The bevy of garbage excuses playing out over the Woodward book is quite the spectacle. "Well, he played it down because he didn't want to cause a panic. That's good!"

There is a significant difference between "OMG! EVERYONE RUN FOR THEIR LIVES!" style panic inducement and

what Trump did, which was to wave it off as no biggie into *the middle of March.* If he said 2-3 weeks earlier, "This is far more dangerous than the flu. We are still learning about it, but people should take precautions against it" would not have induced panic. But

the constant dismissals, mockery, hand-waving, and promises that it would just "go away" was duplicitous. Period.

And people can complain about the press all they want. Yes, the touting of the worst-case scenarios, the fawning over Andrew Cuomo who screwed up royally, the

Democrats hissing over Trump's China travel ban, etc. It's all true. Trump is the leader of the free world. Not CNN or Andrew Cuomo. Stop acting as they have just as much culpability as the President of The United States.