Kayleigh McEnany Receives Well-Wishes From Reporters For Covid Diagnosis, Outrage Over Maskless Gaggles
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced late Monday morning that she had tested positive for Covid-19, increasing the total of senior White House staff and senior campaign advisers who have tested positive for the coronavirus to well over two dozen.
The reaction to news of McEnany’s positive test results was received by many journalists and members of the White House press corps have run the spectrum, from genuine well wishes to a bit of schadenfreude, to outright condemnation for putting reporters at considerable risk for not wearing masks and avoiding CDC guidelines.
Many reports have suggested that the Rose Garden nomination ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett held a week ago Saturday now appears to be a super spreader event. Two attendees are now hospitalized — President Donald Trump and Chris Christie — and over two dozen appear now to be in self-quarantine.
McEnany often flouted the Centers for Disease Control guidelines and defended largely maskless Trump rallies.
After Hope Hicks tested positive, Kayleigh McEnany was pulled off President Trump’s trip to New Jersey and later informed she’d had direct contact with Hicks. Yet McEnany did not quarantine and was at the White House Friday and yesterday, citing multiple negative tests.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) October 5, 2020
Other members of the press were less than generous in their assessment.
Kayleigh McEnany has repeatedly spoken to reporters without a mask on. She has recklessly endangered lives. https://t.co/BKnrD1AWRn
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) October 5, 2020
Covering this White House is a health hazard for reporters.
— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) October 5, 2020
McEnany says she has tested positive despite “experiencing no symptoms.”
This is exactly why the administraiton’s own public health experts urge people to wear face masks as much as possible — a recommendation McEnany and other members of her staff have flouted repeatedly. https://t.co/r1CEmDX0NO
— Chris Sommerfeldt (@C_Sommerfeldt) October 5, 2020
How many maskless briefings did you do, exactly?? https://t.co/5VSjNMNoPj
— Joy JUST VOTE & MASK UP!! Reid ?) (@JoyAnnReid) October 5, 2020
No choice but to conclude that seven months into this they’re actually all just too stupid, collectively to understand “incubation period,” “test sensitivity” and “test specificity”
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) October 5, 2020
Don’t forget the WH press office routinely invited reporters from Trump-friendly outlets, incl OANN, Gateway Pundit and Epoch Times, into the briefing room in violation of an agreement with the WHCA to strictly limit crowding.
— David Nakamura (@DavidNakamura) October 5, 2020
I felt safer reporting in North Korea than I currently do reporting at The White House. This is just crazy.
— Ben Tracy (@benstracy) October 5, 2020
Other members offered clear well-wishes before expressing hope that this news may change things moving forward:
I wish you a speedy recovery. And I hope the White House will begin to take appropriate precautions on White House grounds. https://t.co/hj5fUaOABh
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) October 5, 2020
I wish Kayleigh a full recovery. I hope she uses this time for reflection. https://t.co/biWSDp5oxv
— MichaelStarr Hopkins (@Theonlyhonest) October 5, 2020
It’s worth repeating that all of this spread in the presiden’t inner circle has real ramifications in DC and the other places around the country that he and his team traveled to unmasked.
— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) October 5, 2020
