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Hope Hicks travels with President Donald Trump again, marking her first flight on the presidential plane since testing positive for the coronavirus.
Hicks, who serves as an adviser to the president, left the White House with the president and other staff members Thursday for a two-day campaign trip to North Carolina and Florida.
He was not wearing a mask when he boarded Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House or when he boarded Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews.
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, who tested positive for COVID, was also on the trip.
It’s unclear when Hicks officially returned to work. Thursday marks the end of 14 days since your positive test, but the White House has been arguing that 10 days is also enough to quarantine if a person shows no symptoms.
Hicks tested positive for coronavirus on October 1. She began to feel ill on Wednesday, September 30, when she was in Minnesota with the president. He was quarantined on Air Force One when he flew back with Trump and White House personnel.
News of his diagnosis set off a chain reaction that resulted in questions and criticism about the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic within its own ranks.
Counsel to President Hope Hicks, along with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, board Air Force One Thursday for a two-day trip with President Trump.
Thursday marked Hope Hicks’ first public appearance since testing positive for COVID
President Trump will take a two-day campaign trip to North Carolina and Florida
Criticism increased after a report that White House officials tried to keep Hicks’ diagnosis a secret. Bloomberg News broke the news of its positive test.
However, it is unclear if she was Patient Zero. Hicks was not at the Rose Garden announcement on Sept. 26 for Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, an event that became known as super spreader after at least 13 people present tested positive, including the president and the first lady.
Hicks only told the president, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and some top aides that he tested positive, The Washington Post reported. Many colleagues were outraged to learn of his diagnosis through the media or the office.
Trump knew of Hicks’s diagnosis, but proceeded with the events scheduled for his day, including a million-dollar fundraiser at his New Jersey golf club.
After that fundraiser, shortly before 1 a.m. Friday morning, the White House announced that the president and first lady tested positive for COVID.
Questions immediately arose about whether Trump should have attended the event in New Jersey with hundreds of donors, when he last tested negative for COVID (which the White House has yet to respond to), and whether he had infected Joe Biden during his presidential debate in Cleveland. earlier that week.
Hope Hicks didn’t wear a mask for her trip with the president
The president sounded vague about what happened when he spoke about Hicks’ diagnosis during an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News Thursday night that he tested positive.
So, it tested positive. I just found out about this. It tested positive, ”he said.
He added that he and first lady Melania Trump had just been examined.
‘I just came out with a test. I’ll see what, because we spent a lot of time. And the first lady also came out with a test, ” he said.
The White House has not given details on when the tests were administered and the results were released, so it is unclear whether Trump was evaluated Thursday morning after learning from Hicks or Thursday night as he said in Hannity or both of them.
Trump ended up spending four days at the Walter Reed Hospital Center being treated for COVID.
During his stay, he faced further criticism for hopping into a closed van with Secret Service agents to drive around the hospital to thank his followers outside. And, on his return to the White House on Monday, he climbed the stairs to the South Portico and removed his mask.
He has seldom worn one in public since leaving the hospital. He claims that he is now immune and his doctor says that he is no longer contagious.
“Now I have immunity,” President Stuart Varney told Fox Business Thursday morning before his trip to North Carolina and Florida.
“They test me, not every day, but they test me a lot,” he said.
White House officials wanted to keep Hope Hicks’ COVID diagnosis a secret after she tested positive for the disease, above which she leaves Marine One on September 30, her last trip before her COVID diagnosis.
Hope Hicks wears a face mask aboard Marine One in mid-September
Hope Hicks hours before her diagnosis: Hope Hicks, far right, is shown boarding Marine One on Wednesday. The president was also on board with Stephen Miller, second from right, Jared Kushner, center. His coronavirus diagnosis was announced the next day. They were on their way to Minnesota when this photograph was taken. She started to feel bad on the way back.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows gave a different version of events when he said the administration learned of Hicks’ diagnosis that Thursday afternoon as Marine One was preparing to take off for the fundraiser for the President.
“I am not going to enter the tiktok,” he told reporters at the time.
As for Hope Hicks, we discovered him just as Marine One was taking off yesterday. In fact, we took out some of the people who had been traveling and in close contact. ”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and White House social media director Dan Scavino were two of the employees who pulled out of that trip to New Jersey. They had traveled with Hicks on Air Force One to the presidential debate in Cleveland and events in Minnesota.
Additionally, McEnany held a briefing in the White House press room on Thursday, but said he was unaware of Hicks’ diagnosis at the time. The briefing took place an hour before Marine One’s departure and McEnany did not wear a mask, although reporters in the room did.
Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel tested positive the day after the presidential debate in Cleveland after feeling ill. He travels frequently with the president.
After a member of her family tested positive for COVID-19, the president was tested for the virus. On Wednesday afternoon, he received confirmation that he was positive for COVID-19, ‘said an RNC spokesperson. “She has been at her home in Michigan since last Saturday.”
Only a very small circle of people knew that Hicks had tested positive, and senior staff hoped to keep that information private, reported Bloomberg News, which broke the news of his diagnosis.
It is unclear when and how Hicks, 31, contracted the disease.
Senior staff are supposed to be screened daily for COVID, but the Abbott test the White House uses is only 50 to 80 percent accurate.
