The recordings from Bob Woodward's interview with US President Donald Trump have sent shockwaves across Washington and the nation. While the White House is struggling to find ways to bury the controversy Trump has gotten himself in with the shocking revelations made during his candid interview with the Pulitzer winning journalist, the President is not shamefaced by his words or his actions.
Clearly, the White House wasn't expecting the excerpts from Woodward's upcoming book, Rage, to be dropped this early. But the Republican party is taking a defensive stand backing the president. Now, Trump has come forward with a statement in response to the recordings that proved the president was aware of the threat nation was up against in the face of COVID-19. Not just that, the tapes revealed that Trump downplayed the threat despite knowing its deadly nature long before the first confirmed death due to coronavirus was reported in the country.
Taking a firm stand, the President is not denying his words nor is he doubtful that there could be a better outcome had he done things differently.
"I don't want to create panic, as you say, and certainly I'm not going to drive this country or the world into a frenzy. We want to show confidence. We can to show strength," Trump said.
"The job we've done has been incredible. But we don't want to instill panic. We don't want to jump up and down and start shouting that we have a problem that is a tremendous problem, scare everybody," he added.
"An incredible job"
Further adding to his point, Trump said the precautions taken by his administration were timely and the tally would be much higher had he not shut the borders and declared a national emergency when he did.
"If we didn't close the country, we would have been talking about millions of people instead of the numbers that we have right now," Trump exclaimed.
The United States is the worst hit country by coronavirus. A total of 6.35 million cases have been reported in the country so far and over 190,000 deaths have been confirmed. Researchers at Columbia University had believed if Americans had started social distancing just a week earlier than they did, at least 36,000 lives could be saved. Taking this into account, Trump knew about the the virus and its deadly nature for much longer.
