New book reveals Trump knew in early February that Covid-19 was dangerous, highly contagious, and "deadly"

Anderson Cooper 360

CNN

News

3.7 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2020

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bob Woodward’s new book, “Rage,” reveals President Trump admitted in early February he knew just how dangerous, highly contagious, and "deadly" the coronavirus was weeks before there was the first confirmed case in the United States. Then in March, Trump told Woodward “I wanted to always play it down” yet the White House is saying “the President never downplayed the virus.” Dr. Craig Spencer is the Director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and has been on the frontlines of this deadly virus in New York City for months. He joins AC360 to react to Trump’s comments and says “I’m furious because many of those deaths didn’t need to happen if we took the right steps early on and got prepared like we needed to and the President clearly knew we needed to.” Woodward’s book also claims an aide to former Defense Secretary James Mattis heard the President say in a meeting "my f---ing generals are a bunch of p***ies" because they cared more about alliances than trade deals. Retired Lt. Gen. James Clapper served as Director of National Intelligence under President Obama and is a CNN National Security Analyst. He tells Anderson Cooper these comments are “just more stunning reinforcement of the President’s real distain for the military.” Airdate: September 9, 2020 To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Good evening.
0:01.0	We've reported for months about how the president downplayed the coronavirus that it would
0:04.6	disappear that it was under control.
0:06.4	Well, tonight you'll hear confirmation of all that reporting and far more than that.
0:10.7	You'll hear the president admitting he downplayed the virus.
0:13.1	He knew it was far more deadly than he let on and he knew it far earlier than the public.
0:17.6	People say lives have been lost, but they haven't been lost.
0:20.6	They're dead.
0:21.6	190,000 Americans are dead.
0:24.3	And the president lied to us when it really mattered.
0:26.8	One action could have been taken based on the information the president had that would
0:30.3	have saved lives.
0:31.6	And in case you're wondering how many lives the number is simply heartbreaking.
0:36.8	Researchers at Columbia University estimate that instituting social distancing just one
0:40.5	week sooner would have prevented at least 36,000 deaths.
0:45.5	Two weeks sooner could have prevented 84% of all fatalities.
0:51.0	In a moment you'll hear the president's own words taken from many conversations at key
0:54.2	moments over many months with the Washington Post Bob Woodward.
0:57.6	And yes, those conversations were recorded and you'll hear them.
1:00.8	What's more, everything you'll hear him say tonight, he volunteered, including his
1:04.1	warning to Woodward, but not to the public that COVID was transmitted through the air and
1:08.8	for deadlier than the flu.
	...

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