CNN Correspondent Defends Woodward for Withholding Tapes of Trump’s Covid Downplaying: ‘He Didn’t Realize What He Had’

CNN special correspondent Jamie Gangel defended Bob Woodward from critics blasting him for withholding vital information about President Donald Trump and the deadliness of the coronavirus.

Woodward, the legendary journalist who holds the largely honorary title of associate editor at the Washington Post, has come under great scrutiny from those accusing him of sitting on his taped interviews with Trump in order to gin up interest in his new book, titled “Rage.” Many of these critics argue Woodward should have released the audio he got from Trump months ago — in which the president acknowledged Covid-19’s seriousness, but said his plan was to keep downplaying it. Tens of thousands more Americans died from the pandemic in the months following that conversation, and as such, the argument is that Woodward shares the blame by not sounding the alarm sooner.

During an appearance with John King on CNN Thursday, Gangel argued that Woodward is “actually very transparent in the book and lays out the timeline” for how he pieced together the context of Trump’s botched handling of the health crisis.

“None of this really came together as Woodward lays out timeline until the beginning of May,” Gangel said. “That’s when he finds out about the January 28th briefing, and then all of a sudden, he goes back, he listens to the tapes from February 7th and realizes it’s the light bulb moment…He didn’t realize what he had until May.”

Gangel and King continued on that point by referring to a tape where Woodward asked Trump if he remembers Robert O’Brien’s coronavirus warnings from months ago, and Trump responded. “No, I don’t. I’m sure if he said it, you know, I’m sure he said it. Nice guy.”

Woodward has also addressed his critics by insisting that it took him months of digging to fully verify the contents of his book.

Watch above, via CNN.