'I don't kid': Trump says he wasn't joking about telling officials to slow COVID-19 testing, contradicting aides

• President Trump on Tuesday morning confirmed he wasn't joking when he said at his Saturday-evening rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that he'd directed his aides to slow COVID-19 testing.
• White House aides, including press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, had claimed Trump was speaking "in jest" and "joking about the media."
• Yet when asked to clarify his comments, Trump contradicted McEnany, saying "I don't kid."

President Donald Trump confirmed he wasn't joking when he said he directed his aides to slow COVID-19 testing and called testing "a double-edged sword" at a Saturday-night rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

"Testing is a double-edged sword," Trump said at the rally. "We've tested now 25 million people. It's probably 20 million people more than anybody else ... Here's the bad part: When you do testing to that extent, you're going to find more people, you're going to find more cases. So I said to my people, slow the testing down — please."

After his comments, White House officials, including press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, told reporters that Trump made comment "in jest" and was "joking about the media and their failure to understand the fact that when you test more you also find more cases."

But Trump contradicted McEnany and doubled downed on the comments when speaking to reporters Tuesday.

"I don't kid," Trump said in response to CBS News Correspondent Weijia Jiang asking him to clarify whether he had been joking when he said he asked for testing to be slowed.

"Let me just tell you — let me make it clear. We have got the greatest testing program anywhere in the world," Trump said. "We test better than anybody in the world; our tests are the best in the world ... By having more tests, we find more cases ... We did 25 million tests. Think of that — 25 million ... way more, by double, triple, quadruple, any other countries. "

"Therefore, we test, we're going to have more cases," Trump went on. "By having more cases, it sounds bad. But actually what it is, is we're finding people, many of those people aren't sick, or very little — maybe young people. But what's happened is that because of the cases that we find, we have a very low mortality rate, just about the best in the world."

He added: "Here's what I say: Testing is a double-edged sword. In one way it tells you you have cases. In another way you find out where the cases are and you do a good job. We are doing a great job; we have never been credited for it."