Chuck Todd Presses Jason Miller on Trump’s Non-Compliance With CDC Guidelines: ‘Are You Upset’ by Your Own Covid Exposure?

NBC’s Chuck Todd and senior Trump campaign official Jason Miller locked horns over President Donald Trump’s refusal to comply public health and safety guidelines before contracting the coronavirus.

As Miller spoke about Trump’s condition on Sunday in an interview for Meet The Press, Todd asked him why didn’t Trump initiate a quarantine as soon as the news broke that Hope Hicks tested positive for the virus. “Clearly, that was against CDC guidelines,” Todd said as he pointed to Trump’s fundraiser in New Jersey.

Miller answered by referring to the (failed) safety measures to prevent Trump from being exposed to Covid-19, and “the president did not have a positive test yet” before the fundraiser.

“As soon as he did have a positive test,” Miller said, “[the White House] went to a different level of protocol and they took the precautionary measure to take him to Walter Reed and now he’s doing much better.”

“So what you’re saying is the White House does not follow CDC guidelines?” Todd asked. “Because the CDC guidelines would have meant, no, he would have quarantined. Somebody who’s as close of an aide as Hope Hicks testing positive, he should be quarantining. That’s the CDC guideline. But it sounds like what you’re saying is the White House does not abide by CDC guidelines?”

Miller continued to argue that the White House takes viral spread prevention seriously, so Todd then asked “Are you upset that you were exposed in a way, that maybe it was lax protocols?”

“I’ve talked to other people by the way,” Todd said, “who are not happy about the lack of information and are not happy that basically what was told to them was a safe place turned out not to be.”

Miller answered that “White House does a very good job of protecting folks,” adding “Trump is arguably the single-most protected person on the entire planet and yet he got Covid. There’s a lot about this we don’t know, but what we can’t do is just stay, whether it’s upstairs at a place or downstairs in our basement. We have to take this virus head on.”

Miller gave a similar interview to ABC on Sunday, where he continued to tout the safety measures around Trump and took a shot at former Vice President Joe Biden for his adherence to mask-wearing.

Watch above, via NBC.