Earlier on Friday, the White House had reportedly decided to forego making any official changes to its coronavirus protocols because things were apparently going so well over at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Even after Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19, not only would White House testing regimens remain the same, one official told the Associated Press facial coverings were merely “a personal choice” and would not be mandated.
Then came news late Friday that Trump would be airlifted to Walter Reed Medical Center. Suddenly masks were the order of the day. “I have never seen so many WH staffers wearing masks at the same time throughout this entire pandemic,” CNN White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond tweeted along with a photo of mask-clad White House staffers awaiting Trump’s departure. Even White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who had conducted an entire indoor press briefing on Thursday maskless, was pictured donning a face covering.
Turns out the new mask policy was mandated by White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien, who seems to have clued into the fact that not mandating mask wearing in a White House where any number of staffers could be infected was 100% insane. White House staffers are now reportedly required to wear masks in common areas, meaning any time they are outside of their own personal office.
Let’s hope the gravity and possible sobriety that appears to be settling over the West Wing will reach Republicans on Capitol Hill soon too. With Trump at Walter Reed, and the virus on the move in the White House and maybe even Congress, this has quickly become an urgent issue of national security, particularly because many of the highest-level officials in the U.S. government are older and therefore at a higher risk of suffering debilitating and even lethal infections.
Not only have Trump and First Lady Melania tested positive (along with three White House journalists on Friday alone), Sen. Mike Lee of Utah also tested positive Thursday shortly after participating in several Judiciary Committee proceedings this week. Nonetheless, GOP Leader Mitch McConnell still resisted calls on Friday from Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to start a testing-and-tracing program.
Some might call this a crisis moment, and it’s incumbent upon Republicans to start acting like they live in the real world and have a job to do for the American people. That must happen at both the White House and in Congress. And the line of succession matters here in case Trump becomes incapacitated. Vice President Mike Pence, who has tested negative, is first in line. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has also tested negative, is second in line. Third in line is president pro tempore of the Senate, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who is reportedly refusing to get tested.
The succession line goes further, but all three of the next in line mentioned have liabilities despite the fact that Pence and Pelosi have both tested negative. Pence meets with Trump regularly and on Saturday attended Trump's announcement of Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court pick. Lee also attended that event and later in the week turned up positive.
Grassley also attended two Senate Judiciary Committee proceedings this week that Lee participated in, and Lee was often (if not always) maskless. The idea that he isn't getting tested is insane.
And Speaker Pelosi met in person with Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin on Wednesday to resume coronavirus relief package talks. Mnuchin told Pelosi he has since tested negative too.
But none of these negatives are a sure thing at this point. They are merely a progress report since the coronavirus can take anywhere from two to 14 days to incubate. Case in point: Mike Lee. He tested negative on Saturday and positive on Thursday, and he may have been exposed to the virus at the White House event, or he may have been previously exposed and simply didn't register positive until several days later. It's impossible to know.
Which is to say—this is an extraordinary national security risk for our country to have the coronavirus potentially floating around the West Wing and the halls of Congress. The White House, first and foremost, and Republicans on Capitol Hill must start taking it seriously after their lapses produced this vulnerability to begin with. Trump never should have continued with business as usual on Thursday after Hope Hicks tested positive that morning. Trump’s refusal to accept reality exposed many more people to risk than was necessary. The same is true for Sen. Lee. He was experiencing symptoms on Wednesday but still participated in a Judiciary panel meeting Thursday even as he was getting tested.
Republicans were elected to serve this country, not cripple it. And right now, many still appear to be insistent on staying the very course that landed us in this mess to begin with.