‘That’s Not True’: Bret Baier Calls Out Trump Campaign Spox Over Claim Trump Didn’t Mislead Public on Covid

Fox News anchor Bret Baier shot down Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh’s false claim that President Donald Trump was saying the same things in public about the coronavirus as he was telling Bob Woodward in private.

On Thursday evening, Baier pushed Murtaugh on the political fallout from the explosive revelations contained in Woodward’s new, inside-the-White-House account, Rage. The Fox host noted that his previous guest, Biden national press secretary, T.J. Ducklo, hammered Trump over his admission that “I wanted to always play it down” to the public even as he was telling the author that Covid-19 was a “deadly virus” that spread via airborne transmission and was much more dangerous than the seasonal flu.

“You heard what they said,” Baier noted, alluding to Ducklo’s aggressive attack on Trump. “They’re coming hard after the president for what he said to Bob Woodward and what he said on the record.”

“We know without question that President Trump’s move to restrict travel from China saved thousands of American lives. Dr. [Anthony] Fauci says so, all medical experts say so and we know that Joe Biden would not have done that,” Murtaugh said. “And now what is happening, what has everybody excited, it’s packaged up and says Bob Woodward’s name on the cover. But, in fact, the things that are contained in there are the same things that President Trump was saying publicly. He views it as part of his…”

“That’s not true, Tim” Baier cut in. “That’s not true.”

“Yes it is.”

“When he said that the virus would go from 15 to zero and then it was magically going to wash away, that is not the same thing he’s telling Bob Woodward, that it’s a deadly virus over the air and I like to down play it,” Baier pointed out, debunking Murtaugh. “He was not saying the same things privately to Bob Woodward.”

“It was public knowledge at the time, the Washington Post and others discussed in coronavirus briefings. Everyone knew that it was transmitted through things like coughing and sneezing…” Murtaugh protested.

“But you just said that what he was saying privately and publicly, you’re saying, it’s the same. It’s not,” Baier noted again.

“Dr. Fauci said it is the same,” Murtaugh responded. “You just played the sound bite. There’s a difference between what the president was discussing privately versus…”

“With Fauci, not with Bob Woodward,” Baier said, clarifying Murtaugh’s attempt to spin.

Watch the video above, via Fox News.

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