President Trump told a crowd of thousands at a rally near Saginaw he did the right thing by avoiding discussing publicly how dangerous COVID-19 could be.
The president doubled down on previous comments that he wanted to avoid spreading panic over the virus among the public.
Trump had said he wanted to be interviewed by respected journalist Bob Woodward for a forthcoming book.
Woodward quotes Trump saying COVID-19 was deadly stuff weeks before the first confirmed deaths from the virus in the U-S.
At Trump’s Michigan rally with many in the crowd refraining from wearing a mask, Woodward was no longer quite so “respected.”
“This whack job that wrote the book, he said ‘Well Trump knew a little bit.’" said Trump. "They wanted me to come out and scream ‘People are dying, we’re dying.’ No, no. We did it just the right way. We have to be calm.”
The president also took credit for bringing new auto plants to Michigan though in fact the state has lost several in recent years and only a relative handful of major factories are being built or re-tooled.