Trump Now Denies Downplaying Virus

President Trump denied that he had downplayed the threat of the coronavirus, claiming he “up-played” the danger of the disease through his actions, CNBC reports.

The president’s assertion that “in many ways I up-played it in terms of action” came less than a week after the release of audio from an interview with veteran journalist Bob Woodward, in which Trump said of the coronavirus: “I wanted to always play it down … I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.” 

That clip was recorded in mid-March, more than a month after Trump reportedly told Woodward that he understood the virus was “more deadly than even your strenuous flu.”