President Donald Trump in recorded interviews as early as February told veteran journalist Bob Woodward he knew just how dangerous and deadly the coronavirus was.
“This is deadly stuff,” President Trump told Woodward February 7, CNN reports.
Trump “admitted he knew weeks before the first confirmed US coronavirus death that the virus was dangerous, airborne, highly contagious and ‘more deadly than even your strenuous flus,’ and that he repeatedly played it down publicly,” CNN says, citing Woodward’s new book, “Rage.”
Trump the following month told Woodward he “wanted to always play it down.”
“I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic,” Trump said March 19, days after declaring a national emergency.
He also says, in recorded audio in March, he knew the deadly virus did not just affect seniors.
“Now it’s turning out it’s not just old people, Bob, Trump sauys in the audio (below.) “Just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out. It’s not just old- older” people.
Listen: