Transcripts For CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 20200910

Colombia for a statement. Havent heard back. Evelyn yang, this is not easy for her to do. She got results. Incredible. Such courage. Thank you so much to dana. Thanks to all of you. Anderson starts now. Good evening. Weve reported for months how the president downplayed the coronavirus and said it would disappear and it was under control. Tonight youll hear confirmation and for more. Youll hear the president admitting hed down play the virus and he knew it far earlier than the public. People say lives have been lost but they are dead. 190,000 americans are dead. The president lied to us when it really mattered. When action could have been taken based on the information the president had that would have saved lives. And in case youre wondering how many lives the number is simply heartbreaking. Researchers at Colombia University estimate instituting social distancing just one week sooner could have prevented at least 36,000 deaths. Two weeks sooner could have prevented 84 of fatalities. In a moment, youll hear the president s own words taken from many conversations over many months with the Washington Post and yes, those conversations were recorded and youll hear them. Whats more, everything youll hear him say tonight he volunteered including his warning to wood ward but not the public covid was transmitted through the air and far more deadlier than the flu and said it as what is known as the lost month when he could have mobile ietzed the government and public and as you saw, saved lives. He could have but didnt. February 7th is when he said that to woodward, the beginning of the lost month. He is saying he was down playing the threat to avoid a panic. Thats what hes saying today as if we have simply forgotten the rallies he held at the time and Everything Else he was saying about not wanting his numbers to go up. Whatever the president s motivation, the fact is hearing the truth didnt panic the people of south korea that seen 21,000 cases in only 344 deaths in the last six months, no one panic in germany or canada, two other countries that have done far better than we have. Still, the president says he did what he did in service of the greater good, which is also what he told bob woodward in march. He didnt want to panic people. Youll hear from the president and my fing generals as he calls them and also hear for the first time the audio of the president talking about a secret Nuclear Program he claims weve been developing and more. In all the pages of woodwards new book rage. Jimmy will be guiding us through the key aspects of it tonight starting with the president , the virus and the truth. So jamie, what was the president telling bob woodward, talk about what he was telling them about the coronavirus in early february . This is february 7th, anderson, when, you know, we were thinking about the virus in china. This was very, very early on, and just to point out the president agreed to this being taped. All of these 18 interviews were recorded and what he says is he gives woodward striking detail about how much he knew but wasnt telling the public. Here is part of the interview. And so what was president xi saying yesterday . We were talking mostly about the virus, and i think hes going to have it in good shape but its a very tricky situation. Its indeed, it is. It goes through air, bob. Thats always tougher than the touch. You know, the touch, you dont have to touch things but the air, you just breathe the air and thats how its passed, and so thats a very tricky one. Thats a very delicate one. Its also more deadly than your, you know, your even your strenuous flus. You know, people dont realize, we lose 25,000, 30,000 people a year here. Who would ever think that . I know. Pretty amazing. Then i say well is that the same thing do for this is more deadly. This is five per you know, this is 5 versus 1 and less than 1 . You know, so this is deadly stuff. So, anderson, so much of what he said there is striking because we did not know this at the time, but i want to point to two things. First, that it was airborne. This coming from the president who is still mocking people who wear masks. And second, that he understands that it is so much more deadly than the normal flu because during the same period of time, hes absolutely saying oh, its just another flu. So its just a striking contrast to what hes saying publicly. Yeah, saying that acknowledging its airborne, which is discussed questioned but not known for sure at the time. The president knew and deadlier, far deadlier than the flu. He was having rallies, indoor rallies with no social distancing, no mask. Very different than what the president was saying about the virus at the time. Absolutely. To give it context, weve put together some sound of exactly what the president was telling the public when he was saying something quite different to bob woodward. Here is that. I think the virus is going to be fine. You know, in april, supposedly, it dies with the hotter weather, and thats a beautiful date to look forward to. We have it very much under control in this country. People are getting better. Theyre all getting better. There is a very good chance youre not going to do. Were close to a vaccine. This is a flu. This is like a flu. Of the 15 people, the original 15, as i call them, eight of them have returned to their homes. Were going down, not up. Were going very substantially down, not up. Again, when you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple days is going to be down to close to zero, thats a pretty good job weve done. Its going to disappear like a miracle. Well, it hasnt disappeared and woodwards book paints just a devastating portrait. He has so many details about a january 28th top secret briefing where the president is told all of this and he just describes it as a betrayal of trust. In march, the president told wood ward ward told the preside wanted to down play the virus to the people. First, we have february 7th when he gives woodward these details then on march 19th in another interview that was recorded, he says two things that are pretty shocking. First, remember he kept saying that young people wouldnt be affected by this. Children, even in august, august 5th, i think he said children are immune. So he tells woodward something quite different and then in the second part of this, you hear him admitting that he is concealing this. Here is the tape. Now its turning out its not just old people, bob. Yesterday some startling facts came out. Its not just old exactly. Plenty of young people. So whats going on. Give me a moment of talking to somebody, going through this with fauci or somebody who kind of, it caused a pivot in your mind because its clear just from whats in on the Public Record that you went through a pivot on this to oh my god, the gravity is almost inexplicable and unexplainable. Well, i think, bob, really, to be honest with you sure, i want you to be. I always wanted to play it down. I still like playing it down. Yes. Because i dont want to create a panic. But i understand this wasnt just about panic, first of all as you pointed out, plenty of other countries dealt with this. Nobody panicked. If you want to talk about panic, 190,000 americans dead. Thats a much bigger thing. Americans dealt with 9 11 after pearl harbor. They dealt with world war ii. To say this was about preventing panic or calming people down is simply outrageous. Its no secret that the president dr. Fauci have often disagreed publicly when it comes to the virus. Fauci is basically seems like hes been sidelined. What does dr. Fauci tell woodward . Throughout the book hes quoted. There is a lot of detail and direct quotes and he says what woodward reports fauci says about trump that his leadership is rutterless, that his Attention Span is like a minus number and that his sole purpose is to get reelected. I should say that dr. Fauci did an interview today in which he said he didnt recall this. I just want to remind people again with their permission, bob woodward is known to record all of these interviews, these were very specific quotes in the book. Stay with us. I want to bring in our chief medical correspondent dr. Spence director of Global Health as well as an ebola survivor. Sanjay, President Trumps decision to down play the virus for whatever reason, whether it was to avoid causing panic as he is claiming or to avoid hurting his reelection chances or that he was panicking and didnt really know what to do, it cost lives. I mean, as we referenced earlier and i saw you talking about this earlier today, you know, if he had been honest with the American People or if he had even just implemented mitigation efforts or encouraged governors to implement them early on, lives could have been saved. Yeah, i mean, theres no question. I mean, thats the striking there is a lot of striking things about what jamie has just reported but that, the idea that as you referenced, there is countries around the world that didnt have anything we didnt have. They didnt have a vaccine or magic therapy and measured death counts in the teens or hundreds, not hundreds of thousands. You showed this. Lets show it again. This is a model that came out of dr. Spencers Home Institution where they look at if you did mitigation techniques a week earlier, just a week earlier and this is in may, when this modelling was done, remember the mitigation efforts went into place mid march. They had been the first week of march 36,000 lives could have been saved. Gives you an idea how much of an impact earlier sort of measures could have had. Two weeks earlier, 84 of the deaths according to this model could have been prevented. You know, it is really remarkable to me to hear that, those tapes now and hear that he knew this. You know, when you look at the virus viruses, there is two things to know. Are they contagious and lethal . A lot of people in the beginning werent sure. He on february 7th definitively knew it and gave a number to Bob Woodwards five times more lethal than the flu. Not just that the president of the United States was down playing the virus or we have seen with our own eyes, he has pressured the fda, the cdc, other institutions to go along with down playing the virus, downgrading the guidelines, cdc, downgrading the guidelines on how schools should reopen, not putting out guidelines or having guidelines held back, having to change guidelines because the president was threatening them. The fda, the head of the fda having to apologize for misleading information that he gave, you know, at the behest of the president about, you know, about plasma therapy. You were on the front lines in new york battling the virus at its peak when 800 people were dying a day in new york. You were out there trying to save lives. What do you make of what youve heard from the president now . To be honest, anderson, im furious because we want to talk about panic and wanting to reduce panic. I think the panic of every family i called on face time to let them know their Family Member was dying or died and think about that mull ttiplied 190 times. Im furious. Many of those didnt need to happen if we took the right steps and got prepared like we needed to and the president clearly knew we needed to. As a Public Health professional, im furious because this is another instance where the president undermined Public Health professionals and contradicted messaging and the result was since the beginning, people didnt know where to go to get trusted truth on coronavirus, how to protect themselves and their family. They created a situation where people were just misled given misinformation and quite honestly, as the Public Health person and professional, the lies and mistruths coming from the president s mouth and twitter feed are almost impossible for us Public Health professionals to keep up with and correct. Yeah, i mean, thats an important point. The panic in a persons voice when they know that their husband or their child or their grandparent or their best friend has been indescribable. Is dead, that is panic that doesnt go away. Thats not just i mean, its not as if i mean, thats just sanjay. Not just the families but providers. Its everybody. Its not just individuals that are grieving. Its the whole country grieving. We have over 25 of the worlds cases and deaths. Were supposed to be the best and most repaired country in the world and we failed on this from day one because of the president s apparent misdirection in trying to prevent panic. We created more panic than necessary if we took this serious from day one. I want to play an exchange with President Trump back in february about the virus. I want to talk about the flu in comparison to the coronavirus . The flu has a death rate of 1 . This has a rate between 2 and 3 . We dont know exactly. The numbers so far the flu is higher than that. The flu is much higher than that. There is more people that get the flu and this is spreading in communities. It may. Thats the expectation. Does that worry you . No, were ready for it. It is what it is. Were ready for it. Were really prepared. It is what it is. It is what it is, you only say it is what it is when something is theres nothing you can do about it. It is what it is. The president of the United States could have done something about it. He just chose not to. He chose to down play it. So for him to repeatedly say it is what it is particularly gulling when he is the freaking president of the United States. Im wondering what you look at that exchange now, what do you think . I mean, it is nagged at me since that day, anderson, february 26th when i kept thinking to myself, does he not know because he just said to me that the flu is much worse. That was on february 26th. You just heard the tape from february 7th where he clearly conceded this coronavirus was far more lethal than the flu and again, he even gave a number five times more lethal than the flu. I mean, that really went from this idea that look, maybe was he not being briefed, he didnt care so he wasnt listening to what people were telling him. Thats not the case. He knew. And at that time and many times since then, he has lied about this. He knows the truth. He lied about this. As you know, anderson, i dont say that lightly. That is definitely the case here. I should point out were talking about this like its in the rearview mirror. Were still in the middle of this. Were analyzing this. Its not over by any means. These bad decisions, these bad policies are still on going and people that are alive today that dont really think this is a big deal are not going to be alive by the end of the year because of this. So this absolutely needs to be fixed. You know, jamie, after that interview with woodward in which the president acknowledged the coronavirus is airborne way worse than the flu, he held six more rallies with tens of thousands of people indoors. Thousands of people indoors. Tens of thousands with no mask or social distancing. And i mean, just look at his Campaign Event yesterday, he continues to mock mask wearing and put peoples lives at risk. He made mask wearing a political statement, which is the worst thing you can possibly do in the midst of a pandemic. Its inexplicable. One of the things that woodward asked trump in the book is what do you think the most important job of being president is . And trump says at first hes not sure what to answer and when he finally does, he said well, its to keep america safe and prosperous. He clearly has he clearly knew a lot about this. He didnt keep america safe. He continues down that road with these inconsistent messages with, you know, mocking masks. But i just want to point out the word, the second thing you said is to make america prosperous and when i first heard the tape and he said he didnt want panic, what i really thought was that he was panicked about the economy and getting reelected. Right. Which is he has repeatedly said early on, remember when he went to the cdc i think it was and he said the thing about, you know, anybody wants to test can get one. He talked about my numbers meaning his, as if it number of people infected in the country were a barometer on him and he didnt want his numbers to go up. Dr. Spencer, thank you for everything youve done and continued to do and for being with us tonight, sanjay, as well. Sanjay, ill see you tomorrow night for the next edition of the cnn town hall coronavirus facts and fears. Jamie, well come back to you in the next segment. I want to turn to jim acosta at the white house. Talk about the president s explanation for down playing the virus even though he knew he was airborne and deadly. He was asked about excerpts earlier today and said at one point he wanted to be a cheerleader, he didnt want to create panic. Anderson, he hasnt been a cheerleader, hes been a misleader. I mean, not giving people the opportunity to prepare to deal with this virus is essentially what this president is guilty of tonight. In the name of not wanting people to panic. You know, anderson, you mentioned some things just a few moments ago, the rally, the masks and so on, remember during the spring, the president was urging his supporters to essentially storm state houses across the country and demand that their states be reopened. The president did that with the full knowledge that this virus was worse than the flu. More deadly than the flu. He was saying to bob wood ward as jim has been reporting that this virus is not only danger ro dangerous for elderly people but President Trump is advocating for children to go back to the classroom. He said he didnt want people to panic. Thats been echoed by trump advisors but that just glosses over months and months of lies, anderson. Winston churchill, you know, the dawn of the beginning of world war ii didnt say there is no way the germans will come. There is no way theyre there is no way theyre not going to fly planes over and bomb us. There is no way dont worry about this. Its just going to end. Leaders, true leaders rise to the occasion and are honest with the people and you know what . American citizens can handle the truth. Its stunning to me that anybody would accept a president saying we just didnt want to panic people. Yeah, you dont want to scream lies in a crowded theater, which essentially, frankly, this president has done many times in front of a large auditorium. Thats right. But honesty and telling the truth, you know what . Americans have been through tough times before and rise to the occasion. And anderson, its worse than that. He lulled half of the country into a false sense of security. He told supporters around the country that the scientists arent to be trusted. I mean, remember dr. Fauci said, dr. Anthony fauci said on repeated occasions he and his family received death threats. They are being harassed because there are so many people whipped up in this mode of hostility against Public Health experts and scientists in this country. Hes brought people out to rallies and had them sign waivers essentially signing their good health away to coax them into rallies so he can run his Reelection Campaign the way he sees fit. Anderson, hes subjecting people time and again to the coronavirus. We had a rally for all intensive purposes on the south lawn of the white house for his Republican National Convention Speech on the south lawn of the white house as you remember, anderson, people were sitting shoulder to shoulder even though the president privately was say ogden bob wood ward he knew this was a deadly virus. And six indoor rallies, correct me if im wrong after saying to bob woodward its airbor airborne. Thats in the early weeks of the pandemic. Remember, there was a period he didnt have rallies and the rally in tulsa and airport hanger rallies since then and so tens of thousands of people have been exposed at his own events. Jim acosta. Thank you. Perspective from Gloria Borger and Carl Bernstein in addition to being elected an investigative importer and the legendary other half of wood ward and bernstein, abby phillip. Gloria, the president s justification down playing the virus, didnt want to create panic. Fear and he added today the last thing he wants to do is show fear. Fear is the trump campaigns strategy. I mean, that is, you know, he told woodward himself for the last book real power is fear. That was the title of the last week. Yeah, and hes running on fear in this campaign talking about the mobs in major urban areas, trying to so provoking fear and stirring fear is fine when it suits his ends . Of course, totally. I dont buy the argument i didnt want to create panic. This is a president , it was very revealing to me today when he had his little press conference and he said leadership is about confidence. What he really meant, i think, if you read between the lines is he didnt want to appear to be weak. The worst thing you can tell donald trump is youre weak. He didnt want blame. What he was thinking about was theyre going to blame me and ive got to get reelected and i dont want to shut down the economy and i dont want to do the things perhaps science is telling me that i ought to do. So im going to look like im in control even though it could cost people lives. I mean, it is transactional to the degree and outrageous for a president of the United States who as jamie said he wants to keep the country safe and prosperous, but you cant keep the country prosperous unless you keep the country safe. And that is what he totally advocated his responsibility here. A lot of people wonder why the president talked to bob woodward. Woodward came out with a book the white house quibbled with and some within the white house suggested the putt shouldnt do it. Are you surprised that woodward got the president to commit to 18 on the record interviews and what do you make of the significance of what we heard so far . Im not surprised because trump regretted not talking to woodward or he said he regretted not talking to bob after the last book. And trump is always thinking that he can charm anyone. Well, health not going to charm bob wood waward or a great repor that is going to check everything out and talk to dozens and dozens of president s aids and find out what the real truth is. Lets take a deep breath here about what we just heard on those tapes. These are the ultimate smoking gun tapes in our history. We have listened to the president of the United States commit probably the greatest felony by any president in our history. He sits there in realtime talking and covering up his absolute dereliction in which he ignores the National Security of the United States. Ignores the health and safety of the people of this country in which he knowingly covers up what can cause tens of thousands of deaths. There has never been a stunning moment captured on tape by a leader. These arent the watergate tapes. This is something weve never had in our history. Weve never had a president with this kind of attitude about the health and safety of the amer a American People willing for his own reelection efforts to just throw away lives. This is the ultimate felony by a president of the United States. Abby, its interesting, you know, what carl said is interesting if you think about if this had been a Foreign Invasion coming as the president said it was, if this had been a hurricane coming and the president had said, you know, at the time to bob woodward, i dont want to panic anybody about this hurricane, so im just going to say its a category one or a Tropical Storm and not really, you know, have the potential to really grow. No, we dont do that. We people are informed about what the potential is and people, again, rise to the occasion. Do you think it makes any difference . So many times the president faced controversy without political consequences. Do you think it will be any different this time . Anderson, as you say that, the sad part about what you said is we actually had an example of the president trying to literally sharpie his way into a different version of its true. Forgot about that. A hurricane map and this is a real thing where the president creates his own reality, the one he thinks fits his reelection prospects or political prospects best. This is just another version of that involving the coronavirus, the consequences of which 190,000 people have lost their lives. But as far as whether this matters, i mean, you know, speaking to people around the president s campaign in his campaign, you know, they kind of basically chalk this up to another bad news cycle. One of many by the way that hes had in several weeks and that after a couple of days, a couple of weeks this is going to all blow away. This is the pattern that they are used to since going back to 2016 that there is a cycle of controversy hes able to ride it out or another controversy comes their way. Whats different about this is that this is a crisis that is going to be with the American People for a long time. This is a once in a 100year event for this country. It will be written about in the history books. Indeed, this is the first version of the history books and i dont think that its something thats just going to blow away. This is what the election is going to be about and i think this one really is going to stick. Gloria, President Trump had two Campaign Events yesterday bringing together hundreds of people without masks, not social distancing. We know he holds rallies and feels like 2016, i dont know if thats an excuse or really loves to tell the same story and people laugh. Do you think thats something in light of what he said in the wood waward tape, of course he going to continue to do it. Sure, yes, dont forget, anderson, this is a president who recently, maybe last week retweeting conspiracy theories on the death toll from coronavirus that it really wasnt as large as it is. Whats stunning is that i think in some bizarre way he was trying to impress bob woodward with what he knew but by doing that, he set himself up because its easy if you go over the timeline as youve been doing and jamie is doing that he was saying one thing to bob woodward to tell him i know this stuff but lying to the American Public. Lying to the public and saying oh, it just the flu. Its nothing else and its so striking because of course, he will continue to make a difference and this is peoples lives and their livelihoods here that hes messing with and it may be accepted differently. Carl, when the testifying saying he thinks there shouldnt be tapes of the conversations and comey said lord, i hope there are tapes. The woodward book and tapes dont give the president much room to deny anything. Hes reshaping this as he just didnt want to have panic. Do you think hes going to what do you think hes going to do in the short term to get through this news cycle . Dont know. Hes going to be on hannity at 9 00 tonight. To go over to fox news and spin out something but this time, we are also talking about something that is shocking even to republicans in congress. What happened with Richard Nixon is finally the Republican Leadership after hearing the smoking gun tapes, went down to the white house, marched down to the white house including barry gold water, the 1964 Nominee Party to be president and told the president he must resign because of the crimes he committed. Im not going to suggest republicans are about to do that. I dont see Lindsey Graham doing that. No, they have to confront this because this is something unique that no president has allowed the loss of life for his own narrow purposes as what we have here and the other ailment of this that we always have to consider, what would a competent real leader have done honest leader in this instance a few days from getting the information and state Union Address and instead we have a National Problem we must come together as a people, fight this national emergency, take the steps for open welfare and instead, we have the most devastating coverup happily its recorded, this coverup on these devastating tapes. Yeah, Carl Bernstein. Coming up next, the president about a secret weapon he says china and russia have not heard about. Maybe kind of have now. Later, joe bidens reaction to this as we continue. Send it off, with a bang live the life you want to have [whistling] we have different needs. Y. But one thing we share is wanting to make our lives the best they can be. If you have medicare and medicaid, a dual complete plan from unitedhealthcare can help. Giving you more benefits. At no extra cost. And a promise to be there for you. Whatever your story may be. To learn more, call or go online. Dual complete from unitedhealthcare. Back now with rage. The president s statements on the pandemic and what seems to be one of the nations most closely guarded secrets, a new number cle Nuclear Weapon and brutal assessments by President Trump by two former top officials and the over the top opinion on some of his generals. Cnn jamie joins us with that. The president went as far as discussing a secret Nuclear Weapon system with bob woodward. And it does appear to be true. Woodward then went to other sources and confirmed it. But just to put it in perspective, we have audio from that interview which were going to play. I think its worth knowing this is the very first interview that the president does with bob woodward. I think he was trying to impress him perhaps. But lets just put in this perspective. The president wasnt willing to level with the American Public about covid, but he was willing to tell bob woodward about a new secret Nuclear Weapon system that he really shouldnt have been telling him about. Here is the interview. But i have built a weapon system, weapons system that nobody has ever had in this country before. We have stuff that you havent even seen or heard about. We have stuff that putin and xi have never heard about before. There is nobody what we have is incredible. And to your point, anderson, theyve now heard about it. Yeah, and if hes willing to tell bob woodward that to suck up to bob woodward in their first meeting, who knows what he said to kim jongun and Vladimir Putin when nobody else was in the room and he wanted to impress them. Its an interesting point. These 18 interviews happened two in the oval office and one in maralago but the rest were phone calls from the residence late at night, sometimes trump would unexpected recall woodward at night. Normally, the white house in a normal white house tape records interviews with reporters. I have a feeling that the white house does not know a lot of what President Trump said in these interviews to bob woodward. Woodward reports what an aid to general mattis heard the president say in the oval office about military agagenerals. So this aid is named. Hes on the record. He was working for general mattis. He was at a meeting in the oval office about a trade deal and just to tell you what he said he heard was he goes to general mattis and he says the president said my fing generals are a bunch of you can read it up on the screen. They care more about their alliances than they do about trade deals. Im assuming that word is not pats patsys . Exactly. Just general mattis, defense secretary mattis wasnt born yesterday. He says to his aid, he listens to the story and says would you mind writing me an email about that . He memorializes it in realtime. Knowing bob woodward, he may very well have a copy of that email. There were brutal assessments of trumps presidency, probably most brutal from top National Security officials, former defense secretary mattis and dan coats. Talk about what they told woodward. So let me go through a couple of them from then secretary of defense general mattis. He is quoted by woodward as saying trump was dangerous, unfit, has no moral compass. Also, an interesting story about defense secretary mattis at the time, he was so worried that the United States might get into a hot war with north korea, woodward recounts these extraordinary scenes where mattis is going to the National Cathedral repeatedly to pray because he is so worried that he may be put in a position of shooting and killing millions of people and at the same time, hes actually sleeping in clothes in the middle of the nig night. Thats extraordinary. Dan coats then the top int intelligence official, director of National Intelligence, one of the most shocking things that woodward writes about is that dan coats held suspicions that russia had something on President Trump and i just want to read a quick part of this. Woodward writes coats harbors the secret belief, one that had grown rather than less soned th putin had something on trump. How else to explain the president s behavior. Coats could see no other explanation. Woodward writes coats found it remarkable that the top National Intelligence official felt this way. Yeah. Jamie, thanks for all the reporting. Just really stunning. Joining us now, retired lieutenant James Clapper and a cnn National Security analyst and author of facts and fears hard truths from life in intelligence. Director clapper, the fact the president is bragging about woodward about a top secret or higher Nuclear Weapons program, just from a National Security perspective, does that concern you . Of course. Anderson, its pretty egregious, if he ever mentioned it to the russians or chinese, they for sure are going to intensify their intelligence collection efforts to find out what hes talking about if they dont know about it. And of course, as usual, hes taken credit for military capabilities that at least were begun long before he arrived so this is really helreprehensible. Jamie put up the quote of what he said and was told to mattis and they care more about all alliances than trade deals. It comes with the recent controversies, the quotes that the atlantic said about Service Members that died as well as generals and now the president talked about the military Industrial Complex when his own defense secretary comes from raython a lobbiest. Well, this is just more stunning reinforcement of the president s real destain for the military. And this is part of a long pattern that preceded the shocking atlantic article and the allegations about his remarks about the soldiers who had given, paid the ultimate price. We have reinforcement with the bob woodward book and by the way, to me, having been on the receiving end of bob woodward interviews i can attest to what a skilled interrogator is and to allow it to be recorded is incredible to me. Just the height of it. So this, you know, kind overmakes the watergate tapes pale. Youre clearly not from new york because new york, i wont go into that. So let me ask you, what do you make of the woodward reporting that former dni dan coats believes that putin has something on trump although he makes clear in the book there is he doesnt have any intelligence on that but its just a belief that remained with coats. Well, i think this also is significant because to my knowledge, this is the first time dan has interviewed with anyone in the media to talk about his experience in the administration. And so i take whatever dan says with, i take it very seriously and so i think of course this has been a concern from the outset going back to 2016. Why the difference to russia and to putin specifically . And the president has never, never once dimed up putin directly and personally. His Administration May have taken actions against the russians but he himself hasnt. So this clearly is the obvious question do they have something on him . Dr. James clapper, appreciate it. Thank you. Just ahead, joe bidens harsh condemnation and we have an exert from a wide ranging interview that will air in full with jake tapper tomorrow when 360 continues. Shortly after the conversations between donald trump and woodward aired, the entire interview was going to air in full tomorrow night at 4 00 p. M. On cnm but tonight we want to play you an exert from that interview and President Biden bidens response. In his upcoming book bob woodward reports President Trump understood the serious risk posed by the Novel Coronavirus in early you just breathe the air and thats how its passed. And so thats a very tricky one. Thats a delicate one. Its also more deadly than your even your strenuous flues. This is deadly stuff. The president spent much of february and even march downplaying the risks of the Novel Coronavirus saying it would disappear, saying the heat would make it go away. Whats your response to what he was telling bob woodward . Its disgusting. We find this out on a day when 190,000 americans did. He just got off the phone with xi ping where he was praising him about transparency. Theres nothing to worry about. This is going to go away like a miracle. The way President Trump explains it, and he said this to woodward on march 19th. If you take a listen. I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down. I dont want to create a panic. He said he didnt want to create a panic, thats why he downplayed it. Leadership is about confidence. You saw what Columbia Medical School pointed out in march, had he acted one week earlier, there would be 30,000 people alive. Two weeks earlier, it would be 50 some,000 still alive. This caused people to die, what he did the whole time, he acknowledged it, hes breathing the air, he wont put on a mask. Why have any of these rules, it was all about making sure the stock market didnt come down, he could say that in fact anything that happened had nothing to do with him. He waived the white flag, he walked away, he didnt do a damn thing about it, think about it. Think about what he didnt do, and its almost criminal. Woodward reports that jayme mattis said that trump has no moral compass. And that even floated collective action with dan coates because interrupt is unsfit. Woodward also said coats couldnt shake the suspicion that putin had something on trump. What do you make of this from his advisers . I think trump has stunned everyone around him. As to how corrupt his thinking is. Think about this, remember he said under oath. Not under oath, i shun the say that. Said to the American Public that he didnt get that briefing on how dangerous coronavirus was, he didnt get that from the intelligence committee, he never read the reports. He didnt have anything to do with that. He saw the reports. He knew them in detail. At least we know he can read. Why didnt he move quicker on the defense production act to provide ppe, the protective equipment for doctors and First Responders . Why didnt he do that. Okay, he says he didnt want to panic people, well, at least make sure everybody has the equipment they need. Say this as an excess of caution. He didnt even do that. I have relatives all over the country and all over the political spectrum. How do you make the argument to a relative i have in texas who says, yeah, this virus is horrible but its not trumps fault, its chinas fault. Lets assume well take both the relatives points. Its chinas fault. Why did trump praise china. Why did he say how transparent president xi was going to be. Why did he insist the 44 people we had there, while others were insisting they go in and have access so know what is happening, to know the detail. Why did he not insist on that. The virus is not his fault, but the deaths are his fault. I would say to your uncle, he could have done something about it, but he said nothing, he didnt talk he said, theres no need for social distancing. Dont bother wearing a mask. He went so far to suggest it was a violation of American Freedom to maintain you had to wear a mask. And look whats happened. Again, 190,000 dead and climbing. Whats he doing now . He still has not moved. Look at the schools that are not opening. Schools we talked, i know you have young children. Well, guess what, theyre starting off school like the end of last year at home. Think of all the people that dont have the resources to do that. Think of the choice the single mom has to make, am i going to go to my 7 an hour job or stay home with my kid. I cant afford anybody. Almost criminal, the former Vice President called it. Thats an excerpt of a much larger wide ranging interview with joe biden. You can watch the entire interview tomorrow on the lead with jake tapper. I didnt realize how special it would be for me to discover all of these things that i found through ancestry. I discovered my great aunt ruth signed up as a nursing cadet for world war ii. You see this scannedin, handwritten document. The most striking detail is her age. She was only 17. Knowing that she saw this thing happening and was brave enough to get involved and do something that was eye opening. Find an honor your ancestors who served in world war ii. Their stories live on at ancestry. We begin the program with the president s own words from seven months ago, which he reafirmed he downplayed the virus. He knew it would be serious and deadly. Tonight we have a reminder of how deadly, at least 1,110 lives lost just today. Over 190,000 in the u. S. Tomorrow night, a town hall on the coronavirus. Dr. Sanjay gupta and i will be taking your questions. The news continues, i want to hand it over to chris for cuomo prime time. Thank you very much. I am chris cuomo, welcome to prime time. Im sorry to say this, but tonight i have to tell you the worst thing i ever have about coronavirus. It is a really ugly truth. Or president knew that covid19 was going to be much worse than he was telling you. He lied. He pressured others to lie essentially. Too underplay. And worst of all, to underprepare. As a result, more