Katie Miller, the press secretary for Vice President Mike Pence and the wife of senior White House Advisor Stephen Miller, tested positive for coronavirus, according to Bloomberg.
President Donald Trump told CNN, “She’s a wonderful young woman, Katie, she tested very good for a long period of time and then all of a sudden today she tested positive.”
At a news briefing on Friday, Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, said a member of the vice president’s team had tested positive.
McEnany went on to tell reporters, “We have put in place the guidelines that our experts have put forward to keep this building safe,” according to The Hill.
The results of Miller’s positive test came after the White House revealed that Donald Trump’s personal valet tested positive for the disease Thursday.
The News Caused A Flight Delay
NEWS: Pence flight to Iowa delayed an hour after a staffer tested positive for coronavirus, I’m told. Some aides disembarked AF2. Wheels up now for Iowa.
News of another White House staffer, this time from Pence’s team, broke after six people scheduled to fly on a trip aboard Air Force Two were removed, causing a delay, according to CNN.
Pence was aboard the flight to Iowa along with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Iowa Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst to meet with faith leaders and secure the food supply, Politico reported.
CNN reported that Miller had been in contact with the six people removed from the flight, all of whom were tested and were found to be negative for the virus.
CNBC reported that although Miller had said she is asymptomatic, a White House official told NBC she had been showing symptoms Friday morning.
Trump Questioned the ‘Concept of Tests’ After Hearing the News
GettyTrump holds one of the swabs used for testing during a coronavirus briefing.
Politico reported that Miller had been tested on Thursday as part of what the White House has said is a daily protocol for ten of Pence’s staffers and other White House members. Trump said that protocol was recently changed from once-a-week testing to once-a-day testing, according to The Hill.
The White House announced that they would use the Abbott ID Now machines, which deliver results in as little as 15 minutes, to test members of the White House. However, Dr. Francis Collins, director for the National Institutes of Health, told CNN that the tests have a 15% false-negative rate.
At a meeting with congressional Republicans, Trump said he didn’t know much about Miller’s test, and that she had not been in contact with him but had been in contact with Pence, according to NBC.
He then began questioning the “concept of tests”:
“This is why the whole concept of tests aren’t necessarily great … The tests are perfect, but something can happen between a test where it’s good and then something happens and all of the sudden. She was tested very recently and tested negative, and then today I guess for some reason she tested positive. So Mike knows about it and Mike has done what he has to do. I think he is on an airplane, going to some faraway place, but you’ll be able to ask him later on. But they’ve taken all of the necessary precautions. I understand Mike has been tested, vice president, and he tested negative.”
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