CHINA/CORONAVIRUS: [Reporter: “But you told Bob Woodward this is — this is worse than the most deadly — ‘deadlier than the most strenuous flu.’”]
“Okay.”
[Reporter: “And then you went out and said, ‘It’s just like the flu.’”]
“What I went out and said is very simple —”
[Reporter: “And that it was ‘going to go away.’”]
“Listen, what I went out and said is very simple: I want to show a level of confidence and I want a show strength as a leader, and I want to show that our country is going to be fine, one way or the other. Whether we lose one person — we shouldn’t lose any, because this shouldn’t have happened. This is China’s fault. This is nobody’s fault but China. China should not have allowed it to happen…
So, obviously, outwardly I said it’s a very serious problem. And it’s always a serious problem. That doesn’t mean I’m going to jump up and down in the air and start saying, ‘People are going to die! People are going to die!’ No. No. I’m not going to do that.”
-Donald Trump, “Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing,” whitehouse.gov, Sep. 10, 2020