Trump heads to big rally in Michigan amid virus, Woodward book fallout

WASHINGTON » Amid a political crisis of his own making, President Donald Trump headed for the support of a rally in battleground Michigan on Thursday, trying to move past revelations that he had been determined to play down the danger of the coronavirus last winter despite describing it in private as “deadly stuff.”

But the virus controversy followed him. Trump faced renewed pushback from officials worried that his rallies are growing in size and flouting public health guidelines intended to halt the COVID-19 spread. This week, the state of Nevada became the first to scuttle his plans for rallies initially set for Las Vegas and Reno. Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has also raised alarms about Thursday’s event.

Before departing the White House, Trump highlighted a surge in virus cases in Europe to contend that the United States is faring well.

“I really do believe we’re rounding the corner,” he asserted.

Trump is grappling with fallout from a new book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward. In a series of interviews with Woodward, the president spoke frankly about the dangers posed by the virus — even as he downplayed them publicly — and admitted he had tried to mislead the public. The book, based on recorded phone interviews, has refocused attention on Trump’s handling of the virus, a subject he has tried to shift away from less than two months before Election Day.

Leading Democrats took up a pointed heme Thursday: “Trump lied and people died.”

But Trump, answering questions at the White House, insisted “there was no lie” in his often-dismissive public comments about the virus in February and March.

He noted that he had limited travel from China, where the virus apparently originated, “so, obviously, outwardly I said it’s a very serious problem . ... That doesn’t mean I’m going to jump up and down in the air and start saying ‘people are going to die, people are going to die.’ No, no, I’m not going to do that. We’re going to get through this.”

In a burst of tweets earlier Thursday, Trump said that if his comments about playing down the danger of the virus were so bad, why didn’t Woodward report them at the time “in an effort to save lives? Didn’t he have an obligation to do so? No, because he knew they were good and proper answers. Calm, no panic!”

Woodward has defended his decision to hold off by saying he needed time to make sure Trump’s private comments were true.

Meanwhile, Trump is resuming an aggressive campaign schedule, despite growing resistance from local leaders who have expressed alarm at his insistence on holding largescale rallies during a pandemic.

While the rallies so far have been held in airport hangars open to the air, they have been drawing thousands of supporters despite local restrictions. And the majority of attendees have refused to wear masks, even when mandates are in place.

Trump has characterized the rallies as “peaceful protests” and White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said attendees were exercising their First Amendment rights.

This week, Nevada pulled the plug on rallies set for this weekend, citing the state’s ban on gatherings of more than 50 people, drawing fury from Trump’s campaign.

In Michigan, Gov. Whitmer did not try to scuttle the rally but warned that such events “threaten all that sacrifice that we’ve made.”