House Committee Wants Briefing on Secret Service: Trump Update
(Bloomberg) — The House Homeland Security Committee wants a briefing on safeguarding Secret Service personnel from the coronavirus. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany and two other officials in her office tested positive for the coronavirus.
© Bloomberg
Kayleigh McEnany walks toward the West Wing of the White House after speaking to reporters.
Trump has been at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center since Friday, after announcing that he had been infected with Covid-19. Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Monday morning the White House was “optimistic” Trump will be released, but the decision won’t be made until later in the day. Tuesday is the earliest likely release day, according to people familiar with the matter.
Key Developments:
Trump Recuperates Amid Questions About His Health and CampaignTrump Campaign Hobbled by Virus as Biden Starts to Pull AwayMcConnell’s Plan for Quick Barrett Vote Threatened by OutbreakFrom Bereaved Dads to CEOs: Trump Encounters Spark Covid Fears
House Wants Briefing on Safeguarding Secret Service Personnel (1:21 p.m.)
House Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson called for a briefing from the Secret Service on the measures it’s taking to keep staff, including those on the president’s protective detail, safe from coronavirus threats.
Thompson made the request after video footage Sunday showed Trump waving at supporters from behind the closed windows of a black SUV, sparking questions over the potential exposure of Secret Service agents sharing his vehicle.
“The height of reckless disregard for others was the president’s ‘joyride’ yesterday where Secret Service agents were required to drive him around in a hermetically sealed vehicle,” Thompson said in a statement. “Exposing Secret Service personnel to the virus does not just put them at risk, it puts their families and the public at risk.”
Two More White House Press Officials Test Positive (12:37 p.m.)
White House press aides Chad Gilmartin and Karoline Leavitt have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to people familiar with the matter. The duo add to a rapidly expanding group of people in Trump’s orbit who have contracted Covid-19.
The group also includes three reporters who cover the White House, the director of Oval Office operations, the chair of the Republican National Committee and Trump’s campaign manager, along with at least three Republican senators.
White House Press Secretary Joins Ranks With Covid-19 (11:26 a.m.)
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a tweet that she tested positive for coronavirus Monday morning. She said she has had no symptoms and had tested negative consistently since Thursday, when she briefed the press.
McEnany also said that she “definitively” had no knowledge of Trump aide Hope Hicks’s infection with the coronavirus prior to holding the Thursday briefing.
Video: White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tests positive for Covid-19 (TODAY)
UP NEXT
First Lady Melania ‘Feeling Good,’ Resting at Home (10:45 a.m.)
First Lady Melania Trump, who unlike her husband wasn’t taken to the hospital after her diagnosis with Covid-19, tweeted