WASHINGTON (NYTIMES) - As coronavirus cases and deaths were rising in the United States last spring, Mr Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, told an interviewer that the President had taken the "country back from the doctors".

The comment was made on April 18 in a discussion with journalist Bob Woodward as he was reporting for his book, Rage, his second about the Trump presidency.

CNN obtained an audio recording of the interview.

Even as the country was falling into the grip of a pandemic that to date has claimed more than 220,000 American lives, Mr Kushner told Mr Woodward that his father-in-law had won a battle for control with the doctors struggling to understand how to combat the little-known virus.

Mr Kushner sounded decidedly optimistic - even triumphant.

"There were three phases," he said. "There's the panic phase, the pain phase and then the comeback phase. I do believe that last night symbolised kind of the beginning of the comeback phase.

"That doesn't mean there's not still a lot of pain and there won't be pain for a while, but that basically was: We've now put out rules to get back to work. Trump's now back in charge. It's not the doctors. They've kind of - we have, like, a negotiated settlement."

At the time, Mr Trump was laser-focused on what the pandemic would mean for his presidency, and his re-election prospects, and was trying to convince the public that restrictions several states had imposed were excessive.

Mr Kushner had several conversations with Mr Woodward that White House officials have said he believed were on background and not for quoting.

A White House spokesman, Ms Sarah Matthews, defended Mr Trump's approach.

"As he has said numerous times, the cure cannot be worse than the disease," she said.

"When it was in the best interest of the country to shut down, he did so at the advice of top health officials. However, as President, he must take a holistic approach to the virus and consider the devastating effects of lockdowns and the consequences of keeping our economy shut down for an extended period of time. "