The Guardian: Trump tested positive for Covid-19 ahead of 2020 debate with Biden
CNNCNN — Then-President Donald Trump tested positive for Covid-19 three days ahead of his first 2020 presidential debate with Joe Biden – though he also had a negative result in that same timeframe, according to excerpts from a forthcoming book from the former Republican president’s chief of staff reported by The Guardian. The previously unknown positive test is disclosed in Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows’ memoir “The Chief’s Chief,” a copy of which was obtained by The Guardian ahead of the book’s publication next week. “I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks,” Meadows wrote, according to The Guardian, “but I also didn’t want to alarm the public if there was nothing to worry about.” A former senior White House official told CNN that word had circulated inside the West Wing before the first presidential debate that Trump had tested positive for Covid. During a news conference on October 3, 2020, as Trump was receiving treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for Covid, Conley would not disclose Trump’s last negative test for the virus, saying, “I’m not going to get into all the testing going back, but he and all his staff routinely are tested.” In his book, Meadows wrote that although he knew each candidate was required to test negative within 72 hours of the debate’s start time “…Nothing was going to stop from going out there,” The Guardian reported.