Several Republicans And White House Officials Test Positive For Covid After Amy Coney Barrett Event
Update October 8, 2020
Covid-19 is still a very real threat to American lives and several Republican politicians and President Trump allies are learning the hard way. Since the Rose Garden event to announce Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court. The event is now being considered a superspreader and the White House is a Covid hotspot.
This was the scene at the Amy Coney Barrett nomination event in the Rose Garden.
At least ten people have tested positive for Covid-19 after the Rose Garden event attended by more than 200 people. The virus has suddenly torn through the Republican Party and those in President Trump’s close orbit. Thirty-four people connected to the White House have tested positive for the virus.
The number is much higher than originally known according to internal FEMA documents that show a potential coverup of the true number. USA Today is attempting to identify everyone who was at the Rose Garden event for Amy Coney Barrett to help with contact tracing. The White House is not properly contact tracing the superspreader event.
Some of those infected include Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, First Lady Melania Trump, Kellyanne Conway, President of Notre Dame Rev. John Jenkins, Evangelical Pastor Greg Laurie, Chad Gilmartin, and Karoline Leavitt. Those were just from the Rose Garden event.
Amy Coney Barrett already has a nickname because of the event.
That’s right. People are already calling Amy Coney Barrett the Contagious ACB. The nickname is two-fold as it calls out the event that caused so many people to contract Covid-19 and is in homage to the beloved Notorious RBG.
Original: President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are now part of the more than 7,000,000 Americans who have contracted Covid-19. The virus, which has killed more than 200,000 Americans, has spread worse in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world. While some have shown sympathy, other Americans are using the president’s words against him.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for Covid-19.
The news comes after President Trump’s disastrous performance at the first presidential debate in Cleveland Sept. 29. According to reports, President Trump and the first lady tested positive after traveling with senior aide Hope Hicks, who also tested positive.
“This is tragic, it’s very sad, but it also is something that, again, going into crowds unmasked and all the rest is sort of a brazen invitation for something like this to happen,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on MSNBC’s Live with Stephanie Ruhle. “It’s sad that it did, but nonetheless hopeful that it will be a transition to a saner approach to what this virus is all about.”
Vice President Joe Biden offered sympathetic words to the First Family during this difficult time.
There is concern that President Trump, if pre-symptomatic while at the debate, might have exposed Biden. The two presidential nominees spent 90 minutes debating maskless on stage. The Biden campaign has not released information on whether or not the presidential hopeful has been tested for Covid.
Senator Kamala Harris joined Biden in wishing the Trumps a speedy recovery tweeting, “Doug and I join Joe Biden and Dr. Biden in wishing President Trump and the First Lady a full and speedy recovery. We’re keeping them and the entire Trump family in our thoughts.”
The unsurprising infection of the Trumps is highlighting the need for stricter and better health standards to combat the virus.
Representative Joaquin Castro pleaded with fellow Congresspeople who have had contact with President Trump to stay home. In response to Covid-19, the House of Representatives implemented proxy voting which allows for members to vote without being in the chambers. It wasn’t long until Republican House members joined in a lawsuit to end the practice.
“Remote voting by proxy is fully consistent with the Constitution and more than a century of legal precedent, including Supreme Court cases, that make clear that the House can determine its own rules,” Pelosi said in a statement when a federal judge dismissed the GOP’s case. “The nation is in the middle of a dangerous pandemic, and the House of Representatives must continue to work.”
Critics of the president have come out in force to call out his behavior against mask-wearing.
President Trump has a long and recorded history of speaking out against masks. The president has politicized the Covid-19 crisis and has called on his own supporters to refrain from wearing masks. A narrative has grown that accuses President Trump and his rallies to be superspreaders because the GOP won’t require masks at the rallies.
Some of the president’s staunchest allies are aghast at the responses from some of the president’s critics.
Shortly after the news broke that the Trump were infected with Covid-19, #ItIsWhatItIs started trending on Twitter. The hashtag echoes President Trump’s own words from a recent interview. During an explosive interview on Sept. 3, Trump was asked about the staggering death and infection rates that eclipsed the rest of the world. Trump responded that the 150,000 deaths at the time were unavoidable, despite scientists and health experts disproving that theory.
“They are dying. That’s true. And you — it is what it is,” Trump said defensively when pressed by Jonathan Swan for Axios on HBO. “But that doesn’t mean we aren’t doing everything we can. It’s under control as much as you can control it.”
To counter that narrative, people are sharing a video of Trump mocking Hillary Clinton when she was suffering from pneumonia.
President Trump’s diagnosis has set off concern throughout the Senate. The president recently spent a lot of time with Amy Coney Barrett before and after nominating her for the Supreme Court vacancy. Judge Coney Barrett has then spent a lot of time with various Senators leading up to the eventual confirmation hearing. Many in the U.S. government are urging those who have been in contact with Trump and his team to take the necessary precautions and quarantine until they can be tested.
