'You just don't want to listen, Jake': Moment Trump aide Peter Navarro is abruptly cut from CNN interview during VERY heated debate over President 'downplaying' threat of COVID
Peter Navarro was on Sunday abruptly cut from his CNN interview after a heated debate over Donald Trump 'downplaying' the threat of the coronavirus.
The president's aide told Jake Tapper: 'You just don't want to listen, Jake', adding: 'This is not fair, Jake. You're constantly interrupting me and you're not letting me talk.' He then accused Tapper of 'cherry picking'.
State of the Union host Tapper had asked Navarro why Trump 'acknowledged to Bob Woodward behind closed doors coronavirus was five times deadlier than the flu, misleading the American people'. He added: 'Why wasn't he honest?'
Navarro told Tapper: 'I am answering your question. You just don't like the answer.'
Peter Navarro was on Sunday abruptly cut from his CNN interview after a heated debate over Donald Trump 'downplaying' the threat of the coronavirus. The president's aide told Jake Tapper: ' You just don't want to listen, Jake'
He added: 'The answer is in February all the way through the middle of March when the world health organization finally said there was a pandemic and China was hiding the information, finally, that's when we knew that there was a pandemic.
'And you know what, Jake, we were at that point prepared for the worst. In February we were moving mountains on PPE, therapeutics, testing and vaccines so that in the time that we needed those things we got those things.'
Trump spoke privately about the deadly nature of the coronavirus in recorded interviews even as he was publicly downplaying the severity of COVID-19 early this year, before the pandemic would take nearly 200,000 American lives and counting.
On Sunday Navarro was probed about the comments. His interview was then ended as Tapper said: 'He [Trump] knew it was deadlier than the flu and he was lying to the American public two weeks later.
'I'm not cherry picking. He was not honest with the American people. You're not answering the question.'
Navorro replied: 'You're not honest with the American people. CNN is not honest with the American people.'
Cutting in Tapper said: 'Okay. You want to go there? I said you're not answering the question. Thank you, Peter Navarro. We just played tape. You didn't answer the question.
'Okay. Peter Navarro, thank you so much. I appreciate your time today.'
Earlier in the interview Tapper told Navarro he was 'wrong' after the aide claimed: 'He was called a xenophobe and a racist by Joe Biden.'
Navarro added: 'This is not fair, Jake. You're constantly interrupting me and you're not letting me talk.'
Tapper replied: 'You're talking about something else. It's a very basic question...You want to talk about what you want to talk about, right...He knew it was deadlier than the flu and he was lying to the American public two weeks later.'
'Jake, you're cherry picking', Navarro replied.
Donald Trump spoke privately about the deadly nature of the coronavirus in recorded interviews even as he was publicly downplaying the severity of COVID-19 early this year, before the pandemic would take nearly 200,000 American lives and counting
In recorded interviews that were revealed Wednesday afternoon, Trump – who regularly speaks of his disdain for much of the 'fake news' media – spoke liberally with Woodward, pictured, about his inner thoughts on the virus and private conversations with Kim Jong-un – despite having called an earlier Woodward book a 'con on the public.'
The president shared his stark assessment with the Washington Post's Bob Woodward in recorded phone interviews in February, as the virus was spreading from China to other parts of the world.
In recorded interviews that were revealed Wednesday afternoon, Trump – who regularly speaks of his disdain for much of the 'fake news' media – spoke liberally with Woodward about his inner thoughts on the virus and private conversations with Kim Jong-un – despite having called an earlier Woodward book a 'con on the public.'
'This is deadly stuff,' the president told the Watergate reporter, Washington fixture and author who has interviewed U.S. presidents going back to Nixon.
Washington Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward's new book 'Rage'. Woodward compiled nine hours of recorded conversation with President Trump for the book, which comes out 15 September
'You just breathe the air and that's how it's passed,' Trump told him in a February 7 call. 'And so that's a very tricky one. That's a very delicate one. It's also more deadly than even your strenuous flu.'
Trump had been briefed on the virus in the Oval Office January 28, as Washington Post excerpts describe.
National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien warned him: 'This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency,' according to Woodward.
He told the nation February 2: 'Well, we pretty much shut it down coming in from China.'
February 7 – the date of the Woodward call – is the same date Trump tweeted about China's president: 'Nothing is easy, but [Chinese President Xi Jinping] … will be successful, especially as the weather starts to warm & the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone.'
Trump continued: 'Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation. We are working closely with China to help!'
Trump then told Woodward in a March 19 interview explaining his comments: 'I wanted to always play it down.'
'I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic,' he said.
CNN host Tapper had asked Navarro why Trump 'acknowledged to Bob Woodward behind closed doors coronavirus was five times deadlier than the flu, misleading the American people'. He added: 'Why wasn't he honest?'
