As coronavirus cases climb, Trump often asserts that COVID-19 will go away
As the number of coronavirus cases have risen in the U.S., President Trump continues to assert that COVID-19 will go away.
Video Transcript
- Have you been briefed by the CDC?
DONALD TRUMP: I have.
- Are there words about a pandemic at this point?
DONALD TRUMP: No, not at all. And we have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China. And we have it under control. It's going to be just fine.
When you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done.
We have done an incredible job. We're going to continue. It's going to disappear one day. It's like a miracle. It will disappear.
- How do you keep people from panicking?
DONALD TRUMP: I don't think they're panicking. I don't think people are panicking. I said last night. We did an interview on Fox last night, a town hall. I think it was very good. And I said calm. You have to be calm. It'll go away.
I'd love to have it opened by Easter. I would love to have it opened by Easter. I will tell you that right now. I would love to have that. It's such an important day for other reasons. But I'll make it an important day for this too. I would love to have the country opened up and raring to go by Easter.
- That's April 12th.
- Is there any fairness to the criticism that you may have lulled Americans into a false sense of security when you were saying things like it's going to go away--
DONALD TRUMP: Well, it is.
- --and that sort of thing.
DONALD TRUMP: Jim, it's going away.
- But when you were saying--
DONALD TRUMP: It's going to go away, hopefully at the end of the month. And if not, hopefully it will be soon after that. Jim, it is going away.
Our administration's ongoing drive to beat the virus, to crush the virus. And that's happening. And it's happening. I think if you look a little bit more quickly than people thought, maybe a lot more quickly I hope.
It will be gone. And we want to be back to where we were. Yes?
- Without a vaccine, sir, why do you think the virus will just be gone?
DONALD TRUMP: It's gonna go. It's gonna leave. It's going to be gone. It's going to be eradicated.
This is going to go away without a vaccine. It's going to go away. And we're not going to see it again hopefully after a period of time. You may have some flareups. And I guess, you know, I would expect that. Sometime in the fall you'll have flareups maybe, maybe not. But according to what a lot of people say, you probably will. We'll be able to put them out. You may have some flareups next year. But eventually it's going to be gone.
I always say, even without it, it goes away. But if we had the vaccine, and we will, if we had therapeutic or cure, one thing sort of blends into the other, it will be a fantastic day. And I think that's going to happen. And it's going to happen very soon.
And I think we're going to be very good with the coronavirus. I think that at some point that's going to sort of just disappear, I hope.
- You still believe so, disappear?
DONALD TRUMP: I do, I do, yeah, sure, at some point.
- And even Dr. Fauci saying that we're knee deep. And he's saying that we're not in a very good place or something to that effect. How do we reconcile the good news with the bad news?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I think we are in a good place. I disagree with him.
I see people now friends of mine. They walk up. They want to say hello and have to keep their distance and they're all covered up like you're all covered up with facemasks. It's a different world. But we're coming out on top.
