ROANOKE, Va. – Virginia lawmakers are reacting after released audio recordings of President Trump speaking about the COVID-19 pandemic.
In taped interviews for a new book by journalist Bob Woodward, President Trump admitted back in February he was purposely playing down just how serious the virus was.
“It’s a hard pill to swallow - the President of the United States knowingly misled the American people to believe we were safer than we were, and 180,000 Americans died,” said Senator Mark Warner, (D) Virginia.
Senator Tim Kaine also weighed in.
“We were sort of chalking it up to a president who is an anti-science, narcissist, ignoramus, but what we learned today is that he actually understood how bad it was going to be and decided to see if he could lie his way out of it,” said Senator Tim Kaine, (D) Virginia.
Some Republican lawmakers, see it differently.
“If this was such a big, blockbuster news story, why did Bob Woodward and his publicist wait until he published a book six months later if they truly thought this was something that was huge?” said Rep. Morgan Griffith, (R-VA-09)
Griffith added that it’s not uncommon over the course of history for the president to not give the public full details in a crisis situation.