Shepard Smith on his interview with journalist Bob Woodward about new book 'Rage'

Shepard Smith joins "Squawk Box" ahead of the premiere of his new show "The News with Shepard Smith" on CNBC to walk through his interview with journalism legend Bob Woodward about Woodward's newly released book "Rage." For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi

Journalist Bob Woodward told CNBC that President Donald Trump lacked a national strategy to bring the U.S. together to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.

“If you tell the public the truth, that they will rally ’round. They will get behind the leadership,” Woodward said in an interview with CNBC’s Shepard Smith that aired Wednesday on “Squawk Box.”

Woodward, who is best known for his role in uncovering the Watergate scandal while at The Washington Post, published his latest book on the Trump presidency, “Rage,” on Tuesday. He also authored the book, “Fear,” which was released two years ago.

In the CNBC interview, Woodward compared Trump’s early response to the intensifying coronavirus — which emerged late last year in Wuhan, China — to how former President George W. Bush responded immediately following the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, that killed nearly 3,000 Americans.

“This happened in 9/11 after the terrorist attack in New York and the Pentagon. President George W. Bush actually gave speeches and said, you know, we’re going to respond at an hour of our choosing,” Woodward said, likely referring to Bush’s speech at a national prayer service a few days after the attack.

“The public got behind this. The Congress got behind it,” said Woodward, a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, including an award as part of The Post’s coverage of 9/11. “It was bad news. People won’t flee from bad news. People in this country are problem-solvers, I believe.”

Asked specifically by CNBC’s Smith if the Trump administration did “have a plan” to respond to the eventual pandemic, Woodward said, “They didn’t.”

“One of my findings in the book is that President Trump is a one-man band. He decides things. He has his impulses. There are not the kind of serious regular meetings of the National Security Council or the National Economic Council. And being a one-man band, he acts on the impulse of the moment,” Woodward added.

Woodward’s book is partly based on nearly 20 interviews he conducted with Trump over the course of several months. Last week, it was reported that Trump told Woodward in mid-March that he “wanted to always play it down,” referring to the threat of the coronavirus.

“I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic,” Trump told Woodward on March 19. On Feb. 28, weeks before that interview with Woodward, Trump had said publicly that the virus would “disappear.”

Despite those comments to Woodward, which are on tape, Trump said at an ABC town hall event Tuesday that “in many ways I up-played it in terms of action.” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has said Trump “was expressing calm” and “embodied the American spirit” in his pandemic response.

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