Everything Trump Said About COVID-19 in New Bob Woodward Tapes

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward released additional audio recordings of his extensive conversations with former President Donald Trump that offer insight into Trump's approach in battling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump's last year in office was largely defined by his response to the novel virus, which has taken the lives of over 1.1 million Americans. The former president has repeatedly been criticized for his response to COVID-19 during the early months of the outbreak, including downplaying the risk of the virus and repeatedly contradicting public health officials.

Woodward previously released dozens of raw audio tapes of interviews he conducted with the former president in 2019 and 2020 for his book, Rage. The conversations were largely dominated by COVID.

The new tapes first aired during a special edition of MSNBC's The Beat on Tuesday night and feature conversations between Woodward and Trump during the former president's last year in the Oval Office. "I once asked him, 'What's the job of the president?' And he said, 'To protect the people,'" Woodward said while speaking with MSNBC's Ari Melber. "I've never seen such a failure to protect the people."

Newsweek reached out to Trump's press team via email Tuesday night for comment on Woodward's statement.

Trump: 'It Came Out of China, Barron. Pure and Simple'

In a recording from March 19, 2020, Trump recounted telling his youngest son, Barron Trump, that COVID was "a very bad thing," adding that he wished that Chinese health officials had alerted other countries about the virus "months earlier."

"So you told Barron, you said, 'it's bad,'" Woodward poses to Trump.

"No, I said it's a very bad thing, but we're going to straighten it out," the former president responded.

"He said, how did it happen?" Trump continued, speaking of his son. "I said, it came out of China, Barron. Pure and Simple. It came out of China and it should've been stopped. And to be honest with you, Barron, they should have let it be known. It was a problem two months earlier ... and I said the world wouldn't have a problem. We could have stooped it easily."

In January and February 2020, Trump repeatedly praised Beijing's approach to the virus outbreak, including tweeting thanks to Chinese President Xi Jinping for his government's "efforts and transparency."

The former president would later complain about China's "lack of transparency" as a reason to pull U.S. funding for the World Health Organization in April 2020, reported Politico. His conversation with Barron also suggests that Trump was aware of the severity of the virus despite repeatedly telling the public that its spread was under control.

In a later conversation recorded on April 5, 2020, Woodward asked Trump, "What [sic] is the first person who made you see how serious this was going to be?"

"China," he responds. "When I saw how many people were dying."

The former president also said that the realization came to him toward the latter part of January 2020, when he first spoke to Xi.

Trump: 'There's a Lot of Really Fake News Out There, Bob'

Also during the April 5 conversation, Woodward proposed that Trump tell people that the U.S. government was in "full mobilization" to stop the spread of COVID, which at the time of the conversation had killed over 10,000 Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"No matter what I do, they'll always tell you bad," Trump responded to Woodward's plan.

"OK, but you know what?" Woodward pressed. "I think people want—even the people who don't like you, people who oppose you—want this country to succeed on this."

"Well, no, I think there are some people that would rather have it not succeed," Trump said.

"There I disagree with you," the former president continued. "There are some people that would rather have it not succeed so that they could possibly beat me in the election, all right?"

"They're significant, and they're lying, and they control some of the media," Trump added. "Not all of it. I'm doing fine in much of the media. But there's a lot of really fake news out there, Bob."

Trump: 'And All of a Sudden, We Get Hit by the China Virus'

In another portion of the interviews, the former president was pressed by Woodward for blaming the COVID-19 pandemic on ruining his reelection campaign in 2020, when Trump lost to President Joe Biden.

"If we didn't have the virus, I was 10, 12 points up," Trump told Woodward during a conversation on July 21, 2020. "I was cruising to election."

"Well, people are worried about the virus," Woodward responded.

"I know that, Bob, but the virus has nothing to do with me," Trump snaps back.

"With COVID, you really can't do rallies," Trump said later in the tape. "Probably airport rallies, but you can't do the stadium rallies, you can't do the indoor arena."

The former president held several campaign events, including some indoors, during the months leading up to the November 2020 election, despite health officials encouraging social distancing practices to help curb the spread of COVID.

Woodward later asserts to Trump that he was "running against the virus, not Joe Biden."

"Well, I'm running against both," the former president said.

"We were riding high," Trump added later in the tape. "The election was over. I was going to win easily. And all of a sudden, we get hit by the China virus. And now I'm working my a** off."