Meadows calls Trump's positive COVID-19 test before Biden debate 'fake news'

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Wednesday refuted reports - based on his own book - that former President Trump tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of a debate with then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in 2020.

Meadows revealed the positive test in his new book, "The Chief's Chief," which also said Trump received a negative test soon after the positive test.

In an interview on Newsmax, anchor Rob Schmitt referred to a brief statement the former president on Wednesday calling the positive test "fake news."

"What is the story?" Schmitt asked Meadows.

"Well, the president's right, it's fake news. If you actually read the book - the context of it - that story outlined a false positive," the former chief of staff said on Newsmax.

"Literally had a test, had two other tests after that that showed that he didn't have Covid during the debate, and yet the way that the media wants to spin it is certainly to be as negative about Donald Trump as they possibly can while giving Joe Biden a pass," he added.

Meadows reportedly said in his book that former President Trump tested positive for COVID-19 just three days before his first debate versus Biden.

Meadows reportedly wrote that Sean Conley, the former physician to the president, told him, "Stop the president from leaving. ... He just tested positive for Covid."

Trump reportedly then was tested again and received a negative result.

"We were hoping the first test was a false positive," Meadows wrote, recalling that Trump took the negative result as "full permission to press on as if nothing had happened."

Three days after that debate, Trump announced that he had tested positive for the virus and checked into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center later that day.

Asked about the timing of Trump's COVID-19 illness in the Newsmax interview, Meadows took the opportunity to praise Trump

"Yeah, listen, anytime that we look at things and we look at tests and we look at what happened, it's certainly, that's what I outlined in the book and talk about that Walter Reed visit," he said, "but there's a lot of great stories in the book that candidly talk about the miraculous work, the historic work, that Donald Trump did."

Since the revelations from his book have been circulated, Meadows has seemingly attempted to side with the former president, even retweeting Trump's statement that said the "story of me having COVID prior to, or during, the first debate is Fake News."