No smoking gun in Woodward interviews
Columnist Call Thomas disputes the notion that President Trump made damaging admissions about the coronavirus.
On hearing that President Trump sat for 18 interviews with Bob Woodward, my first reaction was “What the...?” Why Woodward?
There can only be two reasons. The first must have been the president thought he could persuade the man to like him. The evidence that Woodward, along with his Watergate partner Carl Bernstein, ever “liked” a Republican president is thin to nonexistent.
The other explanation is Trump views Woodward as a celebrity journalist and the president enjoys the company of famous people. The president now claims Woodward conducted a “political hit job” on him. Why would he have expected anything else?
As to the content of the interviews, Woodward got almost nothing. The president said the reason he initially played down the threat of COVID-19 was to avoid causing panic. In hindsight, he might have made a nationally televised address, warning of the possibility of a pandemic and advising people to prepare with hygienic behavior. He might have likened it to a coming hurricane. It is uncertain how bad a hurricane will be, but precautions are warranted. Predictably, Democrats, led by Joe Biden, are trying to turn the interviews and Woodward’s forthcoming book, “Rage,” to their advantage. The problem for them is they said little or nothing about the coronavirus early on, and many took positions opposite the president’s. They now claim they were ahead of the pandemic curve.
Those with short memories should be reminded that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio urged people on March 11 to eat out and visit movie theaters, just weeks before the city became ground zero for the virus. And Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Chinatown on Feb. 24 and urged people to patronize shops and restaurants.
Biden opposed the president’s order shutting off travel to China. He also has claimed to have “sounded the alarm” about the virus in January, which various fact-checkers have said is not true.
One of Biden’s health advisers, Dr. Zeke Emanuel, said on Jan. 30: “Everyone in America should take a very big breath, slow down, and stop panicking and being hysterical. We are having a little too much histrionics on this. … And people should remember not to panic.”
As the Trump-Pence campaign has noted, Biden held “dozens and dozens of events in January and February” and never mentioned social distancing, personal protective equipment, ventilators, the need for temporary hospitals, or travel restrictions.
It’s one thing to rewrite history; it’s quite another to make it up.
Dr. Anthony Fauci denied allegations by some Democrats that the president distorted his warnings. It was Fauci who initially played down the seriousness of the virus because, as he later explained, he wanted frontline medical workers to acquire protective gear ahead of the public.
I eagerly await the presidential debates and hope Chris Wallace, the host of the first one, will hold Biden accountable for his numerous misstatements, factual errors and memory lapses. And yes, Trump should be asked about his own misstatements, factual errors and memory lapses.
The virus should never have been politicized. As many have noted, it does not discriminate between political parties or candidates. But now that it has become political, it is fair to ask those who wish to maintain, or obtain, power why the public should trust either candidate to deal with it going forward.