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“We have to take this virus seriously. It’s not going to go away automatically,” the former vice president said Friday in a speech during a trip to Michigan that followed Biden testing negative for the virus in the morning. “We have to do our part to be responsible. It means following the science, listening to the experts, washing our hands, social distancing. It means wearing a mask in public. It means encouraging others to do so as well.”
Wearing a mask and standing in front of an American flag in a union parking lot in Grand Rapids, the Democratic candidate said he and his wife, Jill Biden, send their “prayers for the health and safety” of Trump and the first lady. . Melania Trump, who also tested positive.
He also implored Americans to wear masks, a message he has delivered for months, but with political implications that were hard to miss after Trump’s entourage ignored Cleveland Clinic rules requiring masks in Tuesday’s debate. at night while Biden’s guests wore masks.
“Be a patriot,” Biden said. “It’s not about being a tough guy. It’s about doing your part. Wearing a mask will not only protect you, but it also protects those around you. Your mom, your dad, your brother, your sister, your husband, your wife, neighbor, coworker. Don’t just do it for yourself. Do it for the people you love, the people you work with. “
The trip to Michigan was the first glimpse of how Biden might campaign after Trump’s positive test. The Democratic nominee ruled out a planned second stop at a local Democratic venue, citing the expected size of the crowd and narrower rooms.
Additionally, the Biden campaign is pulling its negative ads on Friday, with totally positive messages after Trump’s test, a campaign aide said. The aide said the decision to remove the negative ads was made before the White House announced Friday night that Trump would be going to Walter Reed Medical Center for several days.
Biden said he had been examined twice Friday, including once by Dr. Kevin O’Connor, his former White House physician, and that “everything is clear.”
After Trump said on Twitter in the early hours of Friday morning that he had tested positive, the first word from Biden’s campaign about his own health came in a statement from O’Connor.
“Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden underwent PCR testing for COVID-19 today and COVID-19 was not detected. I am reporting this in my capacity as Vice President Biden and Dr. Biden’s primary care physician,” O ‘said Connor.
Polymerase chain reaction tests, or PCR, are considered the gold standard of coronavirus testing, and the results require rapid tests of more than 15 minutes, but offer more accurate results.
Biden’s campaign later said he would travel to Grand Rapids as planned, albeit several hours late and on a shorter schedule. She had initially planned to follow that speech in a union hall with a virtual fundraiser and a stop at the Kent County Democratic headquarters for a voter mobilization event.
When asked why Biden decided to go ahead with the trip to Michigan, a Biden aide said: “Vice President Biden tested negative and was not in close contact with President Trump. He also wore a mask at all times except when he was on stage. And we implement social distancing, wearing masks and other best practices in all of our campaigns. “
Biden’s supporters argued that it would be safe for the former vice president to launch the election campaign on Friday, even after being on stage with Trump for 90 minutes earlier in the week.
“Everyone in Biden’s world got tested today; I’ve been talking to everyone,” Michigan Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell told CNN.
“I think the important thing to remember is that the Biden campaign followed the rules from the beginning, so the danger point for them was being in the Trump world, when the Trump family and the president were not wearing masks. But ( Biden) did test negative and other people are, and obviously they are being careful. But they have been careful from the beginning, “Dingell said.
The former Vice President, California Sen. Kamala Harris, and her husband, Doug Emhoff, also underwent tests for coronavirus on Friday morning, with negative results, a campaign aide said. The two would continue their planned trip to Las Vegas for Harris, and Greensboro, North Carolina, for Emhoff, the aide said.
The negative tests come after Biden and Trump’s podiums were placed 12 feet 8 inches apart during the debate Tuesday night, according to a source with knowledge of the setup of the debate.
There was no contact from the Trump campaign or the White House to alert Biden’s campaign of possible exposure, said a senior Biden campaign official who was with the former vice president in the debate. That aide said the Biden campaign believes there is not much risk because “we were never close to them.”
The former vice president tweeted good wishes for Trump and first lady Melania Trump, who also tested positive.
“Jill and I send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a speedy recovery. We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the President and his family,” Biden tweeted Friday morning.
Biden’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, sent campaign staff an email Friday morning telling them not to post about Trump’s positive test on social media.
O’Malley Dillon also told Biden’s campaign staff to “be assured that our campaign staff, in consultation with health experts, have continued to take every precaution to protect Vice President Biden, Senator Harris, and their spouses. and our staff. The health and safety of the entire team has been and will continue to be our number one priority. “
In the debate Tuesday night, after the entourage of administration officials and Trump’s family entered without masks, a doctor from the Cleveland Clinic approached Trump’s guests, asked them to wear masks and offered them masks, according to a reporter who observed what was happening in the room before the event. debate.
When the doctor, who refused to comment to the press, got up from the floor, a member of the debating room staff told him: “That is all you can do.”
“Why is the Trump family allowed not to wear masks in the debating room while everyone else follows the rules?” Biden’s granddaughter, Naomi Biden, tweeted Tuesday night when the debate began.
The Cleveland Clinic did not directly address Trump’s guests who were ignorant of the mask rules, but said in a statement Friday that “people traveling with both candidates, including the candidates themselves, had been tested and negative on their respective bells”.
“Based on what we know about the virus and the security measures we had in place, we believe there is a low risk of exposure for our guests,” the clinic said.
CNN’s Jeff Zeleny, MJ Lee, Jasmine Wright, Dan Merica, and Jamie Gangel contributed to this report.
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