President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his comment over the weekend about asking staff to slow the testing down for COVID-19 wasnt a joke.

I dont kid. Let me just tell you. Let me make it clear, the president told reporters before insisting the U.S. had the greatest testing program of anywhere.

In a separate interview with religious-oriented news website CBN.com published Tuesday, Trump said the comment about cutting back on testing was semi tongue-in-cheek.

I say it all the time, he said. I know some people thought it was tongue-in-cheek.

He also repeated his claim that testing is a double-edged sword. When CBN News pressed him on whether he had ordered a testing shutdown, the president said, No. But I think we put ourselves at a disadvantage.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

At a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday night, Trump told the crowd that he had told his people to slow the testing down, please, because more tests would mean more cases of the coronavirus.

About 120,000 people in the U.S. have died due to COVID-19, and Trumps remarks came under fire from politicians and public health experts.

Trump allies, including White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh, subsequently attempted to do damage control, saying the presidents comment about testing was tongue-in-cheek, made in jest and ironic humor.

On Monday, the president avoided answering a question about whether he had ordered a testing shutdown. But he suggested, once again, that less testing for COVID-19 would mean fewer cases.