President Trump said Friday that he will “most likely” be tested for coronavirus, despite his press secretary saying one day earlier that such testing was unnecessary.
The White House claimed the president did not require testing after the Brazilian president’s press secretary who was pictured at Mar-a-Lago with Mr. Trump on Saturday tested positive for the virus. Mr. Trump had told reporters earlier this week he wasn’t concerned by that. During a Rose Garden press conference Friday, Mr. Trump told reporters he would probably be tested soon for reasons unrelated to that close proximity.
“Well I didn’t say I wasn’t going to be tested,” Mr. Trump said when CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang asked if he is being selfish by not being tested.
“Are you going to be?” Jiang followed up.
“Most likely, yeah,” the president responded. “Not for that reason, but because I think I will do it anyway.”
The president added that would probably be “fairly soon” and they’re “working out a schedule” for him to be tested.
But the president said he doesn’t take responsibility for the lack of tests so far, as physicians and health institutions across the country have reported lacking the tests they need. The administration cannot currently say how many Americans have been tested for the virus, saying that’s because they don’t know how many tests have been administered by the private sector.
“No, I don’t take responsibility at all,” Mr. Trump said about the lag in testing in the U.S.
When asked if he bears any responsibility for disbanding the Obama-era office that worked on stopping pandemics, Mr. Trump responded that is a “nasty question.”
“When you say me I didn’t do it, we had a group of people,” he added.
Mr. Trump made the comments during a White House press conference on Friday after announcing the declaration of a national emergency to free up funding for states and cities over coronavirus.
