Donald Trump denied downplaying the threat from coronavirus, saying at a town hall on Tuesday that he “up played it,” despite his assertion in a recorded interview this year that he “wanted to always play it down.”
Trump made the remarks during a ninety-minute town hall hosted by ABC News in the must-win battleground of Pennsylvania, an event that served as a preview for the Presidential debates later this month.
“Well, I didn’t downplay it. I actually, in many ways, I up played it in terms of action,” Trump said.
In an interview with journalist Bob Woodward, Trump said he knew the coronavirus was more deadly and contagious than the flu but continued to compare the two so that people would not panic.
The town hall aired two weeks before Trump’s first debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
It featured an extended conversation about the president’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump defended his earlier assertion that the virus will eventually disappear, even without a vaccine, citing what he called “herd mentality,” a reference to “herd immunity.”
Herd immunity is the notion the virus is eradicated after a high percentage of the population is infected.
