[SAVANNAH GUTHRIE]
Hi everybody, and good evening. It’s good to have you with us, and welcome to Miami and our town hall with President Donald Trump. And we want to say right off the top, this is not how things were supposed to go tonight. This was supposed to be a town hall debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. But after the President contracted COVID, the debate commission announced it would have to be a virtual debate because of health concerns. The President then said he would not participate in a virtual debate. At that point, Joe Biden scheduled a town hall tonight in Pennsylvania on another network, and now the President is doing the same, his own town hall with the same venue format and time as NBC’s town hall with Joe Biden last week. So the two candidates go head to head tonight, though, not face to face, each in a key battleground state.
[SAVANNAH GUTHRIE]
And tonight, the President will be taking questions from voters here in Miami, who we should mention are socially distanced and they’re wearing masks. And I should say, this audience looks a bit like America, it’s divided. Some here voted for the president in 2016 and plan to again, some support Joe Biden, and some say they are truly undecided. We’re going to get a mix of questions on a range of topics, and we’re going to get to those questions in a moment. But first with all of that ado, welcome, Mr. President, and thank you for being here.
[DONALD TRUMP]
That was very well stated, I have to say. Good job.
[SAVANNAH GUTHRIE]
Thank you. We’re glad you’re here, we’re glad you’re well. We send our best to the First Lady and to Barron.
[DONALD TRUMP]
Thank you, thank you.
[SAVANNAH GUTHRIE]
Do you have any remaining symptoms from COVID?
[DONALD TRUMP]
Nothing whatsoever, I’m great, I feel good. I was in North Carolina today and did a big rally with tremendous turnout, and I just feel really good. Florida, Pennsylvania, were- They said, “Let’s go to the hospital.” I said, “That’s okay. I’m going to respond to what you say.” And we went over to Walter Reed, where you have tremendous professionals. They gave me Regeneron and Remdeceiver both. And all I know is I felt good the following day, I felt really good.
[SAVANNAH GUTHRIE]
Did the doctors ever tell you that they saw pneumonia on your lung scans?
[DONALD TRUMP]
No, but they said the lungs are a little bit different, a little bit perhaps infected, and-
[SAVANNAH GUTHRIE]
Infected with?
[DONALD TRUMP]
I don’t know. I mean, I didn’t do too much asking. I really felt good. I didn’t have much of a problem with the lungs. I did have a little bit of a temperature. Obviously, I felt there was something missing, and then I tested, I tested positive.
[SAVANNAH GUTHRIE]
Well, let’s talk about testing because there’s a little bit of a, I guess, confusion about this. And I think we can clear it up.
[DONALD TRUMP]
Yeah, and there shouldn’t be.
[SAVANNAH GUTHRIE]
Your first positive test was Thursday, October 1st, okay? When was your last negative test? When did you last remember having a negative test?
[DONALD TRUMP]
Well, I test quite a bit, and I can tell you that before the debate, which I thought it was a very good debate, and I felt fantastically, I had no problems before.
[SAVANNAH GUTHRIE]
Did you test the day of the debate?
[DONALD TRUMP]
I don’t know, I don’t even remember. I test all the time. But I can tell you this, after the debate, I guess a day or so, I think it was Thursday evening, maybe even late Thursday evening, I tested positive. That’s when I first found out about it.
[SAVANNAH GUTHRIE]
Well back to the debate, because the debate commission’s rules, it was the honor system.
[DONALD TRUMP]
Yeah.
[SAVANNAH GUTHRIE]
Would be that you would come with a negative test. You say you don’t know if you’ve got a test on the day of the debate?
[DONALD TRUMP]
I had no problem. Again, the doctors do it. I don’t ask them. I test all the time. And they-
[SAVANNAH GUTHRIE]
Did you take a test, though, on the day of the debate?
[DONALD TRUMP]
If you ask as the doctor, they’ll give you a perfect answer. But they take a test and I leave and I go about my business.
[SAVANNAH GUTHRIE]
So you did you take a test on the day of the debate, I guess is the bottom line?
[DONALD TRUMP]
I probably did, and I took a test the day before and the day before, and I was always in great shape, and I was in great shape for the debate. And it was only after the debate, a period of time after the debate that I said, “That’s interesting.” And they took a test and it tested positive.