Bob Woodward, writer/reporter, has hours of taped interviews with Donald Trump. These tapes prove Trump knew how deadly COVID-19 was very early on. How can he possibly justify his actions?

Remember that Woodward was silent for seven months. Instead of reporting it, he held the tapes and the information for his book. To what degree should Woodward be held accountable as well?

It’s good when you are a dictator wannabe, you don’t have to justify actions or in-actions.

To quote him “It is what it is” for the United States’ staggering death toll from coronavirus.

@hmmmmm I agree. That has bothered me since I heard about this whole thing.

I agree that Woodward is as culpable, and that should be addressed, but Woodward is not POTUS, and is not the subject of this Q.

Trump claims he didn’t want to start a panic. I think what his followers would take away from that is a “social panic,” but it’s likely that he meant a “panic in the markets.” Trump has completely mismanaged COVID, so I don’t want to give him too much credit, but if I’m completely honest with myself and it had been President Sanders doing the same thing, I would probably want him to hold back the news until the teams were ready to address a major market crash so it didn’t catch them by surprise.

I don’t know if that’s what Trump was doing, or if he was simply trying to make the monster disappear by covering his eyes. There was certainly plenty of that along the way since then. Overall, I don’t think this hurts/helps Trump much politically. His supporters will justify their belief in his action, and his detractors will see it as confirmation of his incompetence.

@gorillapaws Interesting that you mention teams to stave off a financial panic. What about assembling teams of medical experts to manage the pandemic? Shouldn’t any President have done that?

@janbb Financial panic leads to the spread of a disease and chaos. Trump wouldn’t have had to assemble the team of medical experts if he hadn’t “streamlined” the pandemic response team from the NSC in 2018.

@gorillapaws I agree but he did. And I think reassurance that we were in capable medical hands would have helped alleviate the financial panic as well. But both should have been addressed early on.

@janbb Exactly right.

@gorillapaws I agree. Even the WHO in late January said no special travel restrictions or response were needed. By March I was already locked down, so it seems like a pretty quick response to those who actually believe it exists.
Ultimately, it won’t hurt him or help him.

It’s very interesting that the President feels its necessary to lie to the American people to keep them calm. Whatever you think of Roosevelt or Churchill, the fact that they told the truth about war to their people was necessary and reassuring. I am much more reassured by a leader who would tell us this is bad but this is our plan for how to deal with it than one who knows the truth and lies about it.

Hundreds of people have been telling us how dangerous it is. What possible difference could Woodward make?
IMO trump is just back peddling. He doesn’t understand any more about the disease than he did then. He’s just blathering.

It’s also very interesting that that same president told lies designed to whip people into a frenzy and to frighten people.

@Dutchess_III Right and continues to tell lies such as that marauding bands of Blacks and antifa members are flying around the country with “this and that” to destroy your suburb!

In his mind, his justification is that it was what he wanted to do and he’s never wrong. In my mind, it was what he wanted to do and he’s always wrong. November can’t get here fast enough

I wouldn’t say, it justifies Trump’s actions.
I think there are one, of two, reasons why he did what he did.

1. He only cares about the stock market.

2. He had his typical unreasonable belief, in his own power, to stop the spread, through his own abilities.