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Video Editor: Rahul Sanpui
US President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Thursday, 15 October (ET), appeared for a town hall at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami – deliberately timed to overlap with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s town hall in Philadelphia – where he addressed questions from voters.
Trump and First Lady Melania had announced that they tested positive for COVID-19 on 1 October, but after four days at the hospital and zero clarity on whether he tested negative, the president returned to the White House. Since then, he has been making public appearances in the crucial final weeks of the election campaign, often without his mask.
Here’s what he had to say on his COVID diagnosis, his stance on masks and how well his administration is handling the pandemic.
Host Savannah Guthrie kicked off Trump's event by asking him if he had any remaining symptoms of coronavirus and whether he had tested negative for the virus at all, prior to the first presidential debate – which is recommended by the Commission of Presidential Debates.
But Trump being Trump refrained from giving a clear answer. He said he was unsure whether or not he got tested for the coronavirus the day of the presidential debate, as was required by the debate commission.
“Possibly I did, possibly I didn’t,” Trump said, adding that he gets “tested all the time.”
When asked why the White House hosted an event where no one was seen wearing a mask, he said:
Trump repeatedly stressed on how “good” he felt despite testing positive for coronavirus and was very optimistic about his handling of the pandemic.
“Excess mortality, we’re a winner on the excess mortality. And what we’ve done has been amazing. And we have done an amazing job. And it’s rounding the corner and we have the vaccines coming, and we have the therapies coming,” he said.
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