#Trump tells Hannity he ‘wanted to show calmness’ amid COVID epidemic

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Donald Trump and Sean Hannity.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst, AP

President Trump responded to the release of an interview he did with Bob Woodward by explaining that he did not want to react to the coronavirus pandemic by “jumping up and down and going wild.”

Trump was speaking with Fox News’ Sean Hannity about an audio excerpt from Woodward’s reporting, where the president said he “always wanted to play it down,” referring to the outbreak of COVID-19.

“But if you look at what I said today, I said don’t panic,” Trump told Hannity about the audio released Wednesday, which was recorded in early February and March. “We don’t want to be jumping up and down and going wild. Don’t panic.”

The president emphasized his moves on restrictions to certain travel from China as a decisive action to control the spread of the virus.

“I did something very important, at the end of January I banned China,” Trump said. “Nobody wanted me to do a ban on China.”

The restrictions took effect Feb. 2 and continued to allow travel to the US from China’s Hong Kong and Macao territories. The Associated Press reported that more than 8,000 Chinese and foreign nationals based in those territories entered the U.S. in the first three months after the travel restrictions were imposed.

Additionally, more than 27,000 Americans returned from mainland China in the first month after the restrictions took effect. U.S. officials lost track of more than 1,600 of them who were supposed to be monitored for virus exposure.

Although Trump said about the virus that, “Nobody had any idea it would be as violent as it was gonna be,” he also said that his administration has done a great job keeping the death toll lower than it could have been.

“We could have lost 2 million, 2-and-a-half million,” Trump claimed about the possible death toll. “If you look at fatality numbers compared to other countries, it’s amazing what we’ve done. We’ve done an incredible job.”

According to Johns Hopkins University, the US has more than 190,000 deaths from coronavirus — more than any other country.

Trump also said that states have mishandled the epidemic and may be keeping their lockdown orders in place for political reasons.

“Michigan is still shut down, it’s a shame. They don’t know what they’re doing,” he said.

The president emphasized that his goal was to keep the economy strong and people’s spirits up in the face of a deadly pandemic.

“I’m a cheerleader for this country and I don’t want to see panic,” he said.