'I was dumbfounded': Bob Woodward reveals when Trump officials exposed his pandemic lies
The following article is based on an interview that was replayed on MSNBC after its initial airing.
Legendary Watergate reporter Bob Woodward opened up further about the "Trump Tapes" on MSNBC Friday with anchor Ari Melber, specifically documenting how he discovered Trump was lying to the public about the hazards posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We've spoken about this. Now we're sharing it with viewers," said Melber. "What do you think this all shows?"
"It shows a negligence to a national security problem for the country, a national health problem," said Woodward. "And it turns out in the reporting — and this is on tape — that Trump National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien and his deputy, Matt Pottinger, went to Trump in early January — that's the year that Trump is running for re-election — and O'Brien tells Trump, the coming virus will be the biggest threat, be the biggest national security threat to your presidency. Now, I've covered 16 national security advisers going back to Henry Kissinger and never heard that stark, dramatic warning that O'Brien gave. His deputy, Matt Pottinger, an expert on China, had been there seven years as a Wall Street Journal reporter, told the president, I have contacts in the medical underground that tell me in China that this is going to come in a way that there will be 650,000 deaths. A wake-up call."
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Upon learning this, said Woodward, "Trump ... spent months and months saying, oh, no, it's going to go away. So six months later, this is the moment you capture here where he says, oh, we've got it under control. and you can hear this in his own voice. And I say to him, under control? 140,000 people have died in this country since the virus, since it came. That's six months of no action."
"Was it clear from your access to him and those conversations at the time that he had absorbed some of these warnings?" asked Melber. "That he did know it was going to be that bad?"
"Well, it took me months to learn about the warnings from his national security advisers," said Woodward. "When I learned about it, I was dumbfounded. And we were in the middle of the crisis. And he still was not acting. This idea of, we have it under control, it was never under control. It intentionally was never under control. And the problem with Trump is, I think he looks at democracy as enemy territory, to be quite frank. Because that's the people. And he always wants it to be about him. And you listen to eight hours, and it's all about, oh, no, no, no, everything is fine, I know what I'm doing. And when you lay it all out, he did not know what he was doing, and he didn't care."
Watch the video below or at the link.
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