Gov. Phil Murphy is reacting to new revelations that President Donald Trump knew how dangerous and deadly the coronavirus was in February.

 

In a recorded interview with journalist Bob Woodward, the president says he purposefully downplayed the seriousness of the virus to avoid a panic.

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Gov. Murphy says had he known, he would have taken a more aggressive approach.

"If we had known that earlier, we would have shut the state earlier,” says Gov. Murphy. “We would have gone to a mandatory masking policy earlier. We would have had a stay at home mandate put in place, all of which we did and we did as early as any American state, but we would have done it earlier and undoubtedly would've saved lives."

The president defended his response to the pandemic at an event Wednesday afternoon at the White House.

"I'm a cheerleader for this country, I love our country and I don't want people to be frightened, I don't want to create panic,” says President Trump. "The last thing I want to do is create panic in the country. The best word is panic. We don't want to show panic."

President Trump made the comments about the virus for an upcoming book written by Woodward, called "Rage."