On Wednesday, a taped interview by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward with President Donald Trump blew the lid off the Trump administration’s incompetent handling of the COVID-19 crisis. On February 7, 2020, Trump told Woodward that the virus was “deadly stuff,” far worse than even the most “strenuous flu,” and that new information coming in about the virus was “stunning.”
Three days later, on January 10, Trump said at a conference with the nation’s governors that “a lot of people think that (virus} goes away in April with the heat — as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April. We’re in great shape though. We have 12 cases — 11 cases, and many of them are in good shape now.”
Trump knew it was worse than the flu.
Trump knew coronavirus was deadly. #TrumpKnew and he did nothing. pic.twitter.com/rWKzj5Ti1i
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) September 9, 2020
The Lincoln Project was quick to hit Trump with a new political attack ad, calling out the president’s failure to respond to the virus. They point out a few of the outright lies Trump told to the American people while Americans died, but there are examples all throughout the spread of the pandemic.
Trump told Woodward on February 7 that the virus was expected to have up to a five percent death rate. On March 4, 2020 when confronted with WHO data in an interview on Fox News, Trump said that they were inflating the death rate, saying “I think the 3.4% is really a false number.”
Trump told Woodward on February 7 that the virus was much deadlier than even the “most strenuous flu.” On March 10, 2020, Trump tweeted “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!” On March 24, 2020, Trump said “we lose thousands and thousands of people each year to the flu. We don’t shut the country down.”
Trump told Woodward that the data on how the virus was affecting young people was “stunning,” and that “it’s not just old, older people, Bob.” On August 4, 2020, Trump said that “young people are almost immune to this disease.”
What Trump knew and what he said were two different things.
Twitter was quick to respond to the new ad by The Lincoln Project. Read some of their comments below:
