WASHINGTON (AP) — The scene at the White House a week ago was one of normalcy in these most abnormal times: a crowd of revelers gathered in the Rose Garden, a band playing, the mingling of th…
By CALVIN WOODWARD and JILL COLVIN WASHINGTON (AP) — The scene at the White House a week ago was one of normalcy in these most abnormal times: a crowd of revelers gathered in the Rose Garden, a band playing, the mingling of the elite, good cheer everywhere, handshakes and hugs left and right. Now it’s a suspected petri dish of coronavirus infection, prominent among the numerous occasions over a week or more where President Donald Trump might have caught — or spread — the virus that has now landed him in the hospital No one knows how, when or from whom Trump became infected. Nor is it established who, if anyone, has contracted the disease from him. But to retrace some of his steps over the last week is to see risk at multiple turns and an abundance of opportunity for infection. This was the case day after day and right up until a few hours before his positive diagnosis, as he took a contingent to New Jersey for a fundraiser while knowing he’d been close to someone sick with COVID-19. The result is that one of the most protected people on the planet is now hospitalized, battling a disease that has killed more than 1 million people worldwide, more than 200,000 of them in the United States. A look at days leading up to it: SATURDAY, SEPT.26: More than 150 people gathered in the Rose Garden for Trump’s introduction of Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee for the Supreme Court. The event was highly social, but not distanced. Few in the crowd wore masks; in fact, some guests were told it was safe to take them off after they received tests upon arrival, said Rev. John Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame, one of the attendees. COVID-19 tests are not 100% reliable and do not rule out the possibility that someone might have an infection that is not yet detectable. The virus can incubate for days before a test will uncover it. In the days that followed, a succession of attendees reported they had contracted COVID-19, among them Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Thom Tillis of North Carolina and former counselor to the president, Kellyanne Conway. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, seen in an AP photo with his arm around another guest while chatting up several face to face, announced his positive virus test this weekend. Jenkins contracted COVID-19, too. “I regret my error of judgment in not wearing a mask during the ceremony and by shaking hands with a number of people in the Rose Garden,” he said in a message to the Notre Dame community. “I failed to lead by example, at a time when I’ve asked everyone else in the Notre Dame community to do so.” Public-health experts say Trump failed to lead by example, too. That night he headed to Pennsylvania for a rally, followed Sunday by an outing to the golf course, a reception with Gold Star families, and a press conference during which he made not a single reference to the virus. ___ TUESDAY After a spirited send-off from the White House grounds, Trump and members of his team headed to Cleveland and the raucous presidential debate with Democrat Joe Biden. Adviser Hope Hicks was among them. Everyone admitted to the hall was supposed to have been tested in advance and come up negative, the Cleveland Clinic officials who served as the debate’s health advisers said in a statement.
