Fauci 'not aware' Trump tested positive for COVID-19 days before 2020 debate

Anthony Fauci on Wednesday said he was not aware former President Trump had tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of a presidential debate last year following that revelation in a forthcoming book.

"I certainly was not aware of his test positivity or test negativity," Fauci said at a White House press briefing. "I'm not going to specifically talk about who put who at risk, but I would say... that if you test positive you should be quarantining yourself."

Mark Meadows, who served as Trump's chief of staff at the time, wrote in his new book that Trump tested positive for the virus three days before the first presidential debate of the 2020 election against then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden's team was not previously aware of Trump's initial positive test.

Meadows wrote that Trump initially tested positive on Sept. 26, then took a different test a short time later that returned a negative result. Trump's White House physician, Sean Conley, was aware of the positive test, Meadows wrote.

Following the positive test, Trump went on to hold a campaign rally, hosted an event with Gold Star military families and attended the debate before publicly revealing his COVID-19 diagnosis days later.

Trump went to the hospital within 24 hours of sharing on Twitter that he had tested positive, but Meadows' timeline would suggest he was hospitalized six days after he first tested positive.

The former president in a statement shot down the notion that he had the coronavirus prior to the debate, though he did not specifically deny that he had tested positive before testing negative.