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.
Trump said in a statement Wednesday, "the story of me
having COVID prior to, or during, the first debate is Fake News. In fact, a
test revealed that I did not have COVID prior to the debate."...
The President tested positive on September 26 and
was subsequently tested with "the Binax system" an
antigen test for Covid-19, and returned a negative result, Meadows wrote. It is
unclear if the first test which returned the positive result was an antigen
test or PCR test.
According to the FDA's guidelines, when using the Binax
test, "Negative results do not rule out SARS-Covid-2 infection and should
not be used as the sole basis for treatment or patient management decisions,
including infection control decision."
Later on the 26th, Trump hosted what became a super spreader
event honoring Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett and that night held a
rally in Pennsylvania. The following day, he visited his golf club in Sterling,
Virginia, held a White House reception for Gold Star families and an indoor
press briefing.
Trump appeared at a White House reception for Gold Star families
and held a press briefing indoors on September 27, 2020. He also visited his
golf club in Sterling, Virginia, earlier that day, according to pool reports.
The next day, he held two outdoor events at the White House and on September
29, debated Joe Biden in Nashville, where he arrived late to avoid being
tested. On October 2, the President entered the hospital and was diagnosed with Covid-19.
We had suspected Trump had tested positive for the coronavirus but now that it has been confirmed, Noel Casler, a New York-based comedian and former worker on the set of The Apprentice tweeted "*The Trump I knew absolutely would have purposely infected Biden with covid to help him win election, fyi."
And the niece of the ex-President:
Why isn't there a select committee looking into the last administration's criminal mishandling of COVID-19 that resulted in the unnecessary deaths of 100s of thousands of Americans?
— Mary L Trump (@MaryLTrump) December 1, 2021
It's an excellent question, but mostly as a rhetorical one.
Republican leadership wouldn't cooperate, just as it attacked formation of the
January 6 committee. And that was taken in response to a televised
insurrection, one which Mitch McConnell and some other Republicans found
tactically imperative to criticize in the immediate aftermath.
But there is another reason. Even Democratic officials are afraid
of what they might discover. Casler is
right up to a point- if Trump's positive test had been revealed, it might have
doomed his re-election bid. However, it also might have interfered with the
ultimate objective of the man who once said he preferred people remain onboarda cruise ship on which 35 people had reported flu-like symptoms because "I
don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our
fault."
It's the same guy who comment at a rally in September, 2020
"You have good genes, you know that, right? You have good genes. A lot of
it is about the genes, isn't it, don't you believe? The racehorse theory. You
think we're so different? You have good genes in Minnesota."
Five years earlier we had learned that Donald Trump Jr. had once told (emphasis mine) his father's biographer, Michael D'Antonio, "Like him, I’m a big believer in race-horse theory. He’s an incredibly accomplished guy, my mother’s incredibly accomplished, she’s an Olympian, so I’d like to believe genetically I’m predisposed to [be] better than average.” As early as 1988, Donald Trump had told Oprah Winfrey "You have to be born lucky in the sense that you have to have the right genes."
The report from D'Antonio in 2015 was almost totally ignored by the media;
the comment in 9/20 was downplayed. It was incomprehensible to journalists and
the companies they work for that a major political party could have nominated
for President a social Darwinist, committed to the notion that only the
strongest survive, and should.
Mary Trump now legitimately believes a select committee
should investigate the policies which led to the deaths of hundreds of
thousands of Americans. But the obstacle is not that politicos believe they
wouldn't determine the reason for the disastrous statements and policies of the
then-President. It is because they probably would uncover the reason- and the truth is singularly disturbing and dark.
Donald Trump is not now merely an ex-nominee of the Republican Party. In a free and (more or less) fair election, he actually was elected by the American people to be President and leader of the Free World,. And he believes that those who died are the weakest- hence the least deserving of life- of the population. Any politician who chooses to disclose to constituents the true nature of this former President does so at his or her own peril.
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