Trump Surrogates Who Should Be Quarantining Hit Campaign Trail
More than a dozen Republican politicians, lawmakers and their staff have tested positive for the coronavirus, including President Donald Trump, who remains in isolation, undergoing experimental treatment for the potentially fatal virus. The top general in the U.S. military is in quarantine and the GOP-controlled Senate’s ability to fast-track the confirmation of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee is in doubt. The White House outbreak threatens the lives of service workers and Secret Service agents, who work in close proximity to their more powerful, potentially contagious bosses. It may also reverse Washington’s progress in combating the pandemic: On Monday, the city recorded a spike in new coronavirus cases and a jump in the test positivity rate.
The chaos in the nation’s capital appears to have stemmed from a reckless in-person political ceremony at the White House on Sept. 26, an event consistent with the Trump campaign’s months-long practice of holding in-person rallies and gatherings with limited coronavirus protections, if any. Even as new people linked to the White House test positive for COVID-19 each day, the Trump campaign shows little concern about limiting the spread of the virus. On Thursday, several of Trump’s family members, advisers and surrogates who had been around the president before he tested positive for COVID-19 are scheduled to travel around the country to appear at campaign events.
Vice President Mike Pence, the head of the White House’s coronavirus task force, is planning to travel to Nevada and Arizona on Thursday for back-to-back “Make America Great Again” events at an airplane hangar and a military and police gear manufacturer. Later that day, the president’s son Eric Trump will host two events in North Carolina while his brother Donald Trump Jr. hosts an event in Panama City Beach, Florida, at a Holiday Inn. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Trump campaign adviser...
