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Chris Wallace, the Fox News anchor and moderator of Tuesday’s presidential debate, said President Donald Trump and his family did not arrive in Cleveland early enough to get tested for the coronavirus before the start of the debate.
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The time of arrival for the president wasn’t conducive to testing for the coronavirus and receiving a timely result, according to Wallace.
- On Friday morning, Trump announced he and first lady Melania Trump were diagnosed with the coronavirus.
- Trump is currently being treated at Walter Reed Military Hospital and is not making any public appearances until further notice.
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President Donald Trump and his family did not arrive in Cleveland early enough to get tested for the coronavirus before the first presidential debate, according to Fox News anchor Chris Wallace.
Wallace, who served as the moderator of Tuesday’s debate, made the revelation to Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer on Friday, saying that Trump “didn’t arrive until Tuesday afternoon.” The debate started at 9 p.m. Eastern Time that day.
The time of arrival for the president wasn’t conducive to testing for the coronavirus and receiving a timely result, according to Wallace.
"For them to get tested, there wouldn't have been enough time to have the test and have the debate at 9:00 that night," he said. "They didn't show up until 3:00, 4:00, 5:00 in the afternoon. There was an honor system when it came to the people that came into the hall from the two campaigns."
On Friday morning, Trump announced that he and first lady Melania Trump were diagnosed with the coronavirus after Bloomberg reported that top White House counselor Hope Hicks had contracted the virus. Later on Friday, Trump was transported to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where he will stay for the next few days "out of an abundance of caution," according to the White House.
Notably, Trump's family didn't wear masks during the debate, while Biden's family and supporters all wore face coverings. The Trump entourage was offered masks but they declined to wear them, despite being in violation of a local ordinance requiring that masks be worn in nonresidential indoor spaces.
"People in the hall noticed that they [the Trumps] weren't wearing masks and everybody else in the hall was wearing a mask," Wallace said. "When the debate ended, Mrs. Trump came over, walked past me, she was not wearing a mask. Mrs. Biden walked past me to her husband and she was wearing a mask. So there was a difference in the way the two families and their camps treated the health safety regulations inside the hall."