TORONTO -- A leading American historian best known for successfully predicting every U.S. election for more than three decades says newly published revelations that U.S. President Donald Trump knew COVID-19 was deadly in the early days of the pandemic but publicly downplayed the virus will go down in history as "damning."
鈥淭his is the greatest dereliction of duty in the history of the U.S. presidency,鈥 Allan Lichtman, a professor of history at American University for nearly 50 years, told 麻豆影视 Channel on Thursday.
Veteran journalist Bob Woodward, whose reporting on Watergate ended Richard Nixon鈥檚 presidency, revealed that his upcoming book 鈥淩age鈥 includes an interview with Trump in which the president is quoted saying the coronavirus was highly contagious, airborne and "deadly stuff,鈥 despite publicly dismissing it at the time as no worse than the flu.
Trump made the comments in a February interview with Woodward, weeks before the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. As the death toll climbed, Trump publicly suggested the virus was "going to disappear鈥 and occasionally mused that car crashes were deadlier, but the U.S. hadn鈥檛 banned driving.
"I wanted to always play it down," Trump told Woodward in a subsequent interview in March. "I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic.鈥
The U.S. leads the world in overall cases, at more than 6.3 million, and total deaths, with more than 191,000 people dead.
Woodward spoke with Trump 18 times for the book. On at least one occasion, Woodward said Trump was the one who picked up the phone and called him to 鈥渦nburden himself鈥 about the virus.
Why Trump felt comfortable speaking so candidly with Woodward, one of the most influential journalists in American politics, has everything to do with his 鈥減athological ego鈥 Lichtman said.
鈥淒onald Trump thinks he鈥檚 smarter than everyone, he thinks he鈥檚 more cunning than everyone,鈥 said Lichtman, who is a Democrat.
As for Trump鈥檚 defence that he didn鈥檛 share how deadly the virus was because he didn鈥檛 want people to panic, Lichtman said it simply doesn鈥檛 pass the sniff test.
鈥淲hat is Trump鈥檚 whole campaign based on? Causing panic. 鈥楨lect Joe Biden and your streets are going to burn. The criminals will be attacking your houses. The suburbs will be abolished.鈥 This is a guy who鈥檚 worried about causing panic? Come on. How could you possibly believe that?鈥
Questions have been raised about why Woodward chose not to reveal details of the interviews until September, less than two months before the Nov. 3 election. Woodward has defended the decision, saying he needed time to make sure that Trump鈥檚 comments were accurate.
It wasn鈥檛 until May that Woodward said he believed Trump鈥檚 comments were based on accurate information.
鈥淚f I had done the story at that time about what he knew in February, that's not telling us anything we didn't know," Woodward told the Associated Press on Thursday.
Trump joined the online pile-on of Woodward, questioning why he sat on the information for months.
鈥淚f he thought they were so bad or dangerous, why didn鈥檛 he immediately report them in an effort to save lives? Didn鈥檛 he have an obligation to do so? No, because he knew they were good and proper answers. Calm, no panic!鈥 Trump tweeted.
Lichtman said he also has lingering questions about the timing of the book. He compared the situation to when Trump鈥檚 former national security adviser John Bolton declined to discuss Trump's actions towards Ukraine during impeachment hearings, but in June published new details in his memoir "The Room Where It Happened.鈥
鈥淚 understand he felt he needed to totally verify and put it into context, but this reminds me a bit of John Bolton who had vitally important information and held it until he published his book. I do think there are some ethical conundrums to be confronted there,鈥 he said.
Others have raised similar concerns, such as Esquire's Charles P. Pierce.
"Nearly 200,000 Americans have died because neither Donald Trump nor Bob Woodward wanted to risk anything substantial to keep the country informed,鈥 Pierce said.
Lichtman is best known for his book 鈥淭he Keys to the White House,鈥 which lays out a series of 13 true or false questions that have helped him predict the winner of every U.S. election since Ronald Reagan鈥檚 win in 1984. He successfully predicted that Trump would win in 2016, but this year he anticipates Biden will take the White House.
