Joe Biden Has Succinct Retort When Asked If Trump Put Him At Risk For COVID-19

The president was blunt when a reporter asked him about sharing a debate stage with Trump after his rival had reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.
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President Joe Biden took a not-so-subtle dig at former President Donald Trump Wednesday when asked about reports that Trump had tested positive for COVID-19 days before sharing a debate stage with him.

According to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump first tested positive for COVID-19 just three days before debating his Democratic rival for the presidency last year.

After giving remarks about the supply chain on Wednesday, Biden issued a curt response to a reporter who asked if he felt Trump had put him at risk of contracting COVID-19.

“I don’t think about the former president,” Biden said before leaving the room.

Meadows writes about the timing of Trump’s coronavirus test results in his forthcoming book, “The Chief’s Chief,” due out next week.

In an excerpt published by The Guardian on Wednesday, Meadows wrote that Trump first received word he’d tested positive for COVID-19 on Sept. 26, 2020. But a second test produced a negative result.

Though Trump used the results of the second test as “full permission to press on as if nothing had happened,” Meadows “instructed everyone in [Trump’s] immediate circle to treat him as if he was positive,” the former chief of staff said in his book.

“I 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 wrote.

Trump’s first debate with Biden took place in Cleveland on Sept. 29, and according to Meadows, Trump’s test results were not disclosed to organizers. Trump publicly announced he’d tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 2, after which he was hospitalized for three days.

Meadows’ claims were corroborated by two former White House officials who spoke to The New York Times on condition of anonymity.

Trump dismissed the reports in a statement issued on Wednesday.

“The story of me having COVID prior to, or during, the first debate is Fake News,” he said. “In fact, a test revealed that I did not have COVID prior to the debate.”

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