In this September 29, 2020 file photo, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump hold hands after the first presidential debate at Case Western University and the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. President Trump and the first Melania Trump tested positive for coronavirus, the president tweeted Friday morning.
In this September 29, 2020 file photo, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump shake hands after the first presidential debate at Case Western University and the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland,
In this September 29, 2020 file photo, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump hold hands after the first presidential debate at Case Western University and the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. President Trump and the first Melania Trump tested positive for coronavirus, the president tweeted Friday morning.
In this September 29, 2020 archive photo, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump shake hands after the first presidential debate at Case Western University and the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland,
WASHINGTON – U. S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat for Connecticut, tested negative for COVID-19 after President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Senator Mike Lee, Republican for Utah, and Senator Thom Tillis, Republican for North Carolina, tested positive, a series of diagnoses that raised fears of a broader outbreak at the U. S. Capitol. And they could have an effect on the crusade over the president’s nomination.
US Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Conn. , On Friday that would be tested.
Gov. Ned Lamont called Trump’s diagnosis a “call for attention. “Many Connecticut politicians have sent their recovery to the president and the first lady.
Trump has symptoms, but out of “a lot of caution,” he will run in the presidential offices of water reed National Military Medical Center over the next few days,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Friday night.
On Capitol Hill, positive tests sparked requests for more normal evidence from Blumenthal, Murphy and other staff members, as senators reacted in fear that White House officials, other senators, and even Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, who had been in contact with Trump over the past week. may have transmitted the virus to others. Coney Barrett had COVID-19 this summer.
Murphy and Senate minority leader Charles E. Schumer, NY, asked for a pause in the Supreme Court nomination procedure as the Senate deals with the spread of the virus. hearings as of October 12.
“There is a genuine threat that the White House is now a generalized site, jeopardizing the fitness of anyone who works or visits the building,” Murphy said. “In the Senate, Leader McConnell will have to demand immediate proof from each and every one of them. Senator and staff member who has visited the White House in the last two weeks. A giant organization of senators was with the president at the end of last week when he may have transmitted the virus, which may pose a major threat to the security of the Capitol complex.
Coney Barrett tested negative, a White House spokesman said Friday, but U. S. Senator Mike Lee, Republican for Utah, took the test after an unmasked meeting with her this week, among other activities in Hill. Lee is a member of the Senate, Judiciary Committee with Blumenthal. Blumenthal attended a committee assembly on Thursday.
“I’m going to do the verification again,” Murphy said at MSNBC on Friday. “I checked last week. I’ll be checked before I go back permanently to this building. “
Lamont said Friday that he would have his staff run more tests in the wake of Trump’s case.
“It’s a call for attention for many other people who were starting to feel very comfortable with COVID and dressed in the mask,” Lamont said. “I think the infection of the president and the first girl reminds us that we are not out of the woods. It reminds us how careful we’ll have to remain. It’s a reminder that October and November will be incredibly vital months. “
Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence tested negative for the virus, authorities said. Former Vice President Joe Biden, who was with Trump in the presidential debate Tuesday, wanted Trump’s smart luck and negativeed Biden’s vice president, Senator Kamala Harris of California, on Friday, also tested negative.
Trump, who has spent much of the year minimizing the risk of the virus that has been linked to the deaths of more than 200,000 people in the United States, said he and his wife tested positive in a tweet shortly before 1 a. m. Friday.
Trump’s staff leader Mark Meadows said Friday: “They’re still in a good mood. The president has mild symptoms, and as we seek to make his health, protection, and well-being not only intelligent, but we continue to analyze this throughout the American people.
Hours before Trump’s announcement, White House officials said that one of the president’s most sensible aides, Hope Hicks of Greenwich, who had traveled with him on Air Force One this week for an outdoor demonstration in Minnesota, had tested positive for the virus. Ronna McDaniel also tested positive. Trump defended his practice of holding giant rallies in the pandemic debate and mocked Biden’s common masking.
“It just reminds them that we should remain cautious,” Lamont said, recalling that in the past he served on the Greenwich Selectmen board with Paul Hicks, the father of Hope Hicks, the Trump adviser who evaluated COVID 19’s positives the previous Friday. .
Schumer demanded a thorough search and verification of the contacts of White House officials Coney Barrett and the senators who met with them this week, and called for all the effects to involve the epidemic to be made public. barrett’s Supreme Court confirmation that Republicans are pushing to finish before the election.
When asked if he was comfortable with White House officials and the Coney Barrett team coming to Capitol Hill before his confirmation because of his contacts with Trump, Blumenthal said the Senate, in total, will have to make a resolution on procedures for existing hearings and committee meetings.
Although the White House conducts normal tests on the corps of workers and officials, the U. S. Capitol does not require normal testing of members and their staff. Murphy and Blumenthal said Friday they want to do more.
“Public aptitude measures will have to be implemented regardless of the president’s diagnosis,” he said. “We take public fitness precautions, such as dressing in masks, physical distance, tests where someone has been exposed or has symptoms. These public aptitude rules are science-based and more mandatory than ever. We are very, very aware of our duty not only to ourselves, but also to the public who can come into contact with us and can also look at us correctly. and how we do business as a model. “
Murphy said the Senate put into effect “a mandatory mask policy in the Capitol complex” and “a normal testing program. “
“No matter is progressing in the Senate until we put those protocols into force and fully perceive the extent of the spread of the White House,” Murphy said.
U. S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5, who tested positive for coronavirus last month and is still quarantined, called for normal limb testing and on Capitol Hill, calling it “irresponsible” not to. She sent a letter to the leaders of the House. last week asking for more evidence.
Hayes experienced breathing difficulties, fatigue, fever and nausea, and difficulty sleeping while recovering from what he first suspected: “seasonal allergies. “Hayes took the test after a member of his staff tested positive in mid-September. this virus in either’.
United States Representative John Larson, D-1, has joined the calls for normalcy at the United States Capitol to address the new cases.
“I think everyone deserves to take masks and social estmanization seriously, and that mask deserves to be mandatory at least until there’s a vaccine,” Larson said. “I am pleased that President [Nancy] Pelosi, a California Democrat, wants to mask in space and the labor constructions of space. I also believe that regime tests deserve to take a position before entering a building in space or in a courtroom, as the member communicates across the country and at airports.
Larson said it had been several times since August and that they were all negative.
The White House has not made public all instances among its officials and officials. An unidentified member of the White House tested positive in September after Trump held a main rite of signing the Abrahamic Agreements, an agreement that established diplomatic relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. .
National security adviser Robert O’Brien had in the past COVID-19, a White House camera aid serving the president was diagnosed months ago. Katie Miller, communications director of the vice president and wife of Trump’s senior adviser, Stephen Miller, also had COVID-19. .
Barron Trump, 14, tested negative for coronavirus after either tested positive, a spokeswoman said Friday.
“Several members of the White House core team continue to be evaluated like us, as we have been,” Meadows said Friday. “In this context, we are very excited to make sure that not only the fitness and protection of the President and the First Lady were directed, but also that we are going to this war together, as a nation, together and the Americans. People can be sure that we have a president who is not only in the paintings, but will remain in the paintings. – and I’m sure you’ll have a very quick and immediate recovery.
Murphy raised the possibility that the president’s diagnosis could be just a national security weakness.
“The president’s diagnosis, and his inability to protect the country from the pandemic, presents a serious national security vulnerability that our adversaries can simply try to exploit,” Murphy said Friday. “Therefore, the United States will have to rigorously monitor threats and remain incredibly vigilant. “in the days to come. “
U. S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, said, “I wish the president, the first child, and any White House member that an early recovery might have been ignited. “Larson and Joe Courtney, D-2, expressed their most productive desires on Friday.
Former U. S. senator Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, a close friend and Crusade adviser to Biden, said he hoped the president, the first girl, and Lee would do so soon.
“There may be political differences, but in terms of people’s health, we all expect a prompt recovery,” he said.
Senate Pro Tempore Chairman Martin M. Looney, a Democrat from New Haven, said Friday that Trump had made the factor of wearing a mask a political choice, despite the implications of public fitness.
“The president is now making it clear to everyone that surely no one is of the virus,” Looney said in an interview. “This may be a time for public fitness warnings. The truth is, he’s shaped irresponsible and reckless behavior.
State Senate majority leader Bob Duff, a Democrat for Norwalk, shared his sympathy and fear for the president and his circle of relatives on Friday, but said in an interview that Trump had played with his health.
“The president minimized and downplayed the virus and took no precautions such as wearing masks,” Duff said. “For him and the other people around him, it’s been a Russian roulette game. It’s literally just a matter of time. ” I hope the consequences of not taking COVID seriously do not have a devastating effect on him and his family. “
Duff said this underscored the desire to stick to public fitness protocols.
He said the public workplace applicants he meets go door-to-door with masks, stay at a distance, and have no long conversations with voters. In his own re-election campaign, Duff canceled his own ice cream night at home, his exercise platform. apparitions and a biennial pasta dinner.
“Contact with the electorate is so vital in the Connecticut election,” said house majority leader Matt Ritter, a Democrat for Hartford, who leads the efforts of the House Democrats’ crusade. a mask, back up after knocking on a door and use a lot of hand sanitist. With care and caution, it is imaginable to have meaningful contact with the other people you expect to represent. The symptoms of campaign mail and grass are excellent, but they do not win elections, conversations do. “
State Rep. Steve Stafstrom, Bridgeport Democrat, introduced the president with “prayers for a full recovery” and added that the coronavirus is a “terrifying virus to be taken seriously. “
Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton also said he sent prayers to the “president and the first girl to tell them they had tested positive for COVID-19. “
emilie. munson@hearstdc. com; Twitter: @emiliemunson