Giuliani Hospitalized After Testing Positive for COVID

Rudy Giuliani, who has been leading President Donald Trump’s election legal challenges in multiple states, has tested positive for COVID-19, the president tweeted Sunday afternoon.

@RudyGiuliani, by far the greatest mayor in the history of NYC, and who has been working tirelessly exposing the most corrupt election (by far!) in the history of the USA, has tested positive for the China Virus. Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!!!

ABC News reported that it had confirmed that Giuliani had been admitted to Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman first reported the news.

.@ABC News has confirmed Rudy Giuliani admitted to Georgetown Hospital Sunday. Unclear when exactly he tested positive. W/@KFaulders – first via @maggieNYT

Giuliani, 76, has been traveling to battleground states to appear at campaign events since the election. His son, Andrew, who works in the White House, two weeks ago tested positive for the coronavirus. 

Andrew Giuliani tweeted Sunday night that his father was “getting great care” and was “feeling well.”

My Dad @RudyGiuliani is resting, getting great care and feeling well. Thank you to all the friends who have reached out concerned about his well being.

Giuliani’s age puts him at higher risk for serious complications from the virus. He is the latest in Trump’s inner circle to test positive for COVID-19. The president spent several days in the hospital in early October after he contracted the virus following a nomination ceremony for Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett in the Rose Garden. 

Many of the individuals attended Coney Barrett’s nomination. 

Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but on Sunday evening he retweeted Trump’s announcement of his diagnosis. He also tweeted thanks to a conservative writer who had said he was praying for Giuliani.

It was not clear what, if any, symptoms Giuliani was experiencing.

Giuliani attended a hearing at the Georgia Capitol on Thursday where he went without a mask for several hours. Several state senators, all Republicans, also did not wear masks at the hearing.

On Wednesday night, Giuliani was in Lansing, Michigan, to testify in a highly unusual 4 1/2-hour legislative hearing in which he pushed Republican lawmakers to ignore the certification of Joe Biden’s Michigan victory and appoint electors for Trump. He did not wear a mask, nor did lawyer Jenna Ellis, who was sitting next to him. At one point, he asked one of his witnesses — a Detroit election worker — if she would be comfortable removing her mask. But legislators said they could hear her.

He also appeared maskless at a Nov. 25 hearing in Pennsylvania. And Giuliani did not quarantine after being near an infected person at a Nov. 19 news conference at the Republican National Committee’s headquarters. His son Andrew Giuliani, who is a White House aide, announced a day after the event that he had tested positive for the virus.

Research shows that people who contract the virus may become infectious to others several days before they start to feel ill.

Georgia state Sen. Jen Jordan, a Democrat who attended Thursday’s hearing, expressed outrage after learning of Giuliani’s diagnosis.

“Little did I know that most credible death threat that I encountered last week was Trump’s own lawyer,” Jordan tweeted. “Giuliani — maskless, in packed hearing room for 7 hours. To say I am livid would be too kind.”

Before the hearing, Giuliani and Michigan Republican Party Chairman Laura Cox — both maskless — did a virtual briefing for GOP activists.

Giuliani made an appearance earlier Sunday on Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures” to speak about his legal challenges in several states on behalf of Trump.

The diagnosis comes more than two months after Trump himself was stricken with the virus in early October. Since then, a flurry of administration officials and others in Trump’s orbit have also been sickened, including White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development. The president’s wife, Melania Trump, and teenage son, Barron Trump, have also been stricken.

The extraordinary spread in Trump’s orbit underscores the approach the president has taken to a virus that has now killed more than 280,000 people in the U.S. alone.

Those infected also include the White House press secretary and advisers Hope Hicks and Stephen Miller, as well as Trump’s campaign manager and the chair of the Republican National Committee.

Trump spent the waning days of his campaign trying to persuade the American public that the virus was receding, and repeatedly claimed it would miraculously “disappear” after Nov. 3. Instead, the country is experiencing a record-breaking spike in infections.

The president gave the mounting coronavirus death toll scant attention at a Saturday evening rally in Valdosta, Georgia, where he campaigned on behalf of Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue ahead of next month’s runoff election there. Most people who attended the outdoor rally did not wear masks.

White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx on Sunday offered tacit criticism of Trump’s attitude on the virus during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Asked about Trump and other administration members flouting public health experts’ warnings to avoid large gatherings and calls to wear masks, Birx replied that some leaders are “parroting” myths and called the pandemic “the worst event that this country will face.”

“And I think our job is to constantly say those are myths, they are wrong and you can see the evidence-base,” Birx added.

The Asssociated Press contributed to this report.

© 2020 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

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