Hannity Opens Trump Interview Defending His Covid Response: ‘You Taking It Seriously Was Very Clear Then’

Fox News’ Sean Hannity opened his interview with President Donald Trump by defending his response on the coronavirus amid the fallout from his interview with Bob Woodward.

Hannity admitted he was surprised by the president’s decision to sit down for 18 interviews with Woodward, saying, “I don’t think a lot of good comes from talking to Bob Woodward, my own personal opinion.”

He went on to bring up the travel ban Trump implemented early on and go after Joe Biden for hire response at the time.

Trump started his answer saying Woodward “does hit jobs with everybody” and said he decided to participate this time around. “I don’t know if the book is good or bad, I have no idea, probably, almost definitely won’t read it because I don’t have time to read it, but I gave it a little bit of a shot. Sounds like it’s not going to be good.”

He went on to defend his comments to Woodward about downplaying the virus early on, again insisting he didn’t want to panic the public.

Hannity went on to defend the president’s covid response as well:

“I watched your press conference today, and the general tone of the questioning was that you misled the country because you told Bob Woodward on February 7th, this looks like it’s going to be five times as bad as a normal flu virus. I think most Americans may not even know that there are years, with the influenza virus, that we lose tens of thousands of Americans, it’s not uncommon. But your actions just seven days earlier where you put a travel ban in effect and a quarantine in effect — again, hasn’t been done in 50 years. So actions mean something, and you taking it seriously was very clear then, and you say I don’t want people to panic, they say, well, you must have been downplaying it. Wouldn’t your actions contradict that narrative?”

“Absolutely,” Trump said. He reiterated again that he “didn’t want to scare people” and went after some top Democrats for downplaying the virus early on.

You can watch above, via Fox News.