In his forthcoming book, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows reveals that his one-time boss, Donald Trump, tested positive for COVID-19 just three days before debating Joe Biden on September 29, 2020. Meadows claims that Trump subsequently took a second test before the debate, which came back negative.
However, debate organizers said Trump did not comply with the rules to take a test on debate day – he was running late – and within a week, Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19 and required experimental treatment.
The Guardian obtained Meadows’ book and reported the blockbuster news on Wednesday.
Trump issued a denial that was simultaneously bombastic and carefully worded: “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.”
Appearing on Newsmax Wednesday night, Meadows was asked about Trump’s ‘Fake News’ characterization.
“Well, the president’s right, it’s fake news,” Meadows replied.
Meadows argued that the media highlighted the positive test – which he, despite Trump’s subsequent hospitalization, insists was a false-positive – but failed to report on follow-up negative tests. (That claim is not consistent with the media coverage we reviewed. And the Meadows excerpts published in The Guardian do not mention multiple negative tests in the three days before the debate; Trump’s denial alludes to a single negative test.)
Even the reliably conservative Newsmax anchor, Rob Schmitt, seemed to find Meadows explanation suspect: “The timing is interesting, though, you have to admit. I mean, wasn’t it just a week later they choppered him to Walter Reed and he was very sick?”
Meadows gave a rambling, non-response before settling on “There’s a lot of great stories in the book.”
Schmitt wasn’t the only person to find glaring holes in Meadows’ story. Consider this passage from The Guardian article, which picks up after Trump was notified while flying that he had tested positive for COVID-19:
Meadows says the positive test had been done with an old model kit. He told Trump the test would be repeated with “the Binax system, and that we were hoping the first test was a false positive”.
After “a brief but tense wait”, Meadows called back with news of the negative test. He could “almost hear the collective ‘Thank God’ that echoed through the cabin”, he writes.
Dr. Michael Mina, a renowned epidemiologist who recently left his position at Harvard Medical School to join a biotech company, wondered on Twitter how a second test could have been conducted if Trump was in the air.
“Most likely scenario is they used an adulterated swab that was already in a molecular reaction and then placed that same swab into the BinaxNOW,” Mina wrote, explaining that that would be an improper use of the test which would lead to an unreliable result.