Senator Bill Cassidy defended President Trump after an audio recording from March was released of the President saying he wanted to “play down” the coronavirus.
Audio has the President privately acknowledging how deadly the virus was at a time when he was publicly comparing it to the flu, but Cassidy said the President’s actions show he took it seriously.
“The President has called a travel ban and we have literally spent trillions of dollars both on the health aspect as well as supporting people in the economic phase,” said Cassidy.
In the recording, the President explains he did not want to create a panic.
Cassidy said the President tends to speak a little loosely and in ways he sometimes regrets, but he doesn’t regret the way the nation responded.
“The speed of vaccine development, unprecedented, the approval of new treatments, unprecedented, the support for the healthcare community, small businesses, and individuals, unprecedented,” said Cassidy.
Cassidy said right now he’s not concerned the revelations will impact the President’s reelection chances.
“I think you can kind of look at it in context and I think we have fifty-something days out from the election, people have time to process that context and understand the President’s actions speak very loudly,” said Cassidy.
The audio was captured by famed reporter Bob Woodward and was released ahead of his new book that chronicles conversations the two had between late 2019 and early 2020.
Here’s audio from the March 19th conversation.
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