Voronwë the Faithful wrote: ↑Tue Nov 30, 2021 8:46 pm
Meanwhile, apparently Mark Meadows has reached a deal with the committee for at least some preliminary cooperation. He is producing some documents and will appear for an initial interview. It is unclear, however, whether he will actually produce substantive relevant documents and/or answer substantive relevant questions, or if he is just delaying.
Since Mark Meadows, Donald Trump's last Chief of Staff (and the fourth in four years), was most recently mentioned in this thread, this is where I'll note that the
Guardian today published
a report, derived from Meadows's forthcoming memoir, in which Meadows claims that Trump tested positive for Covid-19 on September 26, 2020, three days before his first presidential debate with Joe Biden on September 29 (that debate happened here in Cleveland). Meadows says that a second test the same day as the first found Trump to be negative for the virus (both apparently were rapid tests), that Trump didn't take a further test prior to the debate -- despite an agreement between the two candidates and the debate commission that a negative test would be required for entry (it has been known since shortly after the debate that Trump and his team arrived "too late" to be tested on the spot) -- and that Trump was feeling unwell that entire time, including the day of the debate. (The White House announced on October 1 that Donald and Melania Trump both had tested positive for Covid, and Donald Trump was hospitalized the next day.) Late today, two former White House aides confirmed to the
Washington Post that Trump had indeed tested positive prior to the debate.
Asked for comment by the
Guardian, Trump today said the story was untrue.
I believe that. The true story is probably worse than what Meadows describes.
In my opinion, it's likely that Trump was positive the entire time and that senior White House staff knew that. In other words, I think that they deliberately exposed Joe Biden to someone with Covid-19.
Some observers are looking back at the statement issued by the White House physician on October 1, 2020:
"This evening I received confirmation that both President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus."
Notice what that statement doesn't say? It doesn't say that the Trump first tested positive
that day, only that the doctor got "confirmation," which could be any sort of communication provided to him at that time, including someone simply saying, "I confirm that the test conducted a week ago showed President Trump was positive for Covid."
Edited to add: Even if my belief is incorrect, what Meadows describes is pretty bad. For example,
New York Times reporter Michael Shear today writes:
"Hours after he received the call from Mark Meadows informing him of a positive test, Donald Trump came to the back of Air Force One without a mask and talked with reporters for about 10 minutes. I was wearing a mask, but still got COVID, testing positive several days later."
If you know you are positive for Covid, a disease which at that time had killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and for which there was not yet a vaccine, and then put yourself into close proximity with others, I think you are committing assault.