Trump backtracks from admission of 'playing down' COVID-19 in US in most typical fashion

US President Donald Trump has acknowledged downplaying the dangers of the deadly Coronavirus as he did not want to create panic, according to a new book by a renowned US investigative journalist. “I wanted to always play it down,” Trump told author Bob Woodward on March 19, days after he declared a national emergency. “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic,” he said.

'It never ends!'

However, reacting to it on Wednesday, Trump slammed the 'fake news' campaign against him and listed them on Twitter. The book by Bob Woodward was also mentioned by Trump and he called it "boring". "For years Fake stories and investigations, then the phony Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX, next Ukraine and the failed Impeachment, now the crummy Atlantic Magazine’s MADE UP STORY, and lastly, the political hit job by rapidly fading Bob Woodward and his boring book. It never ends!," Trump said.

Excerpts of the book and clippings of the interviews with Trump were released by Woodward to some media outlets on Wednesday. It is scheduled to hit the stores on September 15, less than two months before the November 3 presidential elections.

'Don't worry about it, Bob. OK?

In another interview on February 7, the audio clip of which was posted by 'The Washington Post', Trump told the journalist that the Coronavirus was deadlier than the flu and could be transmitted through the air. "That's always tougher than the touch. You don't have to touch things. Right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that's how it's passed," he said. "It's also more deadly than even your strenuous flus."

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As per the book, Trump insists to Woodward he would triumph over the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic calamity. "Don't worry about it, Bob. OK?" Trump told the author in July. "Don't worry about it. We'll get to do another book. You'll find I was right." Woodward conducted 18 interviews with Trump for the book.

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Trump further told Woodward that the virus was not "his fault" and that China was responsible for it. "The virus has nothing to do with me. It's not my fault. It's -- China let the damn virus out," as per CNN quoting Trump in his interaction with the journalist. The US has a total of 6,350,475 COVID-19 cases and 190,447 deaths due to the coronavirus, as per the latest update by Johns Hopkins University.

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(With agency inputs)