President Joe Biden is not publicly commenting on whether believes former President Donald Trump placed him at risk by reportedly testing positive for COVID-19 before attending their first presidential debate.
During an event at the White House on Wednesday, a reporter noted, “Mark Meadows has written a book revealing that President Trump tested positive for Covid three days before your first debate.”
She asked, “Do you think the former president put you at risk?”
“I don’t think about the former president,” Biden responded.
Watch the video below:
"I don't think about the former president."
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) December 1, 2021
That's President @JoeBiden's response when asked if he thought Donald Trump put him at risk after a new book revealed he attended the first presidential debate despite testing positive for Covid-19 beforehand. pic.twitter.com/LblIELurKy
According to The Guardian, which received a copy of former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ book, “Meadows also writes that though he knew each candidate was required ‘to test negative for the virus within seventy two hours of the start time … Nothing was going to stop [Trump] from going out there.'”
Meadows reportedly reveals in his book that Trump received a positive coronavirus test three days before the test.
“Nonetheless, the stunning revelation of an unreported positive test follows a year of speculation about whether Trump, then 74 years old, had the potentially deadly virus when he faced Biden, 77, in Cleveland on 29 September – and what danger that might have presented,” The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly wrote.
Meadows said Trump was given another test, and it came back negative, and they hoped the first result was a false positive, which the former president took as “full permission to press on as if nothing had happened.”
“I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks,” Meadows said, adding, “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.”
In a statement after The Guardian’s report, Trump said, “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.”