US: The White House Has Just Denies Trump Downplayed Covid-19 Even Though He Admits It on Tape and Vedio

     They  always play (coronavirus) down. I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic," Donald Trump admitted to journalist Bob Woodward in a March 19 interview that was taped.

    Even Despite that admission, revealed Wednesday along with other excerpts and tapes from Woodward's 18 interviews with the president since December, the White House claims Trump never downplayed the disease.

"The president never downplayed the virus," White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Wednesday.

Referencing a stack of detailed notes and timelines, McEnany set out to refute the damning admissions contained in Woodward's forthcoming book, Rage.

The president has never lied to the American public on Covid," she said.

According to Woodward's book and recorded conversations made public Wednesday, Trump knew that the virus was highly-contagious and deadly—even before the United States had reported a single Covid-19-related death.

Three days later at a campaign rally in New Hampshire, Trump told his supporters, "I think it's going to all work out fine," and suggested that it would "go away" by April.

McEnany described Trump's efforts as trying to keep Americans calm.

"He makes clear he doesn't want to see chaos," she said. "This president does what good leaders do."