Last Updated on September 9, 2020
In one of several interviews with The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward that correspond with his new book and were published in excerpts today by CNN, President Donald Trump accused Woodward of drinking “the Kool-Aid” and rebuked the idea of white privilege and racial politics in the United States.
In audio released by CNN, Woodward tells President Trump that both he and the president are “white” and “privileged,” and asked whether President Trump senses “that privilege has isolated” him “in a cave” as it has “lots of white, privileged people.”
Woodward then asked if President Trump believes “we have to work our way out of [the cave] to understand the anger and the pain, particularly black people feel in this country?” He continued asking another question about white privilege, without waiting for an answer, when President Trump stopped him.
“No,” said President Trump, laughing. “You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you. Wow.”
“No, I don’t feel that at all,” President Trump continued before the audio was ended by CNN or Woodward. It appears as if President Trump intended to continue expressing his thoughts on race relations in the cut audio.
CNN’s transcript of the exchange:
WOODWARD: Do you have any sense that that privilege has isolated and put you in a cave to a certain extent, as it put me, and I think lots of White, privileged people in a cave. And that we have to work our way out of it to understand the anger and the pain, particularly Black people feel in this country. Do you feel–
TRUMP: No. You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don’t feel that at all.
Woodward’s book and audio reveals that President Trump attempted to prevent a panic during the early days of COVID-19 by minimizing the severity of the disease until the government had a plan in place. The book and audio also seem to detail a breakdown in the relationship between President Trump and Chinese leader President Xi Jinping.
