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Trump called 'con artist' as Woodward tape reveals he skipped meeting over a sneeze despite downplaying Covid-19

Woodward, who in his book 'Rage' claimed that Trump had admitted in February that he deliberately downplayed the severity of Covid-19, recently appeared on Stephen Colbert's 'The Late Show'

Legendary journalist Bob Woodward, who released a bombshell book on Donald Trump called 'Rage' where he revealed that the President admitted back in February that he deliberately downplayed the severity of Covid-19, appeared on Stephen Colbert's 'The Late Show' on September 14, and played an exclusive interview tape where Trump jokes about "bailing" a White House meeting because someone sneezed.

The interview was recorded back on April 13 this year. “Bob, it’s so easily transmissible, you wouldn’t even believe it,” Trump can be heard saying on the tape which was shared with 'The Late Show'. Trump says that he was in the Oval Office attending a meeting with a group of advisers when one of them let out a sneeze. “A guy sneezed, innocently,” Trump says. “Not a horrible — just a sneeze. The entire room bailed out, OK? Including me, by the way.”

“He’s making light there at the end, but at the heart of that is something extraordinarily shocking,” Colbert remarked after the clip was played. “Yes,” Woodward replied, reminding viewers that Trump was still “downplaying the virus” when the interview took place. On the same day that the tape was recorded by the author, Trump was threatening to “override” measures taken by governors to save their states from the pandemic. “When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total and that is the way it’s gonna be,” Trump told reporters. “It’s total. It’s total. And the governors know that.”

Woodward then went onto comment on the president’s indoor rally in Nevada on Sunday night, he added, “God knows how many people there, all packed together, I wonder if someone sneezed the front row if Trump would bail out again and get out of the way. Anyway, this is too serious a matter, as you know,” Woodward continued. He also told Colbert that it was not like Trump did not understand his own job description. “I once asked him, ‘What’s the job of the president?’” Woodward told Colbert of Trump. “And he said the job is to protect the people. I agree. I think most people in this country would. And he failed to protect the people. He failed to find a way to tell the truth.”

A clip of the tape uploaded on the show's official page went viral with reactions flowing in from people on social media. "A tweet last night said the ppl behind Trump @ his rally were wearing masks. They thought it was for the cameras. I thought it was bcc they'd be the most likely to sneeze or cough on him. Hearing this, Trump would most certainly bail if sneezed on," one said, while another said, "Trump's unbelievable. He is such a con artist. Very simple strategical goals set out without much thought given. He reacts without any thought about the outcome of his actions. He's like a horse with blinders and a bag of gold coins hung infront of him. It's deplorable."

Many people did not understand why Woodward did not reveal the interview tapes if he had them for months. On the other hand, there were those who were grateful that he appeared on the 'Late Show' and revealed an exclusive tape from his 18 on-record interviews with the president but wanted to know why he had not submitted the tapes as evidence of Trump's misconduct to the health department.

"Woodward: let me piecemeal this for all its worth. Unless he handed tapes over to Democrats in Congress," one commented, another wrote, "I hope to God you asked him why he sat on those recordings for so long!!!! It seriously pisses me off that he’s known about him saying all of this for months. What was Bob thinking?!?!!!" A third one wrote, "He may be the big ‘get’ for @colbertlateshow @StephenAtHome tonight but you have cold, hard evidence that the President’s disciple, @GovRonDeSantis, instructed that lies about the numbers relative to Covid-19 be reported by the State’s Health Department."