“If I had done the story at that time about what he knew in February, that’s not telling us anything we didn’t know,” Woodward said. At that point, he said, the issue was no longer one of public health but of politics. His priority became getting the story out before the election in November.

“That was the demarcation line for me,” he said. “Had I decided that my book was coming out on Christmas, the end of this year, that would have been unthinkable.”

7 months to verify sources? I think not. Even if he couldn’t do it might he have let it slip some other way? Nope. This doesn’t let him off the hook. He had Trump's own words on how he handled the epidemic. Trump says that he didn't want to cause a panic? Bull. From the moment Trump rode down the escalator he has been inducing panic. Hordes of Mexican rapists and drug cartels are flooding in through the border because there is no wall was a huge lie because drugs flood the country through the checkpoints or they are flown into the US by the CIA. Trump know that.

Sorry Bob this excuse does not fly for me. Just release the tapes. Oh wait.... you have a book coming out right?

Joe nailed Bob's excuse:

somebody ought to ask Woodward on what date did he choose to begin wearing a mask in public or otherwise change his personal behaviors to reduce his risk of becoming infected with COVID.

that will be the date on which he should have spilt the beans

Thanks for back filling some of history.

Could Trump have done more to stop the epidemic from becoming worse? Of course he could have, but he's not the only person making life and decisions. Remember DeBlasio and Cuomo were both downplaying the dangers in March until they didn't. Was there a national memo sent to governors that said let's let old people get infected and die instead of doing everything in their power to protect them? Washington state warned us of the vulnerability of people in them in January. Just last month Pritzker in Illinois was still allowing deaths to continue.

Is Trump the only one who is sending kids and teachers back to school? Hell no. Schumer said that if we don't do it we are responsible for the worsening economy. Cuomo, Newsom, Herbert in UT and most governors are on board with this no matter how many people die.

That the food supply wasn't protected at the federal level is one thing. That no governors couldn't have done what they could in their states? Or any of the many, many other things that could have been done. Yes Trump Very Bad Man. But he's not the only one who deliberately dropped the COVID ball.

And let us not forget how Pelosi and democrats refuses to bail out we the people. Lots of democrats wanted to send people $2,000/month UBI until the epidemic ended and it was safe to open the country back up. It wasn't just Trump who spent TRILLIONS for rich people and left us out.

Trump made his comments about Covid-19 to Steno Woodward. By that time it was no longer possible to claim that it was no big deal. And if there's one thing that should be clear about Trump, he always tries to make himself look smart and prescient, which he isn't. He isn't smart enough to have listened to and evaluated whatever information was funneled to him during the first six weeks (from Jan 23 through March 3). However, he wanted to impress Woodward that he was smart even if it meant he had to make up an excuse for why he'd been a dumbass for nearly two months. (And didn't exhibit much knowledge at that point either or much since then.) It probably would have served Trump better if Woodward had immediately gone public with Trump's claim, but that would have jeopardized Woodward's 'access' and made for a skinnier book.

(Bernstein was the writer, and he actually did some Watergate investigating on his own. He's not a particularly good or insightful reporter; thus even though always well written, he hasn't had much good material since Watergate.)