Mark Meadows, Trump campaign adviser Nick Trainer and Rep. Matt Gaetz are the latest victims of another Trump World outbreak of coronavirus, though Gaetz claims he “only” has the antibodies. Good thing he has that gas mask, eh?
From Politico’s Jake Sherman:
BLOOMBERG’S JEN JACOBS scooped Friday night that White House chief of staff MARK MEADOWS had the novel coronavirus. We were poking around on this story much of Friday, and we bring that up only to make this point: Several people who had been in direct contact with MEADOWS were not told he had the virus.
ANOTHER HIGH-PROFILE MEMBER OF THE PRESIDENT’S circle tested positive: GOP Rep. MATT GAETZ of Florida told multiple people on Capitol Hill and in the White House that he too had contracted the virus. GAETZ and his staff did not reply to a request for comment.
What Sherman didn’t mention is that Meadows went maskless while he he concealed his infectiousness for two days:
Bloomberg reported that Meadows tested positive on Wednesday, one day after he attended Election Day events, “including a visit to campaign headquarters in Virginia on Tuesday, and a party at the White House that night.”
Photos of the events showed few people wearing masks. Meadows, who has seldom worn a mask, was not seen wearing one on Tuesday.
He spent time upstairs in the White House residence on Tuesday with Trump’s family, including all of his adult children, according to people familiar with the matter. He helped persuade Trump to deliver brief remarks to the country at 2:30 a.m. from the White House East Room. Meadows attended the speech, where the president claimed he had won the election before races had been called in key battleground states where votes were still being counted.
Meadows returned to campaign headquarters on Wednesday, again without wearing a mask, two people familiar with the situation said.
It’s not clear if Meadows was his own, personal superspreader event or if someone else gave COVID, I mean the antibodies, to Gaetz. Sick or not, he’s doing a fine job of hairsplitting:
This story is false.
I have the antibodies, not the virus.
Politico DC is barely journalism. https://t.co/QuyeZooq7P— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) November 7, 2020
Politico also reported that the as-yet asymptomatic Gaetz does not know when he contracted the virus. You may recall that Gaetz mocked COVID-19 by wearing a gas mask on the House floor – just a week before he went into quarantine after becoming exposed to a known carrier of coronavirus.
Trump campaign adviser, Nick Trainer and four White House officials have also tested positive. Ditto for another Republican Congressman from Florida, Michael Waltz.
As usual, Twitter proves that Karma is undefeated:
How did they celebrate Election night? Licking each others faces?
But how did this happen to Matt Gaetz? He takes the pandemic so seriously.
I hope Nestor, who is his son in every conceivable way, is okay.
Slow down GOP. I'm running out of thoughts & prayers. pic.twitter.com/yagKtJtoA7— W. Kamau Bell (@wkamaubell) November 7, 2020
Matt Gaetz finally passed a test
— Daniel Uhlfelder (@DWUhlfelderLaw) November 7, 2020
“I don’t have a disease. I just had it and didn’t know while I refused to wear a mask and exposed everyone around me. In your face!!” - Dumb Asshole Matt Gaetz https://t.co/yVd6lCeiHO
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) November 7, 2020
I’m totally shocked that Matt Gaetz, the Republican Congressman who wore a gas mask to work one day in March to mock the pandemic, has tested positive for coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/hZvH2YBCes
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) November 7, 2020
