Bob Woodward reveals 'extraordinarily shocking' audio of Trump on 'The Late Show'

Stephen Proctor
Updated ·3 min read
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Bob Woodward appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Monday night where he revealed new audio of President Trump that shocked Colbert. Last week, Woodward released audio recordings of conversations he had with Trump for his new book, Rage. In the recordings from February and March, Trump can be heard acknowledging how dangerous and deadly the coronavirus could be, but that he wanted to downplay it publicly, which is exactly what he did. Trump continued holding large rallies into March, where he referred to criticism of his handling of the pandemic as a Democrat hoax, and he refused to wear a mask in public as the CDC had recommended. But as Trump told Woodward on April 13, in private, he was much more cautious.

“Bob, it’s so easily transmissible, you wouldn’t even believe it,” Trump told Woodward. “I mean, you could, you could be in the room … I was in the White House a couple of days ago, meeting of 10 people in the Oval Office and a guy sneezed — innocently. Not a horrible — you know, just a sneeze. The entire room bailed out, okay? Including me, by the way.”

“Well, I know he’s making light there at the end,” Colbert responded after hearing the audio, “but at the heart of that is something extraordinarily shocking.”

Trump held an indoor rally in Nevada on Sunday at which there was no social distancing and very little use of masks. Woodward wondered if Trump would have employed the same philosophy there as he did in the Oval Office.

“So he’s in the Oval Office, someone sneezes, and he bails out. He goes running out,” Woodward said. “Last night in Nevada when he was going through that rally — I mean, God knows how many people there, all packed together. I wonder if someone sneezed in the front row that Trump would bail out again and get out of the way.”

Woodward has spoken about his belief that Trump has failed the American people with his handling of the coronavirus, and he believes that Trump’s actions over the past several months will not be looked back upon favorably.

“When the history books about this are written and it’s all put together, people are gonna be, and historians are gonna be, stunned at the failure,” Woodward said, “the basic failure to lead and say, ‘Hey, this is what’s going on, guys.’”

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on CBS.

Watch Bob Woodward claim that Trump lied about the coronavirus because he did not understand the American public:

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