Trump Admits He Planned to ‘Play Down’ Coronavirus He Confessed Was ‘More Deadly’ Than the Flu

What's the story?

• President Donald Trump told veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward on March 19th that he publicly minimized the danger of the coronavirus:

“I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because i don’t want to create a panic.”

• Audio of the exchange can be found here.

• Trump acknowledged to Woodward in an interview dated February 7 that the virus “goes through air" and is “more deadly than even your strenuous flus."
• The above remarks stand in contrast with public comments Trump made at the time. Three days after the above interview, for instance, Trump said:

"Looks like, by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away. I hope that's true."

• Trump also told Woodward in March of “startling facts” about the COVID-19 virus, including that it's “not just old people" catching it—even though the president claimed as recently as August that young people are “immune” to the virus.
• Trump defended his remarks at a White House event naming potential future Supreme Court nominees:

"The fact is, I'm a cheerleader for this country. I love our country. And I don't want people to be frightened. 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 want to show strength. We want to show strength as a nation."

—Josh Herman