President Donald Trump popped into the Oval Office Tuesday, just one day after his return from Walter Reed Military Medical Center, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Wednesday, drawing a quick contradiction from the administration.
Kudlow said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" that he "can’t be specific ... it’s the work of the top rung of the federal government" when asked who was with Trump or if the president had worn a mask. He added that Trump has "been masking quite a bit" and that there were "additional precautions, additional measures that have been taken that are much greater than simply masking."
The White House, though, denied on Twitter that Trump had visited the Oval Office, even though he wanted to go there.
"He stayed back in the residence, working from there,” Ben Williamson, a White House spokesman, said. "Safety preparations have been underway in the event he moves to working out of the Oval in the coming days.”
Trump has said he's looking forward to returning to the campaign trail and has said he'll still debate Democrat challenger Joe Biden, but the former vice president said Tuesday that the next presidential debate should be put on hold if Trump still has COVID.
More than a dozen administration officials have been diagnosed with COVID over the past week, and Kudlow said there is a great deal of contact tracing being done.
“We’ve added additional precautions to try to protect against any further positive testing and so forth. So we’ll see how that runs," said Kudlow.
Meanwhile, the pandemic continues to be an emergency situation, even though it's less of one in recent weeks, said Kudlow, after conflicting messages came from Trump about the next coronavirus relief package.
"Secretary (Steven) Mnuchin has done a great job running point on the negotiations, working with the Republicans in the Senate," said Kudlow. "I don't think the recovery depends on the massive assistance package."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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