'Play it down': Trump admits to concealing the true threat of coronavirus in new Woodward book

[brooklynite]

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN)President Donald 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, according to legendary journalist Bob Woodward in his new book "Rage."

"This is deadly stuff," Trump told Woodward on February 7.

In a series of interviews with Woodward, Trump revealed that he had a surprising level of detail about the threat of the virus earlier than previously known. "Pretty amazing," Trump told Woodward, adding that the coronavirus was maybe five times "more deadly" than the flu.

Trump's admissions are in stark contrast to his frequent public comments at the time insisting that the virus was "going to disappear" and "all work out fine."

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/09/politics/bob-woodward-rage-book-trump-coronavirus/index.html

[Stuart G]

1. I hope this gets seen by everyone..Another Trump lie. K and R

[Botany]

2. "This is deadly stuff," Trump told Woodward on February 7.

How that motherfucker could get one vote is beyond me. Both Trump and Kushner knew
of the coming C-19 pandemic in the fall of 2019 and chose to do nothing except for investing
in HCQ and their own C-19 test kits which failed and then the virus took off in America.

[lagomorph777]

3. This will make for great book plug appearances, with Trump's contradictory words on split-screen.

[Texin]

26. Fuck his goddamned "book plug"! He fucking KNEW about this. Had it on tape FFS.

And he kept silent about it since February 7th???? Christ on a crutch. He should have SAID something. He should have made this revelation.

[dchill]

33. "...admits to concealing..."

Same for YOU, Woodward!

[lagomorph777]

38. Yes - but it may do maximum damage to Trump now. In the long run,

it could save millions of lives (not only due to COVID), versus the hundreds of thousands he could have (maybe) saved earlier.

That doesn't excuse Woodward though.

[Delmette2.0]

42. No one should buy his book.

Woodward withheld this and 190,000 (and counting) people have died! He withheld this to make a splash in his book. It's a splash in the septic tank.

[LonePirate]

4. Why the fuck did Woodward not go public with this on Feb. 7 instead of saving it for a book?

He may be a legendary journalist; but this is almost criminal on his part to hold this info for seven months.

[chowder66]

8. I wonder that as well and it's weird that Trump spoke to Woodward after deriding his first book.

Regarding Woodward's first book Fear:

snip

Trump greeted Woodward’s book with derision, calling it “a piece of fiction” and a “con of the public” and its author a “liar” with “phoney sources”.

But the president is nothing if not changeable and on Sunday, one of Woodward’s chief competitors, Maggie Haberman of the New York Times, tweeted that Trump has “met with Woodward at least twice for his second book; Woodward, a legend, is now ‘very good’.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/13/watergate-reporter-bob-woodward-trump-book-fear

[brooklynite]

18. Any publicity is appealing...

[dchill]

35. He apparently CANNOT resist.

[Tommymac]

12. Agreed. Woodward now has the blood of 190,000+ on his hands too.

I hate self serving egotists. Of any persuasion.

[ace3csusm]

17. We cant be blaming others for Trumps mistakes

at that time we didnt know what would come of this it is our government that should have notified us not the reporter, what if he did tell everyone and it didnt cause the current events he would have been dragged thru the coals... Again the President is the one responsible to relay this information to us, he is the one voted in to office, he is the one who heard report first hand...

[certainot]

50. this was NOT a mistake. this was like using ebola in 2014 to get 9 senate seats and katrina to

blame dems and turn state elections. this was not about trying to calm the country and coordination with limbaugh is proof.

the common factor is limbaugh, trump's friend and golf partner and republlican messaging leader. limbaugh would not have called COVID a hoax for the first 2 months if trump white house didn't want it - that set the tone for 1500 radio stations and fox.

this was about using a disaster to win reelection - like in 2014, and katrina

and the russians have been using limbaugh since at least 2008...

limbaugh needs to put under oath and asked about why he called it a hoax for 2 mo straight before having to pivot to "it's exaggerated" "it's being hyped for dem political purposes" etc

[Tommymac]

60. He has had 7 MOMTHS to come forward. I blame Woodward too...

and anyone who has enabled the vicious predator in the White House.

By your reasoning sychopants like McConnell and Linsey are clean as a daisy - well fuck that.

This goes beyond being a journalist...190,000+ have fucking DIED - this is about being a compassionate mature sane UNSELFISH human being and doing all one can to save the next 100,000.

[Dr. Jack]

5. Is it true that Woodword has audio recordings of Trump saying this?

I was reading that Woodword recorded all of his interviews with Trump, so there might be actual audio of Trump saying this.

[mtngirl47]

13. Yes---CNN playing audio right now. n/t

[dhill926]

14. we need the audio recording...

and we need that recording to be part of a huge ad campaign against the asshole. Bury him with this shit...

[Escurumbele]

47. Some of it is in the article on the link

Not a lot, but enough to let people know there is most probably much more.

[Stuart G]

6. He knew and still did nothing..Think about that for awhile.

...If Donald Trump knew, and did nothing, that is proof he is a stupid clown..(apologies to all clowns)..If Donald knew and did nothing, then in my opinion he should be tried for treason. If any sane, dedicated, concerned and loyal person knew, then he or she would have spent as much time as possible trying to
prevent the spread of the dangerous virus. It is obvious that Trump did not care to spend
"as much time as possible" . to prevent the spread of this virus.

...Therefore, Donald Trump did... not care.... about the people in the United States of America.

[lagomorph777]

39. Same is true about Woodward.

[Dream Girl]

54. Woodward is not president.

[lagomorph777]

55. True, and we need to use this weapon now.

Let Woodward face Karma on his own; I won't waste more time on him.

[certainot]

40. this was not incompetence - it was for reelection - the proof that he delayed COVID response

for political purposes was on the radio. limbaugh is closely coordiated with trump and has been since the primaries so when limbaugh called it a hoax he was doing it for trump.

republicans/limbaugh/ used ebola in 2014 as an october surprise to get 9 senate seats is evidence that this delay was possibly sold to trump as an election winner and he is stupid enough to think he could manage it

add to that that the russians have been using limbaugh since 2008 at least

[not fooled]

7. Dimwitted don

Why does he say things like that to someone like Woodward? I guess he didn't think it would come back to hurt him?

Of course it's good that he did, to expose the truth, not that any of his idiot cult members will care.

Oh, and of course statements like this expose him for a stone cold killer.

[Stallion]

9. We Got Him!!!

[beachbumbob]

10. if true, a huge blunder by trump as he could have been a national HERO and chose not to be

out of cowardice

[groundloop]

22. Actually I don't believe he'd have been a hero if he'd have taken appropriate drastic measures .....

We'd have gone into lockdown, mandatory masking, daily press briefings stressing the importance of following guidelines, etc. etc. The country would have had a very small number of cases and the reaction would have been "why did we make such a big fuss out of this?".

Of course President Obama would have gladly taken the heat for doing things the right way. Don-the-Con, not so much.

[beachbumbob]

25. HAD he done it, he would have come out looking like a hero as COVID could be behind us, instead of

the worse is yet to come. Naw this elevates trumps actions to treason level. If he aint acting in best interest of america, who is he acting upon?

[LiberalLovinLug]

34. Bingo

He knew his rabid base would HATE that kind of big gob'mint oversight. And yeah, exactly, He was afraid he'd have been criticized for abusing his authority and knew that his dumb-as-stumps base would come to that conclusion too.

Then once it hit hard, he was too afraid to reverse his public posture on it. That and he LOVED to see all the support for his poo pooing with all the anti-maskers in red caps. Any public adoration of him, no matter what the reason, even if indirectly, he just can't resist. So he doubled down instead.

He appealed to his base, thinking that would shore up his votes. Instead of taking the risk of actually doing the right thing, where he may lose his most ardent base But he's an idiot of course. He could not even fathom that just maybe, maybe, doing the right thing, caring about the lives of those under your watch, might actually help you politically overall. Like most every other leader that took it seriously. New Zealand's PM Jacinda Ardern, who stood out on the world stage with her strident management of the virus, is going to walk away with that election in September. Her poll numbers are through the roof.

[certainot]

44. limbaugh, who has been coordinated with trump since the primaries, was yelling HOAX from the beginni

ing and he is coordinated with his neighbor and golf partner since the primaries and russian trolling

they were going to use it like the ebola october surprise 2014 when they got 9 senate seats and trump was stupid enough he could control it his way. they made this disaster worse on purpose to gain all sorts of disaster benefits and use talk radio to locally coordinate attacks on democrats like Katrina x 100.

[djacq]

11. It's not even October yet.

One thing after another. More to come.

[beachbumbob]

15. is woodward going to release the audio on this If not, its another, oh its trump out of contxt bs

[Stallion]

20. I've Already Heard the March "Playing it Down" Tape

[Hugin]

16. Ultimately, Trump's handlers will play this as a positive...

As in, he didn't want mass hysteria in the face of a deadly pandemic. He was operating in the public's interest.

Just watch, we'll be hearing that from all of the official propaganda outlets before the day is over.

I no longer consider Bob Woodward to be any sort of ally and I haven't for some time.

[lagomorph777]

41. That won't work at all.

What deadly consequence would come from "panic?" Anxiety? As compared to hundreds of thousands dead?

[Locrian]

61. my thoughts exactly...

Not getting my hope us that this will move the needle especially with trump cultists
I've seen how they think that trump cares sooooo much. They'll just rationalize he didn't want a panic.
That Woodward held off so long will also hurt since it will be seen as political calculation based on getting closer to the election.


NOT that this means it shouldn't be 24/7 screaming from all points. The louder the better.

[Hugin]

63. Yeah, the real story here and the story that should be screaming from the scrollers is...

That Trump knew and chose to lie and ignore the danger posed by a novel virus to have a High Dow.

I find myself skeptical Trump even understood the danger. I think that's BS as well. However, there's no way of knowing that unless it were confirmed by a source other than Trump himself or Woodward. So, we'll never know the truth since neither one of them will ever come clean about it.

[Locrian]

67. yes excellent point

and actually the truth. He cared less about the people than the stock market

Whether or not he knew of the seriousness - the end is the same: he just doesn't care

[raccoon]

19. He ought be impeached for that. But even if that happened,

The Republicans in Congress wouldn’t vote to remove him, even if their own parent had died of covid.

[Initech]

21. Life is not a TV show, Trump.

You don't just get to snap your fingers and all of a sudden we're on to next week's wacky adventure. It doesn't work that way. You opened a can of worms that will now be near impossible to contain, tanked the economy, and cost America dearly.

[benfranklin1776]

23. Murdering treasonous bastard. Let it sweep out of control and destroy lives and our country.

He needs his own special ring of hell call it Trump plaza. 😡😡

[George II]

24. Willful negligence - criminally negligent homicide.

[steve2470]

52. precisely nt

[llashram]

27. great admission you good republican you

bobby boy. Just 180,000 deaths too late. It's all about money, this one.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

28. Did he know brown people were more likely to die?

If he was told all that, he must have known who was most vulnerable.

Negligent homicide or mass murderer.

[gibraltar72]

29. Never wanted to control the disease.

only the message.

[crimycarny]

30. White House response is President never lied

“The President never lied to the American public on COVID. The President was expressing calm and his actions reflect that.” (McEnany)

The President openly mocked wearing masks!!! That’s not “playing it down”, that’s openly encouraging people to put their lives at risk!

[raccoon]

64. Good point. Nt

[Deuce]

31. He and the other republicans will just use the idea that he didn't want to cause a panic...

[lagomorph777]

45. Who the fuck cares about a "panic?" How does that stack up against hundreds of thousands dead?

That is not going to cut it. Panic would have been justified and productive.

[Deuce]

57. Some of us best give a "fuck" about this BS excuse he is trying to use...

There are many #Gullibles, i believe that support him, that are sitting on the fence about how he has mismanaged the response to the Virus and could possibly vote against him, but might accept this pathetic justification.
The press secretary has already tried it!

[lagomorph777]

58. No point bothering with the gullibles.

This will act as one more motivator to make sure decent people vote. It might even persuade a few at the margins (likely to vote for Turd) that it's not worth bothering to vote.

[Deuce]

59. Perhaps, but it should be challenged every time it is used. JMO

[ouija]

32. Think about it

He just told that CNN journalist to take his mask off.

[Rebl2]

36. Woodward

Shameful that Woodward didn’t speak out in February after he spoke with trump and was told this information.

[LymphocyteLover]

37. this is evil and he needs to be in jail goddammit

[lagomorph777]

43. Impeach Turd again, for the high crime of mass murder.

[duforsure]

46. So trumps admitting he intentionally mislead the American people

Which caused thousands to die knowing what he was doing all along . He tries to claim he didn't want people to panic, but he intentionally prevented protective equipment and medical supplies from getting to the American people. He's responsible for murdering Americans , and still doing that now. He's preventing financial aid now from getting to the American people, and does not care about the well being of anyone other then himself.

[dalton99a]

48. Donald Trump is a traitor and a mass murderer.

[Stuart G]

69. Thank You for posting todays numbers..6,500,000 Cases about 2% of total population

of United States. U.S. Population about 335,000,000 people...

.About 1 in 50 have got this virus.

6.5 million x 50 = about 330,000,000

[Ohioboy]

49. Doesn't this also blow apart Trump's claim that China hid everything?

Trump changed course from 'it's a hoax, don't worry it' to 'it's real and China hid the danger'. I'm paraphrasing of course, but it's out there on video to hear.

[steve2470]

51. Anyone with a functional conscience now wants him to resign or be impeached and convicted

This is deliberate Presidential malpractice, malfeasance, and practically genocidal.

Only the deadender Trumpers could stay with him now.

Fucker should be in Leavenworth for this. I'd say death penalty but I don't believe in the death penalty. Lingering in prison until death would be better for this asshole.

[ffr]

53. Un-American.

You know who they are by those who say they still support him.

TRAITORS in Cult.

[oasis]

56. #Trump Knew

[calimary]

62. FUCKING GODDAMN BASTARD!

IDIOT! You don't want to cause panic? You do that by LEVELING with people. Telling them the truth. Telling them WHAT we're facing and HOW we're gonna handle it and eventually get the upper hand.

And this jerk doesn't even know how to tell the truth by now.

[marble falls]

65. Y'all got it wrong: he's preparing us for the second wave.

[Blue Owl]

66. Once again, imagine if Obama had done this

The double-standard is beyond the pale...

[DeminPennswoods]

68. Trump did this ON PURPOSE

Never, ever forget that.

He knew and he lied to Americans, ON PURPOSE.

[BootinUp]

70. crucify him, legally, politically of course. nt

[Proximate Centurion]

71. I am Speechless

If you had told me--even FIVE years ago, when Trump was already running--that I would see, within my lifetime, a president actually worse than Richard Motherfucking Nixon, I'd have laughed in your face if you were an acquaintance. Were you a longtime friend of mine, I would have sat you down, looked you in the eye, and told you in a stern (but calm) tone, that you were in need of immediate psychiatric intervention.

But I would've been wrong, thanks to DonnyCorp.

Jesus!

[ck4829]

72. Kick