People are making a big deal out of Bob Woodward’s tapes of the 45th president of the United States. In them he can be heard admitting six months ago that the Coronavirus pandemic was way more deadly than the flu and also highly transmissible. This is a big deal, because at the same time he was telling Americans publicly that it was a “hoax,” that it would disappear “like a miracle,” that mask wearing was unnecessary, and in all other ways downplaying the seriousness of the situation. Even though he knew better. But here’s the thing I keep asking myself: didn’t we already know all this?
Sure, it’s a big deal to hear him on tape admitting it, but didn’t we already know that he was lying to everyone even though he knew better? I did. I bet you did. Everyone with any sense did.
What’s that you say? Maybe he didn’t know better? Maybe he was just shockingly ignorant and as far as he knew everything he was saying was true? I have a few problems with this proposition. For starters, the man was being briefed by national security personnel as well as top public health officials. The same public health officials who told us the truth while the president lied to us. Often in the same room, at the same press briefing. They knew the truth. We know because they were telling it to us. Is our theory of the case that these administration officials weren’t also telling the president? Or maybe the president simply put his fingers in his ears such that he never heard their assessments? Of course he knew.
And he was lying to us. Only now we have a tape of him admitting what we already definitively knew to be true.