On Thursday, Arizona’s governor told reporters that he does not feel misled by President Donald Trump for reportedly downplaying COVID-19.
On Wednesday, The Washington Post, CNN and other media outlets published audio clips from several of Trump’s interview with journalist Bob Woodward.
During an interview on February 7, Trump described the dangers of the virus that had not yet fully engulfed the U.S., calling it “deadly.”
However, publicly, Trump maintained that the virus was “under control” and that it would “disappear” in the coming months.
On Thursday, Trump stood by his decision to downplay the virus, even as the U.S. death toll soars over 190,000 — the most in the world. He also attacked Woodward for not reporting on his comments earlier.
Governor Doug Ducey was asked if he felt misled by the President, “I do not feel misled, like I said, and I’ll repeat myself is, there has been a sense of urgency and seriousness about this since day one in terms of the cases in Arizona. An emergency operations center set up on January 28th.”
Ducey went on to say, “And, the question was also can you trust the president and the administration, well trust is built through experience and actions, and on every ask that the state of Arizona has had, either to the president or the administration, they have delivered."
The governor also listed how the administration has given Arizona PPE, ventilators, medicine, and 100 percent funding for the Arizona National Guard.
Kristin Urquiza lost her father to COVID-19 on June 30 in Arizona — after his death, Urquiza invited Governor Ducey to her father’s funeral. Since then, she’s become an advocate by launching ‘Marked By COVID’ and has become a voice with the Democratic Party.
“We learned yesterday that the president deliberately lied to the American public, he betrayed our trust, and led us astray, which means he led the governor of Arizona astray,” said Urquiza.
The President talked about how deadly the virus is in one of the audio recordings with Woodward on February 7, and less than two weeks later, Trump held an event in Phoenix at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
