Well. Dr. Fauci just went on Daily Briefing and basically shredded the Woodward narrative about POTUS “misleading” on COVID. Look at this exchange with John Roberts: pic.twitter.com/ZoIWKS4s28
— Ben Williamson (@_WilliamsonBen) September 9, 2020
Apparently, Bob Woodward didn’t include this in his book. My interview with Fauci on March 23. Fauci: The response of Trump administration has been impressive. I can’t imagine anybody could be doing more.https://t.co/a7eNsvpJHb
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) September 9, 2020
QUESTION: Did you get any sense that President Trump was downplaying the coronavirus.
"No, no, I didn’t. I didn’t get any sense that he was distorting anything." – Dr. Anthony Fauci pic.twitter.com/LXANZOY8P2
— Jon Nicosia (@NewsPolitics) September 9, 2020
Dr. Anthony Fauci disputes quote attributed to him in the Woodward book: “I don’t recall that at all”https://t.co/Oe7EOHBcTM pic.twitter.com/7wddsPGNGK
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 9, 2020
NEW: Fauci tells @johnrobertsFox he doesn’t recall telling Woodward the president’s attention span is -1 and his sole purpose is to get re-elected. Also says POTUS public statements weren’t much different than private Oval Office conversations pic.twitter.com/XZXP41ddqS
— Sean Langille (@SeanLangille) September 9, 2020
by Joel B. Pollak:
Dr. Anthony Fauci defended President Donald Trump from claims Wednesday that he lied about the coronavirus, telling Fox News: “I don’t recall anything that was any gross distortion in things that I spoke to him about.”
On Wednesday, it was revealed that Trump told journalist Bob Woodward that he had downplayed the threat of the coronavirus pandemic to prevent the public from panicking.
Trump admitted on tape to Bob Woodward that he played down the threat of coronavirus. Share this far and wide. #TrumpKnew pic.twitter.com/XAW7TlRzZy
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) September 9, 2020
Trump spoke to Woodward several times, as the latter researched his latest book about the administration, Rage.
The Washington Post went further, saying that Trump had been “intentionally misleading” Americans.
Trump’s rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, made a similar argument on the campaign trail in Michigan on Thursday, telling members of the United Auto Workers that Trump had “lied” about the coronavirus pandemic, calling Trump’s admission “a life and death betrayal of the American people.”
But Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Fox News later: “I don’t think [Trump] ever distorted things that I spoke to him about.”
Referring to Trump’s coronavirus press briefings, Fauci said, “I don’t think he said much different than what we said [to him] when we were in the Oval Office.”
In public statements about the coronavirus pandemic, going all the way back to January, Trump took a very optimistic view — arguably, an overly optimistic one.
But he also frequently mentioned the fact that the virus could pose a risk to the country.
On January 30, 2020, for example, Trump told a rally in Des Moines, Iowa (emphasis added):
Hopefully everything’s going to be great. They have somewhat of a problem, but hopefully it’s all going to be great. But, we’re working with China just so you know, and other countries very, very closely, so it doesn’t get out of hand, but it’s something that we have to be very, very careful with, right? We have to be very careful.
He imposed a travel ban on China the next day.
Several days later, Trump addressed a rally in New Hampshire, in much the same way (emphasis added):
I spoke with president Xi and they’re working very, very hard and I think it’s going to all work out fine. Rough stuff, I tell you. Rough, rough stuff, but I think it’s going to work out good. We only have 11 cases and they’re all getting better.
In his State of the Union address, Trump said (emphasis added):
Protecting Americans’ health also means fighting infectious diseases. We are coordinating with the Chinese government and working closely together on the coronavirus outbreak in China. My administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) tore up the speech.
The question of balancing the need to inform the public and the need to maintain calm is one that policymakers often face when confronting challenges like infectious diseases.
As I recall, when Roosevelt gave accounts of the attack on Pearl Harbor, he “downplayed” the scope of the destruction suffered. Likewise, Trump doesn’t give the American public a totally gloom and doom picture of the approach of the epidemic. Did anyone doubt it was serious? Was anyone unaware a virus was approaching us and we knew little about it, much less how to treat it? I know I wasn’t, but I could tell Trump had put together a crack team that was doing all they could to keep us safe… despite Democrat’s constantly droning on that he was failing. Actually watching his briefings instead of getting my information from the left’s rendition of his briefings (such as him telling people to inject Lysol) gave a far clearer picture.
Yet another left wing tempest in a tea kettle.
@Deplorable Me:
Do you remember when Trump told us that there were only 15-20 people with Covid in the USA ?
I still remember
Do you remember when he said that the virus would go away in April “magically”?
I do
I think both statements were false
Do you think they were correct ?
@John:
John, do you REALLY want to play this game? I don’t think it will turn out the way you want.
If woodward knew in March that the china virus was serious from his interview with President Trump, why did woodward not sound a clarion call?
woodward is complicit in the thousands of deaths from the king flu because he wanted to sell books in September.
@John: Do you also remember when Biden said closing our borders, an act that saved many lives, was racist and that he would not have done what Trump did?
I do.
Monday morning quarterbacks like you are…well…nothing.
Trump was overly optimistic in that statement perhaps, but that’s not the colossal error Leftwing crazies are trying to manufacture it to be.
Covid:
The Democrats were wrong.
The WHO was wrong and lied.
China was incompetent and lied.
Our case mortally is one of the lowest in the world.
No one died due to not having a vent.
Extra bed capacity was given to all, and our hospitals did not get overrun (our goal).
Now that Dems pretend the death-count is somehow a failure…well…compared to what? It’s lower than projections, so…
More Dem/Leftists standing on the backs of the dead to serve their silly gods in the Marxist Dem Party.
@July 4th American: Woodhead is a terrible liar Bernadette Casey Smith, claimed that Woodward “never got the deathbed confession,” according to the Houston Chronicle. In addition, Kevin Shipp, a member of Casey’s security detail, asserted in a self-published memoir that none of the agents standing guard over the Casey allowed Woodward into his hospital room at Georgetown University Hospital, and that in any case the former CIA director was not able to talk at the time Woodward cited. Casey did not wake from a coma then slip back into his coma after confessing.
But Trump had already told Accosta that he did not want a panicked public. So wheres the big scoop? From March 30th, months ago.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/03/30/trump-coronavirus-acosta-question-sot-vpx.cnn
@John: I asked you to provide that “magically” quote. You haven’t. You told me I made a prediction of the number of fatalities; you haven’t provided that. You make lots of definitive claims without being able to back them up. Why is that?