News came out today that White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus.
Jim Acosta tried to blame her for not wearing a mask at a briefing yesterday when she was outdoors and socially distanced from anyone.
As my colleague Sister Toldjah wrote earlier, you had crazy tweets from reporters such as the one from CBS correspondent Ben Tracy.
Just so much idiocy.
But here’s the thing on top of that.
The White House Press Corps had three members diagnosed with the virus last week on Friday, according to CNN. So the reporters had it before McEnany did, so it’s more likely she got it from them. Three coming down with it and a White House staffer who sits in the lower press area and has close contact with reporters also getting it suggests that’s where a concentration might be.
But the WHCA gave more detail in a memo to correspondents.
“We are writing to let you know that another member of our press corps tested positive today for COVID-19,” the memo said. “This individual was last at the White House on Saturday and subsequently traveled on Air Force One to Pennsylvania. The individual began experiencing COVID-19 symptoms yesterday.”
A third memo, at 3:35 p.m., said that a third member of the press corps has tested positive.
The individual was at the White House last Saturday and Sunday, and “began experiencing minor symptoms late Wednesday.”
So two of them were at the White House on Saturday, the day of the ACB event, and one was also there on Sunday. Then one was also on Air Force One with Trump on the trip to Pennsylvania.
So not only might they have passed it on to the staffer, they might have passed it on to others as well, including Trump.
From The Hill:
“Due to cases linked to the pools last weekend and the large number of press credentialed for the 9/26 Rose Garden event, we ask that if you were on the White House grounds or in the pools those days, that you pay extra attention to any changes in your health,” said WHCA President Zeke Miller.
Miller told reporters that the White House has committed to testing journalists who were on Air Force One in the last week this coming Monday and that the WHCA is “strongly [encouraging] other journalists who may have been exposed this week to avail themselves of other testing options, through their local health department, personal physician, employer or other accommodation before returning to the White House complex.”
Now, obviously, it’s hard to tell the origin with a virus like this and there are a few possibilities.
But how dare any of the reporters blame the White House when the theory of the case is just as likely that they may have spread it to folks at the White House? But of course, they being media and many Trump-hating media at that, that’s what they’re doing now, with some reporters whining that the White House infected the reporters. So any reporter who thinks so should just avoid the White House, I’m sure that that would make everyone at the White House feel better, including the folks that have to deal with them all the time.