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.
Among all the questions the president took, his views on America’s COVID situation and testing positive for the virus remain the most significant, as the country continues to lead in the number of coronavirus cases.
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.
‘Get Tested All the Time’
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.”
“Well, I test quite a bit, and I can tell you that before the debate, which I thought it was a very good debate, and I felt fantastically, I had no problems before.”US President Donald Trump
When asked why the White House hosted an event where no one was seen wearing a mask, he said:
“But as far as the mask is concerned, I’m good with masks. I’m okay with masks. I tell people, wear a mask. But just the other day, they came out with a statement that 85 percent of the people that wear masks catch it. So, this is a very...”
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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