BREAKING: CNN obtains Woodward book and interview tapes; Trump admits misleading public on virus

[Stranger in a strange land]

I'd love to see any of the Trump supporters on here justify this

Well, considering that he did everything early on(January-Feb) like shut the door on china and europe and was in full support of the economic shut down that destroyed our economy(Worst unemployment since the great depression). I'd say he did plenty to help America fight the virus. Lets be honest this pandemic is NO black death or Bubonic plague that probably would have killed 100 million people just in this country alone and it wasn't even another spanish flu which would have killed millions today right here in the united states. We literally destroyed our economy fighting this virus and he didn't want more panic that would have probably killed people in its own right.

Lets be serious. What more should he have done? Kept the economy shut for years? Frankly this would have caused mass starvation and suffering.

Do you know what he did in between putting the travel ban on China and putting the travel ban on Europe? Nothing. The first confirmed case in the U.S. was in early January and the lockdown started in March. The U.S. was hit after Asia & Europe, so he had months to prepare by setting up testing & contact tracing infrastructure. He did nothing. There is absolutely no excuse. The fact that DeBalsio and Pelosi also failed to take the virus seriously does not absolve him. The buck stops at the President's desk. And as Republicans never tire of reminding us, Trump and not Hillary Clinton is president.

On top of that, he repeatedly failed to take the virus seriously, and displayed a lack of leadership and resolve on the issue. He politicized mask-wearing, legitimizing the shreiking Karens who claim that wearing masks violates their constitutional rights or other such nonsense. He referred to the virus as a "hoax" at a rally as late as early March. He retweeted conspiracy theories about the virus and pushed for re-openings that caused the 2nd Wave. Throughout the entire crisis, he has been more concerned with getting reelected than with leading the country or saving American lives. Ironically, had he had an early and forceful reaction to the virus, the stock market would have taken a hit, but he'd be cruising to reelection by a comfortable margin.

[Koharu]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1304042651147284480

Oh. My. God.

[DaleCooper]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1304042651147284480

His defense is to say that Woodward should have released the tapes sooner in order to save lives?

The entire Republican response to this has been pretty incoherent, but really, what can they say? There's no way around those tapes.

[For Trump, everything. For immigrants, the law]

Horrible, but not surprising, and we know how this game ends. Republicans either defend Trump, dodge the question, or employ some BLM/Antifa-style whataboutery, and then "forget all about it" a week later. Trump could directly murder hundreds of thousands of Americans with his bare hands and his supporters would do what they always do and not abandon him.

[Doomer]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1304042651147284480

His defense is to say that Woodward should have released the tapes sooner in order to save lives?

The entire Republican response to this has been pretty incoherent, but really, what can they say? There's no way around those tapes.

What can they say?  They can condemn him.  They can put country above blind religious devotion to a man who couldn’t care less about them or the nation he leads.

[DaleCooper]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1304042651147284480

His defense is to say that Woodward should have released the tapes sooner in order to save lives?

The entire Republican response to this has been pretty incoherent, but really, what can they say? There's no way around those tapes.

What can they say?  They can condemn him.  They can put country above blind religious devotion to a man who couldn’t care less about them or the nation he leads.

Unthinkable.

[Rand]

I want names and recordings, if not, THEN I DON'T CARE

[President Johnson]

Joe Biden should get the transcript from Joe Scarborough on this and use it in the debates:

[beaver2.0]

Why would you tell Bob Woodward any of this stuff?  He's known for taking down a President.  If I were President Woodward is the last person in the world I'd tell these things to.

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

Just saw a pre-roll Youtube "I've always wanted to play it down" ad from Team Biden. 

They work fast. 

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/1303876641228169216

I'm seeing a lot of the Rose Twitter Trump supporters try to defend Trump by deflecting criticism back at Woodward, so I think it's important to reiterate that every single person already knew that COVID was far more deadly than the flu as far back as December of 2019. Every expert, including Trump's own experts at the pressers, knew this and the whole country knew. This being released now instead of six months ago would not have changed anyone's minds about the virus being deadly or not.

He's really not defending Trump. Trump said this on Feb. 7th. There's a lot we could have done if we had acted sooner. I think the bay area had the first general lockdown and that wasn't until March 17th.

He is defending Trump. Just look at how he phrased it, "a president warning that a virus was lethal and airborne." That's not what happened in the tape. Trump wasn't warning anybody, he was admitting that he wanted to pretend that it wasn't lethal and airborne, even though the lethality of COVID-19 was well-known to be significantly more deadly than the flu.

There's a fair discussion to be had about how much blame is on Woodward for choosing not to share this information much earlier, but it's obvious that Sirota is trying to shift blame away from Trump. This is the lefty Trump-supporter M.O.: deflect all criticism towards Trump's opponents or the media while vaguely claiming to dislike Trump but refusing to actually make any substantive criticism of him or his presidency.

It would have been a warning if Woodward had released it long ago. Sirota did call out Trump trying to blame Woodward.

[Progressive Pessimist]

It would be amazing if Woodward brings down another corrupt Republican President, but this time it's in an even dumber way and actually over something even more significant. What the f*** was Trump thinking by doing these interviews? Does he even think at all? As I always say, Trump's hubris is a constant undermining force to his own interests, it's something of a paradox.

Alas, in reality, as bad as this is for completely destroying the credibility of any of Trump and the right's excuses on his administration's handling of the crisis (from "CHINA!" to "what about the flu?") this is just more preaching to the choir. I doubt this changes too many opinions because it isn't really all that new or striking information, it's just a shameless admission of what people like myself, knew all along. Peoples' opinions are set with Trump and, other than Chips (welcome aboard by the way!) I don't think this will affect the election very much. That doesn't mean that this should be shrugged off though. Biden has already seized upon it, and he and the Democrats should continue keeping this fresh in the minds of Americans every day until Trump leaves office, if we are so lucky for that to happen. The fact that it's in audio form does make it significantly more powerful at the very least than if it were another anonymous source. There are some legs to this, don't get me entirely wrong.

Between "losers and suckers" and this, Trump is running out of time before election day to stop f***ing up. I hope he continues with it so that I can transcend my current mortal form from being filled so much with the power of schadenfreude and vindication.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1304042651147284480

My brain needs a sitz bath after reading that...

[Pericles]

Oh my gosh LMAO.
"He made clear to aides that he would participate in the next book, convinced that he could charm and cajole a veteran Washington journalist into seeing his point of view."
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/09/trump-bob-woodward-book-411225

[You are responsible]

So, let me get this straight.... Donald Trump gave an interview to a journalist who by all accounts was about to a write a not so flattering tell-all book about the White House and they let that journalist tape those interviews.


This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from the movie All the President's Men, in which Bob Woodward was played by Robert Redford:

"Forget the myths the media's created about the White House. The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand."

[Landslide Lyndon]

https://twitter.com/swin24/status/1304214844409876482

[GeneralMacArthur]

Trump lied to the country intentionally, went out of his way to encourage unsafe practices and mock science, and as a result got people killed.

It's Bob Woodward's fault, because Woodward didn't publicly shame him into changing course by revealing that Trump was lying.

Is this seriously Trump's argument?

[7,052,770]

Everyone knew that Trump was full of sh**t. I am kinda surprised that he was so self-aware about it. I had chalked it up more to delusional denial and incompetence.

[Wrong about 2024 Ghost]

Trump lied to the country intentionally, went out of his way to encourage unsafe practices and mock science, and as a result got people killed.

It's Bob Woodward's fault, because Woodward didn't publicly shame him into changing course by revealing that Trump was lying.

Is this seriously Trump's argument?

To play Donnie Dumb****'s Advocate, I think what he's saying is that if Woodward knew that Donnie was doing something egregiously wrong, then Woodward had a positive obligation to immediately bring it to the public's attention. And since Woodward didn't immediately expose Donnie Dumb****, therefore everything was above board.

There are a number of garbage truck sized holes in that reasoning. It's like having your murder defense be that since the police didn't immediately cuff you and stuff you in a car when you smugly waltzed by them saying "I'm going to kill someone", you must be innocent. Just never mind the actual body that was discovered later, and ignore the video you made of yourself committing the murder and posted to YouTube from your account named "It Was Me, I Did It".

Of course, getting away with reprehensible and illegal personal conduct through a combination of privilege, pathological lying, and utterly shameless rejection of responsibility or morality is how he's coasted through life so far, so in his shoes it probably does makes a sort of sense.

[Mr. Morden]

Here's why I think, if the tape had come out 6 months ago, it probably wouldn't have made much difference in Trump supporters' behavior:

https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1304395448229212160

[Landslide Lyndon]

Here's why I think, if the tape had come out 6 months ago, it probably wouldn't have made much difference in Trump supporters' behavior:

https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1304395448229212160

A lot of potential Darwin award winners in these Trump rallies.

[GP270watch]

  The fat(1) old(2) guy in the video talking about people only died of Covid when they had other mortalities, yeeesh.

 

[Koharu]

Local Trump supporters are calling this "fake news." When presented with the transcript, they either ignore it or switch to "he was protecting us."

As for why calling this out six months ago would have made a difference, it would have killed the "it's a hoax" weed in its infancy instead of letting it grow and spread as it has. The longer someone has held a belief, the more difficult it is to change. Less spread also means less people even hearing the rumors that it's fake, etc etc. It also would have given those calling Trump out on his lies something easy to point to instead of having to use data that is waved away as "fake news."

[DaleCooper]

Local Trump supporters are calling this "fake news." When presented with the transcript, they either ignore it or switch to "he was protecting us."

As for why calling this out six months ago would have made a difference, it would have killed the "it's a hoax" weed in its infancy instead of letting it grow and spread as it has. The longer someone has held a belief, the more difficult it is to change. Less spread also means less people even hearing the rumors that it's fake, etc etc. It also would have given those calling Trump out on his lies something easy to point to instead of having to use data that is waved away as "fake news."

This absolutely would not have killed the "it's a hoax" conspiracy. We're talking about a portion of the population that probably also believes in nonsense like QAnon as well as the "plandemic".

These people have long since conditioned themselves to believe that Trump is strategically playing the media when he says things they disagree with, hence the "That's his opinion" from the soon-to-die-of-COVID guy at the rally. That's why racists and neonazis don't mind when Trump says things like, "I love hispanics." As dumb as these people are, they're still smart enough to understand that Trump has to put on a face and avoid embracing certain tenets of Trumpism.

[Calthrina950]

Local Trump supporters are calling this "fake news." When presented with the transcript, they either ignore it or switch to "he was protecting us."

As for why calling this out six months ago would have made a difference, it would have killed the "it's a hoax" weed in its infancy instead of letting it grow and spread as it has. The longer someone has held a belief, the more difficult it is to change. Less spread also means less people even hearing the rumors that it's fake, etc etc. It also would have given those calling Trump out on his lies something easy to point to instead of having to use data that is waved away as "fake news."

This absolutely would not have killed the "it's a hoax" conspiracy. We're talking about a portion of the population that probably also believes in nonsense like QAnon as well as the "plandemic".

These people have long since conditioned themselves to believe that Trump is strategically playing the media when he says things they disagree with, hence the "That's his opinion" from the soon-to-die-of-COVID guy at the rally. That's why racists and neonazis don't mind when Trump says things like, "I love hispanics." As dumb as these people are, they're still smart enough to understand that Trump has to put on a face and avoid embracing certain tenets of Trumpism.

And Trump has dogwhistled to these elements of his base from time to time-i.e. his infamous comments that there were "good people on both sides" in Charlottesville. He had nothing but positive things to say about QAnon adherents, and has generally avoided making strong attacks against demagogues and racists of various types. So they know, from these indications that he's provided, from his policy moves on issues like immigration, and from his association with the likes of Stephen Miller and Tom Cotton, among others, that he's on their side, and thus fully support him. Moreover, the RNC's recent "trotting out" of blacks such as Herschel Walker, Tim Scott, Kimberly Klacik, and Vernon Jones has been described by some as a strategy of Trump and the Republicans to uphold ideals of white dominance-a strategy which has been employed throughout American history.

[DaleCooper]

Local Trump supporters are calling this "fake news." When presented with the transcript, they either ignore it or switch to "he was protecting us."

As for why calling this out six months ago would have made a difference, it would have killed the "it's a hoax" weed in its infancy instead of letting it grow and spread as it has. The longer someone has held a belief, the more difficult it is to change. Less spread also means less people even hearing the rumors that it's fake, etc etc. It also would have given those calling Trump out on his lies something easy to point to instead of having to use data that is waved away as "fake news."

This absolutely would not have killed the "it's a hoax" conspiracy. We're talking about a portion of the population that probably also believes in nonsense like QAnon as well as the "plandemic".

These people have long since conditioned themselves to believe that Trump is strategically playing the media when he says things they disagree with, hence the "That's his opinion" from the soon-to-die-of-COVID guy at the rally. That's why racists and neonazis don't mind when Trump says things like, "I love hispanics." As dumb as these people are, they're still smart enough to understand that Trump has to put on a face and avoid embracing certain tenets of Trumpism.

And Trump has dogwhistled to these elements of his base from time to time-i.e. his infamous comments that there were "good people on both sides" in Charlottesville. He had nothing but positive things to say about QAnon adherents, and has generally avoided making strong attacks against demagogues and racists of various types. So they know, from these indications that he's provided, from his policy moves on issues like immigration, and from his association with the likes of Stephen Miller and Tom Cotton, among others, that he's on their side, and thus fully support him. Moreover, the RNC's recent "trotting out" of blacks such as Herschel Walker, Tim Scott, Kimberly Klacik, and Vernon Jones has been described by some as a strategy of Trump and the Republicans to uphold ideals of white dominance-a strategy which has been employed throughout American history.

Yes, exactly! This has been a white-supremacist strategy for a long, long time now. Even in the infamous film, The Birth of a Nation, the white plantation family has the support of former slaves referred to as "The faithful souls" that don't want to be free. It always makes me cringe when conservatives act like having Candace Owens say she's opposed to police reform somehow means that the right wing isn't racist anymore.