Good morning. I'm James Holman from the Washington Post and this is the Daily

2002 for Thursday, October 8th. In today's news, the pandemic looms large in a civil but sharp vice presidential debate.

More Republicans in tough races distanced themselves from the president,

and the US imposes punishing sanctions on a wrong over

humanitarian objections from European allies. But first the big idea as

President Trump went back to the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon,

several White House officials continued to refuse to say when Trump last tested negative for the coronavirus, leaving open the possibility

that he potentially exposed dozens of people to the deadly contagion before the announcement

of his positive test last Friday.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said they're keeping it secret to protect

Trump's privacy.

White House spokesman Brian Morgenstern, filling in for the press secretary because she too has COVID said they're not going to quote

go back through a bunch of records and look backwards that's what contact tracing is all about

officials familiar with the situation told Toulou Ulorunipa, Josh Dossi and Ashley Parker,

that Trump has not been tested daily in recent months.

Only rarely has Trump been tested on a machine other than the one produced by Abbott Labs

which provides rapid results that are not particularly accurate.

Trump sought to depict a presidency yesterday that has returned to normal, saying on Twitter that he has recovered in a recorded

video released on Twitter late Wednesday, the president stood in the Rose Garden without

a mask, and he mostly focused on erroneously pitching therapeutics as a cure

rather than emphasizing good public health practices. Then he said it was a quote

blessing from God and a blessing in disguise that he caught the virus.

...