Donald Trump said he would "most likely" be tested for coronavirus at a Friday press conference, after facing repeated questions from reporters about his potential exposure after he posted for a photo with an aide to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who later tested positive for coronavirus.
- Donald Trump said he would "most likely" be tested for coronavirus at a Friday press conference, after facing repeated questions from reporters about his potential exposure after he posted for a photo with an aide to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who later tested positive for coronavirus.
- Fabio Wajngarten, Bolsonaro's press secretary, poste da photo of himself standing alongside Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at Mar-a-Lago. Wajngarten reportedly tested positive for the coronavirus.
- Trump's press secretary has previously said that he and Pence did not need to be tested at this time.
- Other politicians who came into contact with Bolsonaro and his delegation, including Florida Sen. Rick Scott, self-quarantined as a precaution.
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Donald Trump said Friday that he would "most likely" be tested for the coronavirus after his contact with a Brazilian delegation at Mar-a-Lago last weekend, which included a member who later tested positive for coronavirus and posed alongside Trump in a photo.
At a press conference in the White House Rose Garden where he declared a national emergency in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Trump was repeatedly grilled by reporters about the contact and the fact that Trump had not taken a test when some Republican lawmakers had self-quarantined as a precaution.
Fabio Wajngarten, press secretary for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, posted an image of himself on Instagram alongside Trump and Vice President Mike Pence days before he reportedly tested positive for the disease. Trump also dined with Bolsonaro at Mar-a-Lago; the Brazilian leader said Friday he had tested negative for the coronavirus.
Trump's contact with the Brazilian delegation has raised concerns about his exposure, but as recently as Thursday White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Trump and Pence "had almost no interactions with the individual who tested positive and do not require being tested at this time."
On Friday, several reporters asked Trump about his contact with the Brazilian visitors to Mar-a-Lago, including CBS News' Weijia Jiang, who asked him if he was going to be tested.
"Doctors are saying you might have it...Are you being selfish by not getting tested and potentially exposing -," Weija asked.
"I didn't say I wasn't going to be tested," Trump said.
"Are you going to be?" Weija pressed.
"Most likely, yeah," Trump said. "Most likely, not for that reason but because I think I will do it anyway."
As for a potential timeline, Trump said he could be tested "fairly soon. We're working on it, we're working out a schedule."
Trump attempted to downplay the contact, saying he did not know who the infected individual was and that he took pictures with people all the time.
"There was somebody that they say has it, I have no idea who he is," Trump said in response to a question from Reuters' Jeff Mason about his exposure. "I take pictures, it lasts for literally seconds. I don't know the gentleman that we're talking about. Have no idea who he is."
"I haven't seen the picture…I take sometimes hundreds of pictures a day and that night I was taking hundreds of pictures, so I just don't know," Trump said.
On Friday, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez announced he had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, after he was in the same room with Bolsonaro and his delegation in Miami earlier this week. Suarez has entered isolation and encouraged people who had physical contact with him since Monday to do the same.
Other politicians who encountered or had possible contact with the Brazilian delegation, such as Florida Sen. Rick Scott or South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, self-quarantined out of an abundance of caution.
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President Trump tells @weijia he will "most likely" get tested for coronavirus https://t.co/FIAmzRAAku pic.twitter.com/OGRvi47N2k
- CBS News (@CBSNews) March 13, 2020.@jeffmason1: You're asking people coming back from Europe to self-quarantine. You were photographed w/ someone who has coronavirus last wknd. How is that different?
TRUMP: "I am not coming back from someplace. There was somebody that they say has it, I have no idea who he is." pic.twitter.com/KdFOiTARl2
- Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 13, 2020