Tapes of Trump’s conversations released

Dr. Thomas Frieden

The former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Thomas Frieden, said the Trump administration has “failed” in its response, or lack of one, to the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Frieden said there is a clear and proven means of communication in a health emergency.

“The first be right, be credible, be empathetic, give people practical, useful things to do,” Frieden said.

“If you think about those five things, none of them have been done, not first, not right, not credible, not empathetic and not giving people things to do,” he said. 

“What that means is we didn’t start wearing masks when we should have. We didn’t take it seriously, we didn’t shut down soon enough in some places and other places we shut down too soon, too long.” 

Frieden’s comments follow revelations in a new book by investigative journalist Bob Woodward and recordings from his interviews with Trump that show the President intentionally downplayed the deadly threat from coronavirus early in the pandemic.

Frieden said the revelations could hurt the country’s effort in getting people immunized when a Covid-19 vaccine becomes available.

“What are people going to think when people talk about the vaccine?” he asked. “We have to be able to trust or we can’t control the pandemic,” he added.

“And for epidemics, those key principles of being honest and telling people what you know when you know it, that’s essential, not just for talking points — that’s essential for what people do to stop the spread of a deadly virus.” 

Former Defense Secretary William Cohen said Wednesday that President Trump was “unfit to serve as commander-in-chief,” following new revelations of disparaging comments Trump said about US generals in Bob Woodward’s new book “Rage.”

“He is seeking to divide our soldiers, sailors, marines, coast guardsmen from the commanding officers, and to say that they are only kind of middle men or war merchants, I think is an absolute criminal activity to indict our highest most effective leaders in the world, our military,” Cohen told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. 

In Woodward’s book, there is an anecdote where an aide to former Defense Secretary James Mattis heard Trump say in a meeting, “my f—ing generals are a bunch of p—ies” because they cared more about alliances than trade deals.

Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Wesley Clark joined Cohen in discussing Trump’s disparaging comments, saying Trump “clearly doesn’t understand the value of the alliances.”

Watch the interview:

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens to President Donald Trump speak during a coronavirus task briefing on April 7 in Washington, DC.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke with Fox News on Wednesday about Bob Woodward’s book, which claims that President Trump knew how serious Covid-19 was but wanted to downplay it because he didn’t want to create a panic. 

“I didn’t get any sense that he was distorting anything,” Fauci said.

“In my discussions, and the discussions of other (White House coronavirus) task force members with the President, we’re talking about the reality of what was going on. And then when we would get up in front of the press conferences – which were very, very common after our discussions with the President – he really didn’t say anything different than what we discussed when we were with him,” he said. 

Fauci said he “didn’t really see any discrepancies between what he told us, and what we told him, and what he ultimately came out publicly and said.” 

“In my discussions with him, they were always straightforward about the concerns that we had, we related that to him, and when he would go out I’d hear him discussing the same sort of things. He would often say ‘we just got through with a briefing with the group from the task force’ and would talk about it,” Fauci said.

One question raised in the recordings was how much the President knew about the threat of the virus in February.

Fauci said that he was comfortable with the way information from the task force meetings was delivered to the public, but to “remember I’m a small frame in the big picture of what goes on.” 

Sen. John Kennedy speaks with CNN on Wednesday, September 9.

Republican Sen. John Kennedy rejected the bombshell revelations in Bob Woodward’s new book on Wednesday, repeatedly saying these “gotcha books don’t interest me that much.”

When pressed by CNN’s Pamela Brown about the books revelations that President Trump actively downplayed how deadly Covid-19 was despite knowing how dangerous the virus was early on, Kennedy said the President’s on-the-record comments, which are backed up by audio recordings, do not comport with his personal experience with Trump’s handling of the pandemic.

Kennedy went on to say that even if Trump made the comments, which he did, his actions speak louder than words.

“To be is to act — you learn pretty quickly not to judge people up here by what they say, you have to judge them by what they do,” he continued. “All I can tell you, Pamela, is what my experience has been and that this administration has been very responsive early on.”

Kennedy also defended Trump’s March 19, comments in which he told Woodward that he had played down the virus because he didn’t want Americans to panic.

“I don’t think any of us want the American people to panic,” Kennedy told Brown.

“I wanted to always play it down,” Trump told Woodward at the time, even as he had declared a national emergency over the virus days earlier. “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”

Watch the interview:

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy speaks with CNN on Wednesday, September 9.

Early knowledge that the novel coronavirus “goes through the air” – as said on tape by President Trump in February – would have meant “a whole different world for us,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy told CNN on Wednesday.

Murphy was reacting to audio tape of Trump discussing coronavirus with veteran journalist Bob Woodward.

“If we had known this was transmittable, airborne, at an earlier date – and it sounds like they knew that somewhere in February – the actions that we ultimately took… and as I say, we were at the front end of any American state, we would have taken that much earlier,” Murphy said. “And it’s inconceivable to me that we wouldn’t have been able to save lives as a result of that.”

Murphy said the state would have required masks, instituted a stay-at-home-order, and otherwise shut the state down earlier, had it been known that the virus spread by air.

Watch the interview:

People cheer as President Donald Trump speaks at a rally at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum on February 19 in Phoenix.

According to audio recordings from some of veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s interviews with President Trump for his new book “Rage,” Trump went into detail on Feb. 7 with Woodward about how airborne coronavirus was.

He told Woodward, “It goes through air, Bob. That’s always tougher than the touch. You know, the touch, you don’t have to touch things. Right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed. And so, that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one.”

Despite that, he continued to hold six more rallies with thousands of people in indoor venues with no masks or warnings. 

He held one Feb. 10 in Manchester. Another Feb. 19 in Arizona. Colorado Springs on Feb. 20. Feb. 21 in Las Vegas. Feb. 28 in Charleston. And March 2 in Charlotte. 

President Trump responded to recordings that show he downplayed the coronavirus pandemic, saying he wanted to show strength and didn’t want to “create panic.”

According to an audio recording from veteran journalist Bob Woodward, Trump said he “wanted to always play it down” and that he knew the virus was airborne and deadly since February.

“The job we’ve done has been incredible. But we don’t want to instill panic. We don’t want to jump up and down and start shouting that we have a problem that is a tremendous problem, scare everybody,” he added.

When asked if lives would have been saved if he had been more upfront about the dangers of the virus, the President touted the administration’s efforts, saying “I think we’ve done from every standpoint an incredible job.”

“If we didn’t close the country, we would have been talking about millions of people instead of the numbers that we have right now,” Trump said.

Watch Trump’s response:

White House officials were unaware that excerpts of Bob Woodward’s book would be published as soon as today.

They thought they could come out closer to Tuesday, when “Rage” will officially be released. White House officials also do not have a copy, so they do not know what else is in it, according to a source. 

Carl Bernstein, the journalist who broke the Watergate scandal with Bob Woodward, said new reporting that shows President Trump saying that he knew the coronavirus was deadly and that he “always wanted to play it down” is “one of the great presidential felonies of all time.”

Bernstein said through his handling of the pandemic, the President minimized the interest of the county, adding the President should have addressed the country with the information about the severity of the virus when he found out about it in February.

“What you hear time and time again is the President forgetting about the national interest, selling out the national interest, minimizing the national interest, and putting in his own interest, that of his family, that of his own finances,” he said.

“That is the text of this book, not a subtext. It’s the text of those tapes – undermining our well-being deliberately for his own ends. It is stunning and as I say, a presidential felony unlike any we’ve known of in our history,” Bernstein added.

Bernstein said that if Republican leaders try to contradict the tapes, “they too are responsible for what has happened here.”

“This is a kind of homicidal negligence. Thousands and thousands and thousands of people have lost their lives because the President put his own re-election interest,” he said.

Watch the interview:

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, director of Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at The George Washington University Hospital, slammed President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic following revelations from Bob Woodward’s new book, “Rage,” that Trump had concealed the true threat posed by Covid-19.

Reiner added that the President should resign. He said that Trump continues to encourage behaviors that put people in danger.

“Until this day the President still tacitly encourages his supporters not to wear a mask. But he’s known since January that this is a respiratory pathogen. He’s place his interest ahead of the county’s,” he said.

Reiner said that the current death toll from the pandemic is because of Trump’s leadership.

“The deaths of tens of thousands of Americans are on this man’s hands,” he said.

Watch the interview:

CNN today obtained audio recordings from some of Bob Woodward’s interviews with President Trump for his new book “Rage.” There are startling revelations in the tapes about Trump’s response to coronavirus among other topics.

The book will officially be released on Sept. 15, but here’s what we know so far about the tapes and the book:

There was no discussion at today’s Senate Republican lunch about what President Trump said to veteran journalist Bob Woodward, according to two sources at the lunch. 

Some GOP senators entering the lunch dismissed questions on excerpts of Woodward’s new book, saying they haven’t seen it.

Earlier today, several top Republicans defended Trump after revelations that he told Woodward that he intentionally downplayed coronavirus in order to avoid creating a panic.

Speaking at a campaign event in Michigan, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden reacted to the revelations in Bob Woodward’s book, saying that President Trump “willingly lied” and called Trump’s response to Covid-19 “a life-and-death betrayal of the American people.”

Biden said Trump’s comments to Woodward in early February show he “knew how deadly” the virus was.

“It was much more deadly than the flu. He knew and purposely played it down. Worse, he lied to the American people,” he added.

US Sen. Mitt Romney arrives at the weekly Senate Republican policy luncheon at Hart Senate Office Building Wednesday, September 9, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney responded to veteran journalist Bob Woodward reporting that Gen. Jim Mattis said President Trump has “no moral compass,” saying that while he hasn’t seen the comments, “I have great deal of confidence in General Mattis. I think he’s a fine man with great character.” 

In response to Trump knowing of the coronavirus threat earlier and downplaying the severity of the virus publicly, Romney replied: “It doesn’t sound ideal to me”

According to a March 19 tape from Woodward, Trump said, “I wanted to always play it down.” This came even as he had declared a national emergency over the virus days earlier.

“I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic,” Trump said, according to the tape.

A source close to the Trump campaign says many are shocked by the President’s comments so early about how deadly the coronavirus is, noting that the President kept that information from his own campaign.

More on this: According to journalist Bob Woodward in his new book “Rage,” Trump admitted he knew weeks before the first confirmed US coronavirus death that the virus was dangerous, airborne, highly contagious and “more deadly than even your strenuous flus,” and that he repeatedly played it down publicly.

Several top Republicans defended President Donald Trump after revelations that he told Bob Woodward that he intentionally downplayed coronavirus in order to avoid creating a panic and gave the public a rosy assessment despite what he knew privately.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a vulnerable Republican who is up for reelection, said he wants to see “the full context” of Trump’s comments before fully weighing in. But he added: “When you’re in a crisis situation, you have to inform people for their public health but you also don’t want to create hysteria.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican also up for reelection, pointed to Feb. 29 comments that Dr. Anthony Fauci made on the “Today” show where he said that there was “no need” for people to change their lifestyles “at this moment,” though Fauci also warned about the threat of “community spread” from the coronavirus and cautioned that the risk level “could change.”

“I think it became clear that the human transmission was greater than originally thought,” Graham told CNN.

“So when the President shutdown the economy in March I think that was a bold decision because he took the hottest economy in decades and shut it down. I think that was the decision of consequence, shutting the economy down.” (The White House left the decisions to states to decide whether to shut down their economies.)

Graham added: “I don’t think he needs to go on TV and screaming we’re all going to die.” 

Asked again if he was OK with Trump admitting that he played down the threat, Graham said: “His actions of shutting the economy down were the right actions. I think the tone during that time sort of spoke for itself. People knew it was serious”

Other Republicans had similar refrains.

“I’d argued since day one that we put this in proper perspective: I have not been in favor of these overall shutdowns, have been devastating to the economy, devastating to people’s health in other ways,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told me, when asked about Trump’s comments to Woodward.

Johnson added: “It’s been a difficult thing to manage, and I’ve tried not to be critical of any government officials having to make really tough decisions with imperfect information, that includes governors and the President. So I understand what he’s saying. I don’t think it’s an illegitimate point to make.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday responded to President Trump’s comments that he wanted to play down the coronavirus pandemic during an interview with Bob Woodward for his forthcoming book earlier this year.

“I wanted to always play it down,” Trump told Woodward on March 19, even as he had declared a national emergency over the virus days earlier. “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”

During an interview with MSNBC, Pelosi said Trump should face the reality of coronavirus. 

“The way to avoid a panic is to show leadership — to say, ‘This is what the challenge is, we’re going to use scientific evidence that is available to us to contain it, we are going to make sure that we can stop the spread of it.’ That is what stops a panic, not ignoring it,” Pelosi said.

She argued that Trump’s remarks show “his weakness.”

She said she doesn’t understand why there hasn’t been “some kind of intervention” by those who work with Trump or his family members “to say something is very wrong here.”

On top of the 18 wide-ranging interviews President Trump gave journalist Bob Woodward from Dec. 5, 2019 to July 21, 2020, Woodward conducted hundreds of hours of confidential background interviews with firsthand witnesses for his new book “Rage.”

The book contains harsh evaluations of the President’s leadership on the virus from current officials.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the administration’s top infectious disease expert, is quoted telling others Trump’s leadership was “rudderless” and that his “attention span is like a minus number.”

Several Republican senators entering the GOP lunch today have dismissed questions on excerpts of Bob Woodward’s new book saying they haven’t seen it.

“Haven’t seen the book,” Sen. Ted Cruz replied to reporters. Sen. John Kennedy added, “I haven’t read it.”

“I’ve not read it,” Sen. Rick Scott also said.

Scott added that, “I do believe that the federal level, state level and local level, they could have done at putting out more information, even today.”

Just moments after audio tapes from journalist Bob Woodward’s new book were released, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump has “never lied” to Americans about the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the tapes, Trump on March 19 said, “I wanted to always play it down.” This came even as he had declared a national emergency over the virus days earlier. “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic,” Trump said on the tapes.

“The President has never lied to the American public on Covid,” McEnany said. “The President was expressing calm and his actions reflect that.”

Later in the briefing, McEnany said “The President never down played the virus” directly contradicting the President’s own words.

“The President never down played the virus. Once again, the President expressed calm. The President was serious about this when Democrats were pursuing their sham impeachment. He was expressing calm and he was taking early action and his actions are reflective of how seriously he took Covid,” McEnany said.

Trump told Woodward on March 19: “I wanted to always play it down.”

CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Jason Hoffman contributed to this report.

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