CORONAVIRUS/DEBATES/TRUMP’S HEALTH: Savannah Guthrie: “Your first positive [coronavirus] test was Thursday, October 1st, okay? When was your last negative test? When did you last remember having a negative test?”
Donald Trump: “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.”
Guthrie: “Did you test the day of the debate?”
Trump: “I don’t know, I don’t even remember. I test all the time. But I can tell you this, after the debate, I guess a day or so, I think it was Thursday evening, maybe even late Thursday evening, I tested positive. That’s when I first found out about it.”
Guthrie: “Your first positive test was Thursday, October 1st, okay? When was your last negative test? When did you last remember having a negative test?”
Trump: “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.”
Guthrie: “Did you test the day of the debate?”
Trump: “I don’t know, I don’t even remember. I test all the time. But I can tell you this, after the debate, I guess a day or so, I think it was Thursday evening, maybe even late Thursday evening, I tested positive. That’s when I first found out about it.”
Guthrie: “Well back to the debate, because the debate commission’s rules, it was the honor system.”
Trump: “Yeah.”
Guthrie: “Would it be that you would come with a negative test, you say you don’t know if you’ve got a test on the day of the debate?”
Trump: “I had no problem. Again, the doctors do it. I don’t ask them. I test all the time. And they—“
Guthrie: “Did you take a test, though, on the day of the debate?”
Trump: “If you ask as the doctor, they’ll give you a perfect answer. But they take a test and I leave and I go about my business.”
Guthrie: “So you did you take a test on the day of the debate, I guess is the bottom line?”
Trump: “I probably did, and I took a test the day before and the day before, and I was always in great shape, and I was in great shape for the debate. And it was only after the debate, a period of time after the debate that I said, ‘That’s interesting.’ And they took a test and it tested positive.”
Guthrie: “Just to button it up, do you take a test every single day?”
Trump: “No. No, but I take a lot of tests.”
Guthrie: “Okay. And you don’t know if you took a test the day of the debate?”
Trump: “Possibly I did, possibly I didn’t. But the doctor has very accurate information and it’s not only that doctor, it’s many doctors. The one thing, if you’re president, you have a lot of doctors you’re surrounded by. But I was in great shape for the debate. And sometime after the debate, I tested positive, then that’s when they decided to, let’s go.”
-Savannah Guthrie and Donald Trump via CNBC Television, “NBC News hosts town hall with President Trump — 10/15/2020,” YouTube.com, Oct. 15, 2020