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McEnany: Trump 'Never Lied' to the Public on Covid-19
Posted
September 9, 2020
Views
2,335
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38
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51
Engagement
3.81%
September 9, 2020
2,335
38
51
3.81%
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Sep 9, 20200:52Now PlayingWhite House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended President Donald Trump's coronavirus response, saying that Trump "has never lied to the American public on Covid."
She made the remarks on Wednesday during a White House press briefing despite earlier reports that Trump told journalist Bob Woodward that he intentionally downplayed the severity of the coronavirus in public comments to avoid triggering a panic.
“I wanted to always play it down, I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic,” Trump told Woodward, the author and associate editor for the Washington Post, on March 19 in one of a series of interviews for his book, “Rage,” due for publication this month. CNN published audio recordings of excerpts of the conversations on Wednesday.
Trump told Woodward on Feb. 7 that the virus was transmitted through the air -- even as Trump said publicly it was no worse than the seasonal flu and would quickly go away.
“It goes through air, Bob, that’s always tougher than the touch,” he said. “The air, you just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed.”
He also told Woodward it was more deadly “than even your strenuous flus.”
That same day, Trump had tweeted praise for Chinese president Xi Jinping for his handling of the pandemic.
Woodward’s book says Trump was warned by National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien in an Jan. 28 meeting that the virus “will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency,” according to a Washington Post report on the book.
“This is going to be the roughest thing you face,” O’Brien said, according to Woodward, who wrote that Trump’s head popped up at the dire warning. Trump told Woodward in May that he didn’t remember being told that.
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