[ad_1]
Donors who gave $ 250,000 were able to participate in a panel discussion, photo opportunity and reception with the president, as per the event invitation. The roundtable included 18 donors, according to one source, and was held inside socially distanced tables.
Another source says that roundtable attendees were tested for coronavirus when they arrived and that no one wore masks.
Three attendees told CNN that most people at the events weren’t wearing masks; all three say they have not been contacted by any contact tracker.
The president announced that he and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for coronavirus approximately eight hours after exiting the fundraiser, when he returned to the White House.
The decision to travel and participate in fundraising despite the knowledge of being exposed to the coronavirus is another example of the indifferent approach of the White House and the administration to the use of masks and the prevention policies of Covid-19.
An hour and a half before the fundraiser, some senior officials and the president were informed that Hope Hicks had tested positive for coronavirus, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters on Friday.
The decision was made to keep the fundraiser despite Trump’s exposure; attendees say they were not notified that the president had been exposed to Covid-19.
Arriving at 2:33 pm, the president attended the indoor and outdoor events.
If donors gave or raised $ 50,000, they were invited to a photo opportunity with Trump.
The two Texas attendees who participated in the photo opportunity said they had been screened for coronavirus before arriving at the VIP reception where they took a photo with the president.
They said they each chatted individually with Trump for less than a minute as the photo was taken and kept six feet away. Attendees at the VIP reception did not wear masks, they said, but event staff did.
The third event in which the president participated was an open air reception open to all donors. New Jersey resident Katherine Hermes told CNN that Trump stood on a podium, socially distant from the attendees, and held a question and answer session.
She and aides from Texas say they were kept in two groups, separated by barricades.
Questions posed by donors ranged from why there had been no arrests and criminal prosecutions of top Democrats to campaign strategy, according to Hermes. In response to the question about arrests and prosecutions, recall that Trump responded that there were so many things that he couldn’t tell the crowd.
The group closest to the president had been tested for coronavirus; Hermes’s group was only present for the outdoor reception and only received temperature checks and stayed further away.
The two groups did not mix, and most of the attendees in both groups did not wear masks, according to Hermes and the Texas attendees.
The campaign sent an email to attendees after the president tested positive
At noon on Friday, the Trump campaign sent an email to attendees officially notifying them that the president tested positive for coronavirus.
“Unfortunately, we are writing today to notify you that, as you have likely seen, President Trump confirmed last night that he and the First Lady were tested for COVID-19 and tested positive,” the email, obtained by CNN, reads. “As a precaution, we want to get your attention.”
The two Texas attendees said they would self-isolate and were tested for the coronavirus. Hermes told CNN that she was only present for the open-air speech and that she would not be quarantined or tested, saying, “She was nowhere near the man.”
CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Jeremy Diamond contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
