President Trump Denies Lying About Coronavirus Severity

Donald Trump said that he didn’t lie about the severity of the coronavirus at the beginning of the pandemic, denying the audios that stated he intentionally downplayed the virus’ potential impact. 

This week an audio clip emerged on the internet where Trump admitted he was trying to downplay the dangerous threat to calm people and avoid panicking in an interview with Bob Woodward back in March. Now, when talking to the American public, he insisted “I didn’t lie” and explained: “What I said is we have to be calm. We can’t be panicked,”. 

The president was asked why he kept saying that COVID-19 was like any other flu on February when he knows it wasn’t and after trying to avoid the question that ended up answering: “What I went out and said is very simple: I want to show a level of confidence, strength as a leader,”. Minutes after he added: “This is stuff that everyone knew. People knew it was airborne. Everyone knew it was airborne,” he said, adding “I assumed it early on.” although at first, some authorities assured there was no evidence the virus was able to be transmitted through the air. 

To conclude the topic, he confirmed talking to Woodward because he respects him but assured he doesn’t know his work and he is not interested in knowing it.