Trump mocks Biden for 'coughing on people' as he again denies he tested ...

Former President Donald Trump went after the media Monday for continuing to report that he tested positive for COVID-19 three days before the first presidential debate and six days before he announced he had the disease. 

'The Fake News continues to push the false narrative that I had COVID prior to the first debate,' Trump said in a statement. 'Biden goes around coughing on people all over the place, and yet the Corrupt News doesn't even cover it.'  

Last week, the Guardian obtained a copy of Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows' forthcoming book, where Meadows revealed Trump had tested positive for COVID-19 the day of the Amy Coney Barrett 'super-spreader' event, which had previously been kept a secret. 

Biden had a cold on Friday, which he said came from his grandson Beau, with the White House saying he had been tested for COVID-19 multiple times.  

The Washington Post conducted an analysis of Trump's interactions following the initial Guardian report and found that he came in contact with more than 500 people from the day he received the positive COVID test until he was hospitalized at Walter Reed.   

Because Trump tested negative the same day, the president kept his full slate of engagements, which included rallies, an event with Gold Star families, press briefings and the debate. 

'Had I been there, and Dr. Conley would have told me they would have received a positive test, I would have assumed it was accurate and frankly canceled everything right away,' John Kelly, the president's second chief of staff, told The Post. 

Kelly also said he would have immediately rushed Trump to Walter Reed, where he was treated for COVID days later. 

'To do anything else would be irresponsible,' Kelly told the paper. 'You don't want him infecting other people, whether it's Gold Star families, members of the Cabinet, or Secret Service, the staff, or anyone else around him.'   

The Post also spoke with former White House communications director Alyssa Farah, who said she asked Meadows and other senior staff when Trump's last COVID test was, as she was getting questions about it from reporters connected with the debate. 

Trump's September 26 positive test 'was clearly withheld from me because I would have been among the senior staff who were around him. I was constantly in proximity. I should have been contact traced,' Farah said. 

'It just demonstrates a disregard for the well-being of others,' she added.   

Meanwhile on Monday, Trump was knocking Biden's response to the pandemic.  

'Biden said that he was going to "beat the virus," but instead, the virus has beaten him—and badly. Far more people died this year than last, despite tremendous help from vaccines and therapeutics developed under "Trump,"' the former president said. 'He said anybody with his results should leave office. Well Joe, what are you waiting for!'

Trump has hit back against Meadows' claim. 

'The story of me having COVID prior to, or during, the first debate is Fake News,' Trump wrote in a statement. 'In fact, a test revealed that I did not have COVID prior to the debate.'   

In the statement, Trump doesn't deny he received a positive test. 

Meadows, too, even tried to walk it back, saying he was 'clearly referring to a "false positive" test the president received. 

But a medical expert interviewed by The Post, thinks it's more feasible that Trump's positive test, on September 26, was indeed accurate. 

'It would make more sense that you would test positive and then a lot of patients we see hospitalized end up hospitalized on Day 10 or that second week, when the inflammatory response of the immune system is taking over,' said Abraar Karan, an infectious-disease doctor and global health researcher at Stanford University. 

'Let’s say you're exposed today. You may not test positive for three to five days because the virus is in its early stages incubating, so that first week, you’re testing positive, but it’s really in that second week - seven, 10, 14 days out - that you could have more severe symptoms from inflammatory response,' Karan added.  

Meadows writes in his book that Trump tested positive on September 26, the day he held a Rose Garden event announcing Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee, which turned into a super-spreader. 

Two White House aides familiar with the test confirmed it was positive to the Washington Post.  

The Post also reported that attendees were never told Trump tested positive after the event. 

It was six days before Trump tweeted that he was infected with the virus and subsequently hospitalized. 

As Trump boarded Marine One on the way to a Pennsylvania rally scheduled for after the Saturday Barrett event, White House Dr. Sean Conley told Meadows, 'Stop the president from leaving. He just tested positive for COVID.' 

It was too late to stop the helicopter, and when Meadows informed Trump of the positive test while onboard Air Force One, the president said something that rhymes with, 'Oh spit, you've gotta be trucking lidding me.' 

The Guardian obtained a copy of Meadows' book, The Chief's Chief, which comes out next week, on Tuesday. 

Meadows said Trump's initial test had been done using an old model kit and so the president was tested again using 'the Binax system, and that we were hoping the first test was a false positive.' 

The second test came back negative, with Trump taking that as 'full permission to press on as if nothing had happened.' 

Both tests were rapid tests.  

At the time of their showdown in Cleveland on September 29, Trump was 74 years old, while Biden was 77.      

'I don't think about the former president,' Biden replied when asked if he believed Trump put him at risk.

Trump went on to announce that he had COVID-19 in the early hours of October 2, three days after his debate with Biden.  

The White House said the then-president announced the positive result within an hour of receiving it. 

Trump flew to Walter Reed Medical Center for medical attention later that day.  

On Saturday evening, September 26, Meadows wrote that Trump looked 'a little tired' and he suspected the president had a 'slight cold,' but he was 'content' with Trump traveling to the rally in Middletown, Pennsylvania.    

Meadows wrote that

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