CNN’s John Berman Mocks Idea Trump Didn’t Want to Panic Nation Over Covid-19: ‘Panic is His Thing! It’s What He Does!’

A panel of CNN New Day anchors and contributors took a less than charitable view of the White House explanation that President Donald Trump downplayed the deadly impact of the coronavirus in February and March because he didn’t want to panic the nation.

At issue is Bob Woodward’s bombshell release of audio that revealed Trump’s was well aware of the historical impact of the coronavirus as early as February, while at the same time, he was downplaying its impact publicly. During a Wednesday press briefing, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended the presidents’ curious rhetoric as an effort to keep calm and carry on.

There is a significant hole in that logic, pointed out repeatedly Thursday morning on New Day and stated clearly by John Berman.

“Now we have the president’s defense of it all, saying, the reason he lied for months was that he didn’t want to cause a panic,” Berman noted after the audio had played. “Really?” he asked with genuine surprise. “President Trump says he didn’t want to cause a panic. Now I was going to call him Captain Panic, Alisyn promoted him to President Panic … panic is his thing! It’s what he does.”

Berman then introduced a short montage of Trump using straightforward fear tactics in political rhetoric, in particular his warning that suburbs will be destroyed if Joe Biden is elected president.

Alisyn Camerota then took her torn as she asked White House reporter Abby Phillip if there was “audible snorting” among the press corp when he said he didn’t like to panic people? “This is his M.O.! We’ve seen it throughout this presidential race!”

Watch above via CNN.