Not just Unindicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio’s Valet anymore.
A top aide to Vice President Pence tests positive for coronavirus
By Colby Itkowitz, Washington Post
May 8, 2020
A top aide to Vice President Pence has tested positive for the coronavirus, making her the second known person working at the White House to contract the illness in the past two days, according to several people familiar with the situation.
Katie Miller, the vice president’s press secretary, was notified Friday about the result, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it had not been publicly announced by the White House. Miller confirmed to NBC News that she tested positive and said she was asymptomatic. The White House earlier in the day confirmed that a member of Pence’s staff tested positive but did not disclose the individual’s name.
President Trump later appeared to confirm it was Miller.
“She’s a wonderful young woman, Katie. She tested very good for a long period of time and all of a sudden today she tested positive,” Trump told reporters. “She hasn’t come into contact with me. She’s spent some time with the vice president.”
Miller is a fixture around Pence and has attended the coronavirus task force meetings that he leads. She is married to White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller. Trump attended their wedding at his Washington hotel in February.
The news of an infected staffer in the vice president’s office came as Pence was set to fly to Iowa on Friday morning. The flight was delayed, and six staffers were removed from Air Force Two because they had been in contact with Miller recently.
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On Thursday, the White House acknowledged the positive test result for a member of the U.S. military who works on the White House campus and added that Trump and Pence had since tested negative. The infected staffer is one of Trump’s personal valets, the military staff members who sometimes serve meals and look after personal needs of the president. That would mean the president, Secret Service personnel and senior members of the White House staff could have had close or prolonged contact with the aide before the illness was diagnosed.During a White House briefing Friday, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked how Americans should feel about going back to work when people in the administration were still getting sick.
“We have put in place the guidelines that experts have put forward to keep this building safe,” she said. “The guidelines we have for businesses that have essential workers we’re now putting in place here in the White House. So as America reopens safely, the White House is continuing to operate safely.”
Trump was asked whether he was worried now that two people in the White House have contracted the virus.
“I’m not worried, no. Look, I get things done. I don’t worry about things. I do what I have to do,” he said. “Again, we’re dealing with an invisible situation. Nobody knows.”