President Donald Trump says his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for the coronavirus, making him the latest in Trump’s inner circle to contract the disease that is now surging across the U.S.
After initial reports said the former New York City mayor was asymptomatic, his health took a downturn Sunday and he was rushed to a hospital in Washington, D.C.
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The 76-year-old former New York mayor has traveled extensively to battleground states to help Trump challenge the apparent election loss to Joe Biden. Critics pounced and said Giuliani often met with officials for hours at a time without wearing a mask.
Trump, who announced Giuliani’s positive test in a Sunday afternoon tweet, wished him a speedy recovery.
“Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!!!” Trump wrote.
.@RudyGiuliani, by far the greatest mayor in the history of NYC, and who has been working tirelessly exposing the most corrupt election (by far!) in the history of the USA, has tested positive for the China Virus. Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2020
Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but on Sunday evening he retweeted Trump’s announcement of his diagnosis. He also tweeted thanks to a conservative writer who had said he was praying for Giuliani.
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Giuliani attended a hearing at the Georgia Capitol on Thursday, where he went without a mask for several hours.
On Wednesday night, Giuliani was in Lansing, Michigan, to testify in a highly unusual 4 1/2-hour legislative hearing in which he pushed Republican lawmakers to ignore the certification of Biden’s Michigan victory and appoint electors for Trump. He did not wear a mask, nor did lawyer Jenna Ellis, who was sitting next to him.
Giuliani traveled last Monday to Phoenix, where he met with Republican legislators for an hourslong hearing. The Arizona legislature announced Sunday, after Giuliani’s diagnosis became public, that it would close for a week out of an abundance of caution “for recent cases and concerns relating to COVID-19.”
The Trump campaign said in a statement that Giuliani tested negative twice before he visited Arizona, Michigan, and Georgia. All Trump team members who had close contact with Giuliani are in self-isolation.
“The Mayor did not experience any symptoms or test positive for COVID-19 until more than 48 hours after his return,” according to the statement. “No legislators in any state or members of the press are on the contact tracing list, under current CDC Guidelines.”
Giuliani’s son Andrew Giuliani, who is a White House aide, announced a day after an event in Pennslyvania that he had tested positive for the virus.
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Research shows that people who contract the virus may become infectious to others several days before they start to feel ill.
Georgia state Sen. Jen Jordan, a Democrat who attended Thursday’s hearing, expressed outrage after learning of Giuliani’s diagnosis.
“Little did I know that most credible death threat that I encountered last week was Trump’s own lawyer,” Jordan tweeted. “Giuliani — maskless, in packed hearing room for 7 hours. To say I am livid would be too kind.”
Before the hearing, Giuliani and Michigan Republican Party Chairman Laura Cox — both maskless — did a virtual briefing for GOP activists.
Giuliani made an appearance earlier Sunday on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” to speak about his legal challenges in several states on behalf of Trump.
The diagnosis comes more than a month after the election and more than two months after Trump himself was stricken with the virus in early October. Since then, a flurry of administration officials and others in Trump’s orbit have also been sickened, including White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development. The president’s wife, Melania Trump, and teenage son, Barron Trump, have also been stricken.
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Those infected also include the White House press secretary and advisers Hope Hicks and Stephen Miller, as well as Trump’s campaign manager and the chair of the Republican National Committee.
The Associated Press contributed to this article