Well, well, well—it turns out Rudy Giuliani, who has been traipsing around the country promoting his boss Donald Trump’s baseless and increasingly pathetic claims of election fraud while emphatically spewing gas out of all of his orifices and leaking profusely, has also possibly been spreading covid-19 to state legislatures far and wide.
On Sunday, Trump announced that Giuliani was—finally!—diagnosed with covid-19, which Giuliani confirmed via Twitter. According to news reports, Giuliani, who wrote that he is “getting great care and feeling good” and “recovering quickly and keeping up with everything,” is currently hospitalized at the Georgetown University Medical Center.
Not feeling good, I’m guessing, mentally and possibly physically as well as spiritually? All of the people that Giuliani has possibly exposed to covid-19. Here’s just a sampling of where Giuliani has traveled to in recent days, via CNN:
Most recently, Giuliani was at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta on Thursday to attend a state Senate hearing about the November election. During a break in the hearing, Giuliani removed the mask he was wearing to greet and take pictures with supporters.
He traveled to Michigan on Wednesday for a state House committee hearing that lasted four and a half hours, during which he was maskless as he pushed misleading claims that the election was stolen from Trump.
At the beginning of the week, Giuliani was in Arizona, meeting with some GOP members of the state’s legislature to discuss unsubstantiated allegations that the election was fraudulent.
In response to Giuliani’s covid-19 diagnosis, the Arizona state legislature has closed for the week “out of an abundance of caution” given that he met with seemingly every Republican leader in the state last week. More, from the Arizona Republic:
Giuliani had spent more than 10 hours discussing election concerns with Arizona Republicans — including two members of Congress and at least 13 current and future state lawmakers — at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix last Monday. He led the meeting maskless, flouting social distancing guidelines and posing for photos.
Giuliani also met privately with Republican lawmakers and legislative leadership the next day, according to lawmakers’ social media posts.
And Democratic legislators noted Sunday evening that some representatives-elect who’d attended the Hyatt event attended an orientation for new lawmakers later in the week, possibly exposing additional legislators and Capitol staff.
The Georgia state senator who chaired the meeting where Giuliani spoke last week is urging people who were in “close contact” with Giuliani to “take every precaution and follow all requisite guidelines to ensure their health and safety.” And legislators in Michigan are also taking precautions. Via the Detroit Free Press:
The Michigan House of Representatives will not take attendance or cast votes in formal session on Tuesday, a move Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, instituted after colleagues called for action in light of Rudy Giuliani testing positive for COVID-19 days after speaking without a mask in Michigan.
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However, Chatfield said session will be held Tuesday and Wednesday. In a statement issued Monday afternoon, Ingham County Health Office Linda Vail said anyone who attended the Giuliani hearing and did not wear a mask, or who came within six feet of him for a combined 15 minutes, should quarantine and get a test.
The release indicates local and state health officials, including Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, believe it “extremely likely” Giuliani was contagious during his testimony.
As a reminder if you need one, 2020 isn’t over yet, and I can’t wait to see what else the year has in store for this very bad plague rat!
In the midst of a raging pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, Melania is thrilled to announce that her much-anticipated renovations of the White House tennis pavilion are complete!
It seems part of the impetus of the redesign was to give a big ole middle finger to Barack Obama, who as Politico noted, “had turned the tennis court into one suitable for basketball.”
It’s nice to know that Melania, in addition to planning holiday parties that have a decent chance of killing people, has her priorities straight and her finger firmly on the pulse of public opinion!
- Pretty cool that Joe Biden has announced he plans to nominate Xavier Becerra, a fan of Medicare for All, to lead HHS, though as the Wall Street Journal points out, “people familiar with the process said he supports Mr. Biden’s plan to expand health-care access through a public option.” [Wall Street Journal/New York Times]
- And here’s the rest of Biden’s health care team.
- Joe Biden has won Georgia for what feels like the millionth time. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
- But not according to famed racist Newt Gingrich!
- In somewhat related news, dozens of protesters and Trump supporters, some of whom were armed, gathered outside of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s home on Sunday night. Normal stuff! [Detroit Free Press]
- Attorney General Bill Barr is reportedly planning on resigning before being possibly being fired. [Washington Post]
- Some good news for trans students and bad news for bigots—the Supreme Court has declined to hear a case brought by “a group of students and parents” (i.e., the Alliance Defending Freedom) that sought to ban trans students from using school facilities that match their gender identity. [Politico]
- We get it, Ivanka, you love your daddy!!!