Reporters pressed President Donald Trump and his coronavirus task force about whether the president has been tested, but the president walked off without responding and Vice President Mike Pence vowed to follow up with an answer.
That answer came Monday night in a statement from White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, per The Hill:
"The president has not received COVID-19 testing because he has neither had prolonged close contact with any known confirmed COVID-19 patients, nor does he have any symptoms. President Trump remains in excellent health, and his physician will continue to closely monitor him."
The questions came after the president shook hands with a CPAC attendee that tested positive for coronavirus and two House Republicans who did the same but have decided to self-quarantine themselves.
Not only did Trump not self-quarantine like Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., he held a news conference Monday to announced plans for payroll tax relief and a potential coronavirus economic response package.
Also, the president exchanged handshakes with supporters earlier in the day, when arriving to headline a fundraiser in Longwood, Florida, that raised approximately $4 million for his re-election campaign and the Republican Party.
On his flight back to Washington he was accompanied by Gaetz, who later went into a voluntary quarantine. He was one of several GOP lawmakers who were exposed to a person at last month's Conservative Political Action Conference who tested positive for the virus. His office said he was "mid-flight" on Air Force One when CPAC informed his staff he had been in contact with the attendee who had the virus.
Once the plane landed, Gaetz was immediately tested.
Pence, who also spoke at CPAC, said he has not been tested for the virus and said he did not know whether Trump had been tested.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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