President Rejected Trump 50: Patient Zero of the White House Covid Cluster

[Alisamer]

34 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

 

And also

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Highly appropriate, since Trump thinks dead soldiers are "suckers and losers". (I'm surprised they got him to suck it up and go to the commemoration, frankly.)

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

Apparently about 130 secret service officers are either infected with or quarantining due to Covid after WH exposure.

It's in Washington Post, but behind a paywall so I can't link.  

[fraurosena]

9 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Apparently about 130 secret service officers are either infected with or quarantining due to Covid after WH exposure.

It's in Washington Post, but behind a paywall so I can't link.  

I could read the article:

More than 130 Secret Service officers are said to be infected with coronavirus or quarantining in wake of Trump’s campaign travel

Quote

More than 130 Secret Service officers who help protect the White House and the president when he travels have recently been ordered to isolate or quarantine because they tested positive for the coronavirus or had close contact with infected co-workers, according to three people familiar with agency staffing.

The spread of the coronavirus — which has sidelined roughly 10 percent of the agency’s core security team — is believed to be partly linked to a series of campaign rallies that President Trump held in the weeks before the Nov. 3 election, according to the people, who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the situation.

The outbreak comes as coronavirus cases have been rapidly rising across the nation, with more than 152,000 new cases reported Thursday.

The virus is having a dramatic impact on the Secret Service’s presidential security unit at the same time that growing numbers of prominent Trump campaign allies and White House officials have fallen ill in the wake of campaign events, where many attendees did not wear masks.

Among those who are infected are White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and outside political advisers Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie.

In addition, at least eight staffers at the Republican National Committee, including Chief of Staff Richard Walters, have the virus, according to officials at the organization. Some of those infected are in field offices across the country, including Pennsylvania, where some believe they were exposed in large staff gatherings, an official said.

White House spokesman Judd Deere said the administration takes “every case seriously.” He referred questions about the Secret Service outbreak to agency officials. A spokeswoman for the Secret Service declined to comment.

Trump went on a travel blitz in the final stretch of the campaign, making five campaign stops on each of the last two days. On Nov. 2, Trump’s campaign schedule required five separate groups of Secret Service officers — each numbering 20 to several dozen — to travel to Fayetteville, N.C.; Scranton, Pa.; Traverse City and Grand Rapids, Mich.; and Kenosha, Wis.; to screen spectators and secure the perimeter around the president’s events. President-elect Joe Biden made two campaign stops that day that also required Secret Service protection, but in smaller numbers.

The agency is also examining whether some portion of the current infections are not travel-related, one government official said, but instead trace back to the site where many Secret Service officers report for duty each day: the White House.

White House staff largely eschew wearing masks, despite public health guidelines that they help contain the spread of the virus, and some Secret Service officers on duty at the complex have also been seen without them.

The Secret Service employs roughly 1,300 officers in its Uniformed Division to guard the White House and the vice president’s residence. The officers are also the backbone of security for presidential trips out of town and other official events. Officers are distinct from agents, most of whom work in plainclothes and provide close security of the president, his family members and other senior officials.

Earlier this week, agency supervisors told other staff about the large number of officers who have contracted the virus and said there has been expanded testing to help limit the spread, according to the people familiar with the situation.

The number of officers who have been pulled off duty creates a major stress on an already overworked team and will force many officers to forgo days off and work longer hours to compensate for absent co-workers. A 2015 blue-ribbon panel identified overworked Secret Service officers as one key factor that contributed to security breaches at the White House.

“Being down more than 100 officers is very problematic,” said one former senior Secret Service supervisor. “That does not bode well for White House security.”

It’s not the first time the Secret Service has been hit hard by the decisions of Trump and Vice President Pence to travel during the pandemic. This summer, dozens of Secret Service agents fell ill or were sidelined and forced to quarantine in the wake of the president’s massive indoor stadium rally in Tulsa in June and the vice president’s subsequent trip to Arizona.

At the time, Secret Service spokesman Catherine Milhoan said in a statement to The Washington Post that the agency “continues to methodically assess the unique requirements necessary to operate in the ongoing pandemic environment.”

But many of Trump’s own choices put his protection team at heightened risk, specifically his choice to travel out of state and hold large public events. Secret Service agents and medical professionals were shocked early last month when Trump — then being treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for the coronavirus — insisted on taking a ride outside the hospital to wave to supporters from inside a government sport-utility vehicle. He wore a cloth mask, but many feared he was unnecessarily endangering the Secret Service agents inside the vehicle.

Deere defended the outing at the time, telling reporters “appropriate precautions were taken in the execution of this movement to protect the president and all those supporting it.” He said precautions included personal protective equipment, without elaborating, and said the trip “was cleared by the medical team as safe to do.”

While many people in Trump’s orbit have contracted the virus this year, the most recent outbreak at the White House has been particularly extensive. Many of those who are now sick attended a campaign party last week in the East Room, or were exposed to someone who did.

Meadows was among those in the East Room of the White House when Trump gave remarks around 3 a.m. Wednesday to a crowd of about 150 of his top aides, donors and allies, as well as family members. During that event, Meadows worked the room extensively, without a mask, speaking to dozens.

More than a dozen White House aides have tested positive for the virus in the past week, including a range of low-level assistants and secretaries, officials said. Offices that have been affected include political affairs, legislative affairs and communications.

Meadows’s positive diagnosis was revealed last week, along with the fact that he had urged staffers not to disclose it. The chief of staff is not expected to return to the office until next week, a person close to him said.

People present at Wednesday night’s campaign party in the East Room who were around Meadows, Lewandowski and other now-sick staffers say they have not been contacted by the White House.

Several staffers said they were nervous about going to work because there has been such an outbreak. “I’m trying to work from home,” one senior administration official said Wednesday afternoon. “It’s not really safe to be in there right now.”

Several aides said they were frustrated by a lack of transparency from their superiors, particularly Meadows, and that they did not notify more people of diagnoses.

 

[WiseGirl]

It's a cult.  You don't say...what the hell info does he have on all of them?

"columnist and author Thomas Friedman likens Trump-supporting Republicans to a cult, saying that party leaders don't stand up to the President because they are afraid of him."

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/11/13/john-kelly-trump-transition-friedman-cult-tsr-sot-vpx.cnn

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[AmazonGrace]

How did this even happen? Pete Buttigieg's tag is @PeteButtigieg. Nothing like the one he tagged.

[WiseGirl]

RRegarding Pete Buttigieg tag, isn't Alfred E Newman from Mad magazine? Was 45 trying to be funny, witty, come across as clever? Wtf?

Edited November 15, 2020 by WiseGirl
Spelling is hard

[47of74]

Yeah well he’s already cast himself in a negative light. 

Quote

Former acting FBI director Andrew McCabehas warned that classified intelligence from bureau’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign ties to Russia could contain information that would “risk casting the president in a very negative light”.

Mr McCabe has been at the centre of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, in which a Republican-controlled panel is reviewing the FBI’s recision to initiate the investigation.

He testified before the panel on Tuesday and told lawmakers that officials had a “duty” to carry out the investigation due to the information they had collected. Mr McCabe personally approved the decision to investigate Mr Trump for possible obstruction of justice.

To quote Worf, Son of Mogh, “One cannot tarnish a rusted blade.”

 

[Audrey2]

3 hours ago, WiseGirl said:

RRegarding Pete Buttigieg tag, isn't Alfred E Newman from Mad magazine? Was 45 trying to be funny, witty, come across as clever? Wtf?

Sorry Trumpy, I always thought that Paul Ryan looked much more like Alfred E Neeman than what Pete Buttigieg does.

[Dandruff]

On 11/13/2020 at 2:25 PM, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Apparently about 130 secret service officers are either infected with or quarantining due to Covid after WH exposure.

Infected secret service officers + the people they've been in contact with + all the largely unmasked demonstrators in and around DC yesterday + predicted second wave = I'm even more afraid to go outside than I was before.  I wish...never mind.

On 11/14/2020 at 3:33 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

"Full Diaper" is my favorite.

[Cartmann99]

8 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

How did this even happen? Pete Buttigieg's tag is @PeteButtigieg. Nothing like the one he tagged.

He didn't know how to spell Pete's last name.

[onekidanddone]

39 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

Infected secret service officers + the people they've been in contact with + all the largely unmasked demonstrators in and around DC yesterday + predicted second wave = I'm even more afraid to go outside than I was before.  I wish...never mind.

"Full Diaper" is my favorite.

I may go back to grocery delivery if it starts to get worse here in Maryland. 
 

22 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

He didn't know how to spell Pete's last name.

Well to be fair I doubt I’d get it spelled right 

ETA: Scratch that. One should never say ‘to be fair’ and Twitler 

39 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

Infected secret service officers + the people they've been in contact with + all the largely unmasked demonstrators in and around DC yesterday + predicted second wave = I'm even more afraid to go outside than I was before.  I wish...never mind.

"Full Diaper" is my favorite.

Festering gutter snipe

ETA2: Oh FFS I really need to proofread my posts better. 

Edited November 15, 2020 by onekidanddone

[Cartmann99]

11 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

Well to be fair I doubt I get it spelled right 

Me too, but most of us have enough sense to know that cut and paste is our friend in that situation.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[47of74]

On 11/14/2020 at 2:33 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

 

It’s kind of a challenge for euchre players now. What in hell are we supposed to call the trump suite now that fuck face has ruined the word forever? 

[Audrey2]

However, it makes me hope I have a good hand when I'm playing bridge with my family just so I can bid no Trump.

[GreyhoundFan]

Spot the difference:

[AmazonGrace]

52 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Spot the difference:

Hm yeah but the plague got started on his watch too.

I still think that a vaccine against a scam that Democrats made up to make Trump look bad before the election should easily be 100 % effective.

[AmazonGrace]

I don't know what this event is but I am assuming that he wants more people exposed to Covid.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

38 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

I don't know what this event is but I am assuming that he wants more people exposed to Covid.

 

It's an annual event where people place wreaths on the graves at Arlington National Cemetery. Usually 30,000 - 40,000 people work the event.

[Cartmann99]

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[SassyPants]

17 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

It's an annual event where people place wreaths on the graves at Arlington National Cemetery. Usually 30,000 - 40,000 people work the event.

Might I suggest that he can hold that event and place the wreaths himself?  Exercise is good for most people,  including him.