President Donald Trump, in a Wednesday night interview, defended comments he made earlier this year about the CCP virus pandemic during interviews with reporter Bob Woodward, saying that he wanted to “show a calmness” in the face of nationwide adversity.
“Im the leader of the country. I cant be jumping up and down and scaring people,” Trump told Sean Hannity of Fox news. “I dont want to scare people. I want people not to panic, and thats exactly what I did.”
Portions of Woodwards upcoming book, “Rage,” were published by the Washington Post on Wednesday. “I still like playing it down, because I dont want to create a panic,” Trump told Woodward in February, according to audio excerpts, which is similar to remarks he gave in public around the same time.
Trump said on Wednesday that Woodward, of Watergate fame, published a hit-piece against him.
“He does hit jobs with everybody, he even did it on [former President Barack] Obama … constant hit jobs. On [George W.] Bush, I guess, they did three books, they were all terrible,” Trump told Hannity.
The president then explained why he sat down to be interviewed by Woodward.
“So I figured, you know, Lets give it a little shot, Ill speak to him. It wasnt a big deal, I speak to him and lets see. I dont know if the book is good or bad, I have no idea. I probably, almost definitely wont read it because I dont have time to read it. But I gave it a little bit of a shot, sounds like its not going to be good,” he said.
In the interview, Trump again defended how he directed the federal government to respond to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, namely in how he limited flights from the United States to China in January. Some Democratic politicians, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and nominee Joe Biden, said the travel ban was engaging in “hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering.”
“If you look at the representatives of Joe Biden, you see what they were saying. They were saying no problem, this wont be a problem,'” Trump said Wednesday. “He didnt think it was going to be a problem until months later. He was way late.”
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