the discussion turned to the coronavirus outbreak in China.

“This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency,” national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien told Trump, according to a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward. “This is going to be the roughest thing you face.”

Matthew Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser, agreed. He told the president that after reaching contacts in China, it was evident that the world faced a health emergency on par with the flu pandemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide.

Ten days later, Trump called Woodward and revealed that he thought the situation was far more dire than what he had been saying publicly.

“You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” Trump said in a Feb. 7 call. “And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu.”

“This is deadly stuff,” the president repeated for emphasis.

At that time, Trump was telling the nation that the virus was no worse than a seasonal flu, predicting it would soon disappear and insisting that the U.S. government had it totally under control. It would be several weeks before he would publicly acknowledge that the virus was no ordinary flu and that it could be transmitted through the air.

Here are some excerpts from the taped interviews used to write “Rage,” Woodward’s new book about Trump and the Trump administration:

Here’s just one of many YouTubes that feature Trump repeatedly playing down the virus:

Here’s how the White House press secretary attempted to try and deflect and discredit the Woodward interviews:

The Daily Mail’s headline perfectly sums it up: “Trump is caught on tape ADMITTING to Bob Woodward at beginning of February that COVID-19 was ‘deadly’ and high contagious but that he liked to ‘play it down’ – while telling the public virus was ‘going to disappear and work out fine'”

Illustration 175355299 © – Dreamstime.com