'A conspiracy of dunces': CNN's Acosta accuses Walter Reed of misleading Americans about Donald Trump

A new book by Donald Trump’s former chief of staff claims that Trump tested positive for COVID-19 three days before his first debate against his rival Joe Biden on Sept. 29, 2020. Mark Meadows’ upcoming book, "The Chief’s Chief," claims that Trump initially tested positive for the virus before taking another test, which came back negative, according to The Guardian.

But the White House never shared president’s test results with the public.

CNN on Wednesday accused Walter Reed doctors briefing the press and the public about the president of intentionally misleading people to cover for Trump.

"This just goes to how totally reckless Donald Trump and his White House was about COVID," said Jim Acosta. "They were just totally reckless the entire time. I've been talking to my sources this morning and one of my sources who were in the administration at the time said — you have to remember, not only were they keeping this close to the vest, but they were keeping Trump's COVID battle close to the vest. Remember how sick Trump was with COVID at the time. And what were we told in the press, he just has mild symptoms and so on. Meanwhile, he's struggling to hang on to life at the hospital at Walter Reed."

READ MORE: Documents expose 'staggering pattern of political interference' in Trump's Covid response

They showed a clip of Dr. Sean Conley, who was asked by the press about the last date that Trump tested negative. He refused to say.

"The White House physician was reassuring Americans the president was doing okay, while Mark Meadows, who wrote this book, was going around Dr. Conley and telling reporters individually and this has come out subsequently that, no, Trump was doing much worse than what was being reported at the time," Acosta recalled. "Keep in mind also, Chris Christie got COVID right after this. He was doing debate prep for Donald Trump at that time. And some of this may explain why Trump was so erratic and crazy during that first presidential debate. Remember, this was the debate where he said that the Proud Boys should stand back and stand by. And so I mean there are just tons of red flags that were popping up at the time. This one White House source, Trump White House source I talked to this morning said this is consistent with how they were behaving at the time."

Speaking about Dr. Conley specifically, Berman noted "he knew exactly when the president had been tested and when the positive and negative tests were and he chose there to dodge."

"I don't want to call it a conspiracy to deceive everybody — it was a conspiracy of dunces in the way they were handling this," Acosta said. "It was just stupid lying the way they were -- the way they were communicating this to the American people. And, remember, you know, the thing that people have to remember about Donald Trump and the way the white house handled COVID, they were reckless the entire time."

RELATED: Trump called hospitalized Chris Christie worried he'd be blamed for his Covid infection

He went on to recall Trump's "joy ride" around Walter Reed in a closed car with the Secret Service agents.

"They were completely out of control and how they were handling this pandemic the entire time. From telling people they could inject themselves with disinfectants, it was all going to go away, time and again this is how they behaved," Acosta recalled. It was also later revealed by Bob Woodward in his book that Trump knew the dangers of the virus in Feb. and March 2020. Acosta noted that everyone under Trump treated the virus with the same cavalier attitude that Trump did.

See the full discussion below:

Walter Reed's Trump covid lieswww.youtube.com

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