New Audio: While Trump Defended Sharing ‘Fire Fauci’ Tweet, He Told Woodward Virus ‘Is the Plague’
Late Monday night, new damning audio was released of the president sharing what he actually thought about the dangers of the coronavirus to Bob Woodward, while at the same time Trump was sharing tweets that called for the firing of Anthony Fauci.
On April 13, according to new tapes from both CNN and from Woodward’s appearance on CBS’ late-night show with Stephen Colbert, Trump told the journalist and author of the soon to be released bombshell book Rage that the virus is a “killer” and called it “the plague.”
Trump told Woodward that the virus was “easily transmissible” and relayed a story about how a sneeze during an Oval Office meeting in the White House cleared the room.
“Bob, it’s so easily transmissible, you wouldn’t even believe it,” Trump said. “I mean, you could be in the room… I was in the White House a couple of days ago, meeting with 10 people in the Oval Office and a guy sneezed, innocently. Not a horrible — just a sneeze. The entire room bailed out, OK? Including me, by the way.”
In a telling sign of just how bad Trump was mishandling the pandemic publicly, on the same day of the recordings, Trump defended himself during a press conference, justifying retweeting one of his supporters who was asking for Anthony Fauci to be fired.
April 13: Trump defends sharing "time to fire Fauci" tweet
April 13: Trump tells Woodward virus “is a killer… It is the plague”
April 13: “It’s so easily transmissible, you wouldn’t even believe it…In the Oval Office a guy sneezed. The entire room bailed out, including me” pic.twitter.com/P1El74A2iX
— Peter Wade (@brooklynmutt) September 15, 2020
This is likely not the final audio we will hear from the Woodward tapes, as the journalist continues to do interviews to promote his book. And with those, pushback from the president is also inevitable, even if it’s to just sow doubt. According to Woodward, he and Trump spoke for the last time on August 14th. In that conversation, Woodward told the president that the book would be “tough,” and Trump took to Twitter that same day and bashed the book he had not read, calling it “fake.”
…The Bob Woodward book will be a FAKE, as always, just as many of the others have been. But, believe it or not, lately I’ve been getting lots of GREAT books!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2020