Donald Trump told Bob Woodward in early February that the coronavirus was dangerous and deadly, but a month and a half later admitted that he minimized its threat because he didn’t want to create a panic, according to excerpts of Woodward’s new book obtained by CNN.
“I wanted to always play it down,” Trump said in a March 19 interview with Woodward. “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”
CNN ran audio from Trump’s interviews with Woodward, part of the basis for the famed investigative journalist’s new book Rage, set to be published on Sept. 15.
In an interview on Feb. 7, Trump told Woodward that the virus was “deadly stuff” and that it was highly contagious. But it was not for more than another month before the White House started to urge social distancing measures and shutdowns.
Woodward will do his first interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday. The show said that he interviewed the president for a total of about nine hours.
In the book, some former top national security officials offer what CNN called “brutal assessments” of his presidency. James Mattis, his former secretary of defense, described him as “dangerous” and “unfit” to be commander in chief.