Trump National Bedminster fundraiser held on Thursday -- after Hope Hicks tested positive for COVID-19: report
President Donald Trump may have risked infecting his own supporters with coronavirus on Thursday by withholding from the public the news that senior advisor Hope Hicks had tested positive for COVID-19.
"Hope Hicks, one of President Trump’s most senior advisers, has tested positive for the coronavirus, three people familiar with the matter said. Ms. Hicks is the closest known person to the president to have contracted the virus, which causes Covid-19. That an adviser with such proximity to other aides has the virus raised alarms inside the White House, where officials worried that other top officials may have been infected," The New York Timesreported Thursday.
The White House did not disclose the coronavirus diagnosis, they only confirmed it after it was reported.
"Officials at the White House have known about Ms. Hicks’s diagnosis since Wednesday evening, when she traveled with the president aboard Air Force One to Minnesota for a campaign rally in Duluth. Her condition was reported earlier by Bloomberg News, which also said that she had been quarantined on the return flight to Washington," the newspaper noted.
Despite the White House knowing the diagnosis, they did not alert the public or the supporters who had attended his Minnesota rally the day before. Instead, Trump flew to his Trump National Bedminster golf course in New Jersey for a fundraiser.
"Two people briefed about Ms. Hicks’s positive diagnosis said that several White House officials would be required to quarantine because they had come into contact with her. But at least one person who had been around Ms. Hicks, the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, held a news conference at the White House on Thursday morning," The Times reported. "However, as the president traveled in the afternoon for a fund-raiser at his private club in Bedminster, N.J., he had fewer aides than normal accompanying him, aides said. And some who had been around Ms. Hicks this week were seen wearing masks."
Fears over the spread of the virus within the White House caused one CNN doctor to recommend Speaker Nancy Pelosi isolate for "continuity of government" because "it’s very possible the president and the vice president can both become sick right now."
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