President Donald Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis exposes the Capitol’s laissez-faire approach to testing for the deadly disease, particularly for congressional leaders and Republicans who interact regularly with the president or his top aides.
The president regularly hosts Republican senators at the White House, including for the introduction of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. At these events, these lawmakers and much of the crowd are maskless. Senators were tested prior to the Barrett announcement, according to a person with knowledge of the event, but testing does not always pick up the disease.
Capitol denizens are in direct line for the presidency after Vice President Mike Pence, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi followed by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the Senate’s president pro tempore. Grassley’s spokesperson said the Iowa Republican has not been tested recently for the coronavirus given that he has not recently been exposed to anyone who tested positive for the disease.
Pelosi, who tested negative for the virus Friday, met in her speaker’s suite with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has regular contact with the president, for 90 minutes Wednesday. Mnuchin announced Friday morning he has tested negative for the disease.
Still, Trump’s positive test has set off a scramble inside the Capitol as lawmakers and aides work to determine who may be in danger after being exposed to those in the president’s orbit. And the news has set off a new round of questioning about why congressional leaders continue to refuse to implement a testing system for the Capitol complex, which encompasses hundreds of lawmakers and thousands of aides and support staff.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on the Senate to develop a testing and contact tracing program on Friday.
“We simply cannot allow the administration’s cavalier attitude to adversely affect this branch of government,” Schumer said. “It is imperative that all results be made public in order to contain a possible outbreak and so we can determine the need for Senators and staff to quarantine or self-isolate.”
Some Republicans groused that the Senate’s testing regime and schedule needed to be reevaluated. One Republican aide called the lack of tests “ridiculous,” while another said the Senate should not come into session next week: “We cannot afford to have half the caucus get sick right before the Barrett hearings. ” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a member of the Judiciary Committee, said Friday that he tested positive for coronavirus and will quarantine for 10 days.
While some influential Senate Republicans have also stumped for a comprehensive testing program in the Capitol, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have so far rejected it. That makes it difficult to know at the moment whether the spread of coronavirus has breached the Capitol, particularly after the Senate adjourned for the weekend and sent senators back to their home states across the country. The House held votes on Friday, though members were allowed to vote by proxy.
Moreover, Barrett has met with roughly two dozen senators since being introduced by Trump last weekend. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and counsel Pat Cipollone have attended these meetings; neither they nor Barrett have tested positive at this time. Judd Deere, a White House spokesperson, said Barrett is tested daily for coronavirus and received a negative result Friday morning.
On Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, McConnell said on Friday that he didn’t know whether any senators had the virus right now, and emphasized the importance that lawmakers follow public health guidelines. He said some of Barrett’s hearing is likely to be conducted remotely and that Trump’s diagnosis “underscores that the coronavirus is not concerned about” the election.
“It can sneak up on you as it did with the president and the first lady. So we’re keeping an eye on everyone,” McConnell said.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) rejected McConnell’s characterization. He noted the White House “has had multiple positive cases, including several people who have direct contact with Trump” and that the president still refused to wear a mask in private and public meetings.
McConnell did not commit to holding a vote on Barrett before the election, though that is his members’ stated goal. After speaking with Trump by phone, McConnell tweeted that the Senate will move “full steam ahead” on the nomination, with hearings in the Judiciary Committee scheduled to begin Oct. 12. A Republican aide confirmed there are no changes to Barrett’s schedule. The Senate will convene on Monday afternoon to vote on lower-level judicial nominees.
At an event in Kentucky later Friday, McConnell indicated again that he saw no change in plans for the Senate schedule.
“So far, the disease has not kept us from operating as we would normally and there’s no reason to expect that to be the case in the foreseeable future,” he said.
Given the number of meetings top Senate and House members have at the White House with his president and his staff, the diagnosis of the president and his aides at a minimum highlights the risk to a Capitol filled with lawmakers in their 70s and 80s particularly susceptible to the deadly pandemic’s effects.
And it’s not just congressional leaders, like Pelosi and McConnell, who have interacted with Trump aides this week.
Rep. Jim Jordan traveled with Trump to Cleveland on Air Force Once for Tuesday’s presidential debate and will get tested for coronavirus Friday, his office said. The Ohio Republican is one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress and has refused to routinely wear a mask around the Capitol. Jordan said on Fox and Friends that he “feels fine” and “had a great workout yesterday.
Jordan also said he only interacted with the president for “a brief, brief amount of time.” Still, his office said will virtually attend a House Coronavirus Crisis Select Committee hearing.
In a case of bad timing, Republicans on the select committee released a report Friday morning on Trump’s “whole of America response to protect American lives, reopen the economy, and defeat the virus.”
Trump’s diagnosis will almost certainly revive the debate over coronavirus testing on Capitol Hill. Earlier this year, the White House offered to provide rapid testing for members of Congress, but Pelosi and McConnell declined to accept, arguing those tests should be prioritized for frontline workers.
On Friday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he spoke to Pelosi about testing but has made no decision yet.
“If we do tests, we need to do reliable tests,” he said.
Since the start of the outbreak, most senators and House members have worn masks and taken extra precautions to try to prevent the spread of the disease, including closing down the Capitol to most visitors. Senate Republicans have their daily lunches in a larger room, while House and Senate Democrats now meet almost entirely by phone. House Democrats have resumed some in-person leadership meetings, with the option to dial in. House Republicans have begun holding their full GOP conference meetings in person again, including this week at the Capitol Hill Club.
More than a dozen lawmakers have tested positive, including Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), who shunned mask-wearing in hearings and within the House office buildings. Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) have also tested positive.
There is one known ongoing case — Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.), who tested positive in mid-September, and has been publicly chronicling the effects of the illness, which has left her exhausted and out of breath for weeks. Hayes, a freshman, made a direct plea to Pelosi and other congressional leaders last week to institute regular testing in the Capitol, calling the lack of testing “irresponsible” in such a sprawling complex.
Democrats instituted a proxy voting system to reduce cross-country travel and allow lawmakers to remain home if they are ill, in quarantine or concerned about their health. But House Republicans — except one lawmaker — have refused to take part and are filing suit against the new rules.
Shortly after reports of Trump’s infection, some House lawmakers made pleas to their colleagues to stay home from the Capitol on Friday if they’d been in contact with the White House. “To any members of Congress who were in close quarters with the President recently — please don’t come to work today,” Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) wrote on Twitter.
While lawmakers are still keeping on skeleton staffs in the Capitol during the pandemic, there’s evidence of some fatigue. On Thursday, a sizable minority of staffers walked around the Russell Senate Office Building without masks, for example and a growing number of members, particularly Republicans, have gradually asked staff to return to their offices. The foot traffic in the complex has picked up substantially in recent weeks.
And though members of the media have sought to reduce their footprint in the Capitol, the Supreme Court nomination has noticeably increased the number of reporters interacting with senators and their staffs.
Melanie Zanona contributed to this report