In March, right about when COVID came on the rise, critically acclaimed investigative journalist at The Washington Post, Bob Woodward, conducted a private interview with the President about the virus and how it will affect the country. Although the interview took place months ago, the statements were recently released in Woodward’s latest book, Rage. Trump states in the interview, “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down.” He continues to say, “I do not want to create a panic…this is deadly stuff,” despite claiming that he and his administration have been doing an adequate job controlling the virus to the public. Even after constantly disregarding the country’s leading health organizations like the CDC and the National Health Organization, he can admit the seriousness of COVID when the cameras are turned off.

    Woodward is notorious for “exposing” people of power including one of the most famous presidential scandals, the Watergate scandal, so this was just another notch to go under his belt for outing presidents. Woodward stated at a CNN conference, “Two hundred thousand Americans dying. I think in covering nine presidents, I’ve never seen anything like it,” He continues, “It’s this one man band and he’s going to say and do exactly what he wants, often giving no warning to his closest aides,” This is not his first go-around with Trump either, having written another book about his presidency called Fear: Trump in the White House.

     Trump has continuously, since the start of quarantine, gone back and forth on whether or not he believes in the science behind the virus. Junior Ashley Kang says that Trump and his administration “spew fake news” to their audience and that they “had everything handed to them and yet they still failed to take proper action.” She concludes, “They had to politicize COVID-19.”

       Circling back to the main issue, the President has proved to know of the true dangers of COVID-19, but still has yet to outwardly share that information with his demographic. After denying the credibility of big name scientists and health organizations, his supporters, who tend to be reliant on his words, have taken the virus with a grain of salt. With numbers surpassing 200,000 deaths, Woodward, along with the renowned Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, point the finger at the President for the poor response and spread of inadequate information about COVID-19 to the country.