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Donald Trumptested positive for COVID-19 three days before he facedJoe Bidenin their first presidential debate, the former president’s White House Chief of StaffMark Meadowsalleges in a new book.
In a second test, Trump tested negative, Meadows writes — using those results, rather than the positive test, “to press on as if nothing had happened,“according toThe Guardian, which obtained a copy of the book.
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment regarding the Meadows book (which the former president hailed in October as “fantastic.")
“The story of me having COVID prior to, or during, the first debate is Fake News,” Trump said in a statement,The Independentreported. “In fact, a test revealed that I did not have COVID prior to the debate.”
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Meadows writes that he noticed the president was “a little tired” and thought he might have a “slight cold” as he was preparing to leave Washington to attend a rally in Middletown, Penn., on the day of his initial positive test.
“Stop the president from leaving,” Meadows writes White House physician Sean Conley said over the phone. “He just tested positive for COVID.”
Meadows writes that Trump’s reply “rhyme[d] with ‘Oh spit, you’ve gotta be trucking lidding me,'” theGuardianreports.
He also said the White House was shocked to find out that the president had tested positive, despite awell-attended eventin the Rose Garden for Supreme Court nomineeAmy Coney Barrettthat very day. Dr. AnthonyFauci called it a “superspreader event"andThe New York Timesreported that11 people were diagnosed with COVIDafter attending, including Trump.
Immediately following the positive results, which were not disclosed to the press or the public, Trump was quickly given another, more accurate test, according to Meadows, who writes that after a “brief but tense wait” the results came back negative.
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Meadows writes that he could “almost hear the collective ‘Thank God’ that echoed through the cabin” of the presidential plane. Still, the chief of staff told people in the president’s immediate circle to “treat him as if he was positive” during the trip to Pennsylvania.
But Trump, he writes, assumed the negative results gave him “permission” to go on as usual, meeting with military families at the White House on Sept. 27, appearing at a Pennsylvania rally on Sept. 28 and traveling to Cleveland to participate in a Sept. 29 debate alongside Biden.
In his book, Meadows writes that he “didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks, but I also didn’t want to alarm the public if there was nothing to worry about — which according to the new, much more accurate test, there was not.”
Meadows adds that supporters at the Pennsylvania rally “would never have known that anything was amiss.”
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.Patrick Semansky/AP/Shutterstock
The day before the debate, Trump held a press conference in the Rose Garden with business leaders to discuss the administration’s pandemic efforts. “Somewhat ironically, considering his circumstances,” Meadows writes, the president spoke about a new testing strategy that would “give quicker, more accurate” results.
Donald Trump.Spencer Platt/Getty
On debate day, Meadows writes that Trump looked slightly better, “emphasis on the wordslightly.”
“His face, for the most part at least, had regained its usual light bronze hue, and the gravel in his voice was gone,” Meadows writes in his book, according to theGuardian. “But the dark circles under his eyes had deepened. As we walked into the venue around five o’clock in the evening, I could tell that he was moving more slowly than usual. He walked like he was carrying a little extra weight on his back.”
Trump’s family members, including the first lady and his four adult children, wore masks to the debate venue but did not wear them during or afterwards.
A few days after that, on Oct. 2, Trump announced that he and First LadyMelania Trumpboth hadcases of COVID-19. The president thenheaded to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
source: people.com
