“I don’t want people to be frightened. I don’t want to create panic.”
— President Trump, explaining why he misled Americans about the coronavirus, Sept. 9, 2020
Bob Woodward’s first book on Trump was called “Fear.” But now the president is trying to rebut his own words in Woodward’s new book, “Rage,” by suggesting that he was trying to keep the nation calm by not revealing how much he knew about the dangerous nature of the novel coronavirus.
“You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” Trump said in a Feb. 7 call with Woodward. “And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.”
Speaking to reporters for weeks afterward, however, Trump repeatedly played down the threat, suggesting that it was not much more dangerous than the seasonal flu. Continue reading.