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Part 3: ‘Playing it down’
Despite decades of warnings and preparation, President Trump has claimed that the novel coronavirus “came out of nowhere.” He downplayed the coronavirus as it began to take hold in the United States, disregarding the advice of experts and politicizing a health crisis. Through interviews with former Trump administration officials Mark Harvey and Olivia Troye, along with Washington Post reporters Dan Balz and Yasmeen Abutaleb, ‘Playing it down’ explores why the White House was slow to respond to the pandemic, and the far-reaching consequences of its inaction. After months of mixed messages, contradictory policies, divisive rhetoric — and more than 225,000 deaths — the president continues to insist the virus will one day disappear.