"We knew" what, exactly? In January, February, March, I actually didn't know whether COVID would end up being worse than the seasonal flu. I didn't know how big a danger aerosol transmission was. And even as answers to both of those questions became clear, I didn't know that Trump's public statements to the contrary were contemporaneo…
"We knew" what, exactly? In January, February, March, I actually didn't know whether COVID would end up being worse than the seasonal flu. I didn't know how big a danger aerosol transmission was. And even as answers to both of those questions became clear, I didn't know that Trump's public statements to the contrary were contemporaneously contradicting the information he was receiving publicly.
It is a little weird to portray this is as information that ALWAYS would have been greeted with a shrug because it would only have been confirming something we always already knew, but at the same time a bombshell piece of news that needed to be saved until just before the election to have maximum impact (as to that point, this revelation is coming out earlier than the Access Hollywood tape in 2016, so not sure it will be the game changer you seem to think it will be). Also, even if you assume that the timing of the revelation represents a "win" for people who want Joe Biden to be elected, I'm not sure handing Democrats a win is, or should be, Bob Woodward's goal. Probably if the president is saying things publicly that are different than what he is saying privately, and that contradiction is costing people lives, it is probably incumbent on people who have information about that contradiction to reveal it publicly. Put another way, the people who are upset with Woodward might be doing a thing where they prioritize "informing the public and possibly saving lives" over "marginally improving Biden's chances at winning the election."
"We knew" what, exactly? In January, February, March, I actually didn't know whether COVID would end up being worse than the seasonal flu. I didn't know how big a danger aerosol transmission was. And even as answers to both of those questions became clear, I didn't know that Trump's public statements to the contrary were contemporaneously contradicting the information he was receiving publicly.
It is a little weird to portray this is as information that ALWAYS would have been greeted with a shrug because it would only have been confirming something we always already knew, but at the same time a bombshell piece of news that needed to be saved until just before the election to have maximum impact (as to that point, this revelation is coming out earlier than the Access Hollywood tape in 2016, so not sure it will be the game changer you seem to think it will be). Also, even if you assume that the timing of the revelation represents a "win" for people who want Joe Biden to be elected, I'm not sure handing Democrats a win is, or should be, Bob Woodward's goal. Probably if the president is saying things publicly that are different than what he is saying privately, and that contradiction is costing people lives, it is probably incumbent on people who have information about that contradiction to reveal it publicly. Put another way, the people who are upset with Woodward might be doing a thing where they prioritize "informing the public and possibly saving lives" over "marginally improving Biden's chances at winning the election."