Trump: Bob Woodward sat on coronavirus remarks because he knew they were 'good and proper'

Trump said Woodward did not feel obligated to warn the public about his comments on the severity of the coronavirus early on in the pandemic, which were caught on tape, because he felt there was nothing improper about sharing a desire to play down the health crisis to keep the public calm.

"Bob Woodward had my quotes for many months. If he thought they were so bad or dangerous, why didn’t he immediately report them in an effort to save lives? Didn’t he have an obligation to do so? No, because he knew they were good and proper answers. Calm, no panic!" Trump tweeted on Thursday morning.

Woodward has been widely criticized for waiting to release Trump's remarks about the virus to the public for months while he finished up his latest book, Rage. Jessica Huseman, a ProPublica reporter, criticized his decision to withhold the information from February until September, as did many others.