New book reveals Trump knew in early February that Covid-19 was dangerous, highly contagious, and "deadly"

Bob Woodward’s new book, “Rage,” reveals President Trump admitted in early February he knew just how dangerous, highly contagious, and "deadly" the coronavirus was weeks before there was the first confirmed case in the United States. Then in March, Trump told Woodward “I wanted to always play it down” yet the White House is saying “the President never downplayed the virus.” Dr. Craig Spencer is the Director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and has been on the frontlines of this deadly virus in New York City for months. He joins AC360 to react to Trump’s comments and says “I’m furious because many of those deaths didn’t need to happen if we took the right steps early on and got prepared like we needed to and the President clearly knew we needed to.”  Woodward’s book also claims an aide to former Defense Secretary James Mattis heard the President say in a meeting "my f---ing generals are a bunch of p***ies" because they cared more about alliances than trade deals. Retired Lt. Gen. James Clapper served as Director of National Intelligence under President Obama and is a CNN National Security Analyst. He tells Anderson Cooper these comments are “just more stunning reinforcement of the President’s real distain for the military.”

Airdate: September 9, 2020

To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices