ABC's Jon Karl asks Trump why 'did you lie to the American people' about coronavirus

President Trump and ABC correspondent Jon Karl had a tense exchange on Thursday after the latter accused the president of lying to the American people about the threat posed by the coronavirus, and suggested that as a result, they might not be able to trust him as a leader.

"Why did you lie to the American people?" Karl asked during a press briefing at the White House. "And why should we trust what you have to say now?"

Audio released on Wednesday provoked a media firestorm as it included Trump telling veteran journalist Bob Woodward earlier this year that he wanted to downplay the threat of the virus in order to avoid panicking the American people. Karl equated Trump's stance with lying and used that word when asking the first question of the news conference.

Trump immediately started shaking his head in the middle of Karl's question and panned the phrasing as "terrible." "Such a terrible question and the phraseology -- I didn't lie. What I said is we have to be calm, we can't be panicked."

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"These are a series of phone calls that we had, mostly phone calls, and Bob Woodward is somebody that I respect just from hearing the name from many, many years," Trump added.

"Not knowing too much about his work, not caring about his work. But I thought it would be interesting to talk to him for a period of calls. So we did that. I don’t know if it’s good or bad. I don’t even know if the book is good or bad. But certainly, if he thought that was a bad statement, he would have reported it because he thinks that, you know, you don’t want to have anybody that is going to suffer medically because of some fact. And he didn’t report it because he didn’t think it was bad. Nobody thought it was bad. Wait a minute."

Trump then returned to criticizing Karl, who has clashed with the president repeatedly in the past. "And your question, the way you phrased that is such a disgrace. It’s a disgrace to ABC television network, it’s a disgrace to your employer. And that’s the answer," he said. While some cheered Karl online, others were more critical.

During his interview with Woodward, Trump specifically said he "wanted to always play it [the pandemic] down. I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic."

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Shortly after audio of the Woodward interview was published, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended Trump, arguing that he acted like "good leaders" do by staying "calm" in the midst of a crisis. She added that the president "has never lied to the American public on COVID."

Both National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien and Dr. Anthony Fauci have defended Trump, arguing that he didn't distort the facts surrounding the virus. O'Brien's predecessor, John Bolton, has argued that Trump's actions "almost certainly" cost lives.