US President Donald Trump insisted that he didn’t downplay the coronavirus but rather “up-played it in terms of action taken” at ABC’s town hall on Tuesday night.
Responding to a question from an undecided voter at ABC’s town hall, Trump contradicted his own statements to journalist and author Bob Woodward in which he said he “wanted to always play it down.”
“Well I didn’t downplay it, I actually in many ways, I up-played it in terms of action. My action was very strong because what I did with China, I put a ban on. With Europe, I put a ban on. And we would have lost thousands of more people had I not put the ban on,” Trump said. “So that was called action, not with the mouth but in actual fact. We did a very very good job when we put that ban on, whether you call it talent or luck, it was very important so we saved a lot of lives when we did that.”
Trump said last week that he was a cheerleader for the country and didn’t want to create a panic responding to the comments he made to Woodward.
“The fact is, I’m a cheerleader for this country, I love our country, and I don’t want people to be frightened. I don’t want to create panic, as you say,” Trump said on Sept. 9.