President ial felonies of all time. I think that the panic of every Single Family i called on face time to let them know their Family Member was dying, as that frontline provider, im furious. This is new day with Alisyn Camerota and john berman. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is new day, september 10th, 6 00 here in new york. Fasten your seat belts. We have a lot to bring you in the next three hours. First, the death toll in the United States has now topped 190,000 people. More than a thousand new deaths were reported just yesterday. And this morning were hearing stunning new audio from President Trump. It turns out he knew how deadly the virus was back in february, but he intentionally downplayed it. Legendary Journalist Bob Woodward conducted and recorded 18 interviews with the president for his new book called rage. They show the president misled the public about the virus at the very time lives could have been saved. Cnn has obtained excerpts from extensive recordings. No hiding behind claims of anonymous sources. This is the president s own voice, own words, own lies. And you will hear them at length throughout this special broadcast. This is the headline from the Washington Post this morning. I always wanted to play it down. That was 190,000 deaths ago. This morning, we have new reporting on whats going on behind the scenes at the white house. New reaction from medical experts and victims families on the devastating impact of the president s lies. We also have a brandnew interview with democratic nominee joe biden. Jake tappers exclusive, coming up. We begin, though, with cnns joe johns live at the white house with the top headlines from this remarkable moment and the fallout, joe, in the west wing. Reporter thats right. The president and one of the top journalists of our time, the president sat down with bob woodward 18 times, talked with him 18 times over ten months on a wide range of issues, including what he knew and when he knew it in the early days of the pandemic. And now the president is calling the woodward book a political hit job, but its very difficult to argue with the president s own words on the record and woodwards recordings with the president s consent. President trump, in his own words, admitting on tape that he understood just how dangerous the coronavirus could be. The revelation from a series of recorded interviews for Journalist Bob Woodwards new book, rage. In early february, trump privately told woodward the disease was deadlier than the flu. Weeks before the first confirmed coronavirusrelated death in the United States. You know, the touch you dont have to touch things, right . 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, even your strenuous flus. Reporter but even 19 days later, heres what the president said to the public. Thats a little bit like the flu. Its a little like the regular flu that we have flu shots for, and well essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner. Reporter but midmarch, trump admitted privately he was downplaying the coronavirus. I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down. Yes, sir. Because i dont want to create a panic. Reporter and despite the president s repeated claims, like this one last month about the effects of the disease on children if you look at children, theyre able to throw it off very easily. Their immune systems are very, very strong and theyre very powerful. Reporter trump told woodward months earlier that the coronavirus wasnt only harmful to the elderly. Now its turning out, its not just old people, bob, just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out, its not just older people, its plenty of young people. The white house denied the allegations from the book, even after the recordings were released. The president has never lied to the American Public on covid. The president s been very the president was expressing calm and his actions reflect that. The president never downplayed the virus. Hours later, the president responded to woodwards book himself and defended his handling of the pandemic. The fact is, im a cheerleader for this country. I love our country. And i dont want people to be frightened. I dont want to create panic, as you say, and certainly, im not going to drive this country or the world into a frenzy. We want to show confidence. We want to show strength. Reporter trumps defense the same day the United States confirmed covid19 death toll topped 190,000, according to Johns Hopkins university. A grim milestone the president says he prevented from being even worse. So i think if we didnt do what we did, we would have had millions of people die. Reporter in an interview with cnn, joe biden slammed trumps leadership during the pandemic. Its disgusting. We learned this on a day that we turned 190,000 americans dead and he knew this. He waved the white flag. He walked away. He didnt do a damned thing. Think about it. Think about what he did not know. And its almost criminal. Reporter the book reports some of trumps top officials also questioned his abilities. Woodward writing, former defense secretary james mattis called the president dangerous and unfit for office. And dr. Anthony fauci said trumps Attention Span is like a minus number and his sole purpose is to get reelected. I dont really want to get involved in the kind of stuff that is very distracting to the kind of things that im trying to do and that were all trying to do with this outbreak. Reporter and as Racial Injustice has feudal protest and unrest across the country and is taking center stage as an election issue, trump dismissed concerns about black americans frustration. Do you have any sense that that privilege has isolated and put you in a cave, to a certain extent, as it put me, and i think, lots of whiteprivileged people in a cave, and that we have to work our way out of that to understand the anger and the pain, particularly black people feel in this country . Do you no. You really drank the koolaid, didnt you . Listen to you. No, i dont feel that at all so the biggest takeaway so far is that the president revealed all the way back that he knew, in fact, that this virus was contagious, that it was deadly, the seriousness of the situation, all the way back, february 4th of this year. And why is that important . Well, a study by Columbia University says that if the United States had put social distancing guidelines in place just one week earlier than we did in midmarch, 36,000 lives could have been saved. And if we had put social distancing in place two weeks earlier, 84 of deaths and 82 of cases could have been prevented. Alisyn . Yeah, those are important numbers, joe. Thank you very much. All right, joining us now, we have abby phillips, cnn political correspondent, dr. Peter hotez, hes the dean of the National School of tropical medicine at Baylor College of medicine, and myles taylor, cnn contributor and former chief of staff at the department of Homeland Security. Its great to have all of you. You know, we just need to play a little bit more of this sound, again, just to drive it home for everybody. Because this is the moment okay, february 7th is the moment that President Trump admits to bob woodward that he knows its airborne and he knows its more deadly than the seasonal flu, okay . Most of the public did not know that on february 7th. Thats not what the administration was saying. So just listen to this exchange with bob woodward. And so, what was president xi saying yesterday . Well, we were talking mostly about the virus. And i think hes going to have it in good shape, but its a very tricky situation. 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. 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, right . I know, its its amazing the same thing you do for this is more deadly. This is 5 versus 1 and less than 1 , you know, so this is deadly stuff. Okay, so thats what the president knew on february 7th. Well after february 7th, here is what he was telling the American Public. This is like a flu. Of the 15 people, the original 15, as i call them, 8 of them have returned to their homes. Were going down, not up. Were going very substantially down, not up. And again, when you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, thats a pretty good job weve done. I think the virus is going to be its 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 getting better. Theres a very good chance youre not going to die. In fact, were getting very close to a vaccine. One day, it will disappear, like a miracle, it will disappear. Dr. Hotez, your thoughts this morning as you listen to those two different stories . Alisyn, this is devastating. You mentioned that february 7th time. Thats now, in retrospect, we know when this virus was entering into new york city from europe and caused the single largest outbreak, single largest epidemic in the one year of this epidemic. It devastated new york city. And it went on undetected, despite all of the warnings that we had. It was allowed to come in from europe and remain undetected and cause that devastating epidemic. And then, there was a refusal by the white house and by the White House Coronavirus task force to launch a National Strategy, allowing a massive resurgence across the south. And devastated houston and texas and dont forget who paid the price the most for this. The hispanic community, the africanamerican community, the native american community. 20 of the deaths are under 65, but for hispanics, africanamericans, probably native americans, as well. 35 under the age of 65. Bottom line, this is the single largest Public Health failure in the modern history of the United States. Certainly in the last hundred years. And it happened because of the refusal by the white house to launch a National Campaign and a National Strategy against the virus. Its beyond upsetting. And were moving pretty quickly, soon the 200,000 dead americans by the end of this month and well probably hit 300,000 dead americans by december 1st. Its theres almost there are almost no words for this. Dr. Hotez, we heard on february 7th, the president says, out loud, on tape, this is five times deadlier than flu. He said that on february 7th. Yet for a month, if not longer, he was comparing it to the flu. Suggesting its no worse than the flu. In other words, he knew it was more deadly and he lied about it. So what was lost during that period when he was lying to the American People . Well, first of all, this was a horrible Disinformation Campaign thats still going on, right . You know, when he pushed for the openings of schools in areas where this high transmission, putting teachers and staff at risk, its more of the same. He tried to downplay it even then. This is a yearlong Disinformation Campaign. Remember all the words. This is harmless, lowest death rate. The hospital admissions are just catchup from not having elective surgery. They knew it was fake and the Scientific Community knew it was fake, and yet they kept on putting it out there. So they missed the boat when it came to the virus entering into new york from europe. They refused to prevent the resurgence across the south. They deliberately put schoolteachers and staff in harms way. This is beyond political failing. Its, you know, Vice President biden said, used the word stay with using disgusting, i can even use words stronger than that. I spent two and a half years in this administration. I thought i had seen it all. Theres no amount of hyperbole that does this justice. The president of the United States has effectively admitted his complicity in the deaths of tens of thousands of americans. Something i dont think any of us thought we would be saying on live television. But its the truth. And you dont have to take my word for it. The people around the president , as recently as yesterday, i met with people who at senior levels at the white house have been charged with helping to manage the response. They also feel like the president s poorly mismanaged response to this crises resulted in the deaths, needlessly of tens of thousands of americans. And look, we can point back to something we developed in the bush administration, back when we served in the bush administration, 15 years ago, we developed Pandemic Response plans that should have been followed to the t. The playbook was on the shelf, it was ready for him to use, but because he politicized the response and because more than anything he was worried about his reelection, they didnt follow those playbooks and again, we have dead americans because of that failure. I think thats what people should be concerned about and americans should be thinking about that in the runup to october 3rd. As you listen to this remarkable audio. Remember, this isnt reporting on. This is the president s own voice. This is the president telling us what he was doing and why and this was 190,000 deaths ago. So we heard what he said on february 7th. Lets hear what he said later in march about why he was doing this, ed. Now its turning out, its not just old people, bob, but just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out. Its not just older yeah, exactly. Its plenty of young people. If you look at whats going on so 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 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 wanted to give to always play it down. I still like playing it down. Yes, sir. Because i dont want to create a panic. I always wanted to play it down, abby, i still like to play it down. Thats like a witness in the courtroom just admitting that he was guilty of lying. Yeah, absolutely. And thats effect i haively tha president is giving today, that he intentionally played it down because in his view, this is how leaders lead. The problem is that as Public Health experts and peter knows this better than anyone, you have to get people, including the millions of people who are followers and supporters of this president to follow the Public Health guidance, to take steps to protect themselves and protect others. And by playing it down, the president clearly lost time in doing that. You know, i was really fascinated listening to this after having covered this president and talked to him behind the scenes, several times. He often says in private exactly what he says in public. And what is striking about this is that the level of detail and specificity about the seriousness of the problem that he expressed behind the scenes, talking about how younger people are at risk. Talking about how it is fife times deadlier than the flu. These are very specific, clear things that should have been communicated to the public and werent. I remember at a press conference, the president saying, you know, 99 of people are totally fine. They just recover. And using that as an explanation for why the economy needed to open up as soon as possible, even before the pandemic had been contained. This is really extraordinary, because it is not that typical for this president to not, frankly, just say exactly what he thinks. He clearly believed very early on that this virus was deadly and that it was a problem. And he didnt act on it. And i think thats whats causing so many problems. You know, eveover in neverland where the president was on fox news last night, they spent a lot of time trying to defend him by saying other democrats were downplaying the virus. The difference is, this is a president of the United States who has access to all of the information. All of the information that we dont have access to. And thats why the responsibility is greater. Its not neverland, its through the looking glass. Jared kushner says its alice in wonderland, that is the white house. But an interesting analogy, to be injury. The idea that this president doesnt like to panic people. He recently said the suburbs are going up in flames and going away. Hes president panic. But we will dissect that, as well. Coming up, much more of President Trump saying things that we have never heard before about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Gillette proglide and proglide gel. Five blades and a pivoting flexball designed to get virtually every hair on the first stroke, while washing away dirt and oil. So youre ready for the day with a clean shave and a clean face. These days, businesses are adapting to new ways of working. And innovation is at the heart of it. Verizon 5g ultra wideband is the fastest 5g in the world, with speeds up to 25 times todays 4g networks. Its massive capacity and ultralow lag time is already available in parts of select cities around the country. 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