Thank you for your response. ?? I do know how to change the publish date. My question was why it was publishing the wrong date and how to avoid it. I did get my answer to the latter, but was unable to edit my question.
It seems that once I use Quick Edit on a draft, it changes the publish date from “Immediately” to the date and time of the draft. Very odd. I consider that a glitch. But anyway, I’ll just refrain from using Quick Edit in the future.