Trump's explanation for why he downplayed coronavirus is "disingenuous," Jeh Johnson says

President Donald Trump's defense for admittedly downplaying the risks of the coronavirus is "disingenuous," former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said Monday.

Trump told journalist Bob Woodward in taped interviews that he did not want to panic the public by leveling with them about the virus in the early months of the pandemic. .

Trump told Woodward that the virus was "more deadly" than "even your strenuous flus" and that it's difficult to stop because "it goes through air." But publicly, he often said the virus would "go away" and on March 19, he told Woodward, "I wanted to always play it down.

Trump's "entire campaign strategy" for reelection this year "is to create panic and instill fear in the American people.".

"To say now that the reason he didn't want to be honest with the American people about the dangers of this virus is because he didn't want to create panic is frankly disingenuous.".

Calling the policy "aggressive," Johnson warned that it simply encourages people to find another way to cross the border

"Up until this year, what migrants would do is they cross the border, and they would assume that they would be apprehended by our Border Patrol, and then they'd make a case for asylum," Johnson said