{"slug":"trump-covid-downplaying-woodward-tapes","title":"COVID-19 Downplaying: Woodward Tapes Reveal Trump Knew and Lied","date":"2020-02-07","lastUpdated":"2020-09-09","description":"In February 2020, Donald Trump told journalist Bob Woodward that COVID-19 was 'deadly stuff' — five times more deadly than the flu — while simultaneously telling the public there was nothing to worry about. The Woodward recordings, released in September 2020, documented Trump explicitly stating he had deliberately downplayed the virus to avoid panic. The United States went on to record over 500,000 deaths by early 2021, the worst toll of any nation.","summary":"Trump told Woodward on February 7, 2020 that COVID-19 was 'deadly stuff' and acknowledged it was much more dangerous than the flu. On the same days he was giving Woodward these assessments, Trump was telling the public the virus was 'like the flu' and 'will disappear.' On March 19, 2020, Trump told Woodward: 'I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don't like to panic people.' The Woodward recordings also captured Trump describing COVID's airborne transmission weeks before public health officials acknowledged it. The U.S. death toll reached 200,000 by September 2020 when the recordings were published.","category":"rule-of-law","severity":"critical","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bob-woodward-rage-book-trump/2020/09/09/0368fe3c-efd2-11ea-b4bc-3a2098fc73d4_story.html","title":"Trump acknowledged coronavirus was 'deadly stuff' while telling public it was like the flu, Woodward book reveals","publisher":"The Washington Post"},{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/09/us/politics/woodward-trump-book-rage.html","title":"Trump Said He 'Played It Down' on Coronavirus, Woodward Book Reveals","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://apnews.com/article/woodward-trump-downplayed-coronavirus-tapes","title":"Tapes: Trump knew COVID-19 was 'deadly stuff' but downplayed it","publisher":"The Associated Press"},{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/03/08/us/us-covid-timeline.html","title":"A Year of Grief, Loss and Resilience: The U.S. Covid Timeline","publisher":"The New York Times"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["covid","woodward","public-health","first-term","pandemic","misinformation"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"2020-01-22","title":"Trump: 'We have it totally under control'","summary":"Trump tells CNBC the one case in the U.S. is 'totally under control' and 'It's going to be just fine.' WHO had declared a public health emergency of international concern the previous day."},{"date":"2020-02-07","title":"Trump tells Woodward COVID is 'deadly stuff'","summary":"Trump tells journalist Bob Woodward that COVID is 'deadly stuff' and more dangerous than the flu. He also describes its airborne transmission. Publicly, Trump says the virus is under control."},{"date":"2020-02-26","title":"Trump: 'It's going to disappear'","summary":"Trump holds a press conference predicting the virus 'within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.' The U.S. will record its first COVID deaths three days later."},{"date":"2020-03-19","title":"Trump tells Woodward he 'plays it down'","summary":"Trump tells Woodward: 'I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don't like to panic people.' The U.S. will soon begin nationwide lockdowns."},{"date":"2020-09-09","title":"Woodward tapes published in 'Rage'","summary":"Bob Woodward publishes 'Rage,' including recordings of Trump acknowledging the danger of COVID while publicly minimizing it. Trump's public response is that he was 'being a good leader' by not panicking people."},{"date":"2021-01-19","title":"400,000 U.S. COVID deaths — Trump's last full day in office","summary":"The United States records its 400,000th COVID death on Trump's last full day in office — the highest national death toll in the world. Trump does not publicly acknowledge the milestone."}],"location":{"name":"Washington, D.C.","lat":38.9072,"lng":-77.0369},"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"reported","warCrimeClassification":"enabling","internationalLaw":[],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"Hundreds of thousands of Americans who died of COVID-19; millions who became seriously ill; public health response undermined by weeks of official minimization during critical early period","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"President; acknowledged to journalist he was deliberately minimizing the threat while publicly downplaying it","institution":"White House"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2020-09-09","summary":"Documented from Woodward tapes publication."}]}}