WASHINGTON, D.C. — At least 130 members of the U.S. Secret Service either contracted or were exposed to COVID-19 after traveling with President Donald Trump in the final whirlwind days of his campaign, according to a report from The Washington Post.
The report, citing numerous government officials who spoke to the publication on the condition of anonymity, says at least 130 members of the agency assigned to protect the president and the White House during travel have been ordered to quarantine after either testing positive for coronavirus or coming into close contact with another infected coworker.
In the final days of Trump’s campaign, the president launched a massive multi-state tour in the weekend leading up to the Nov. 3rd elections. On the Saturday before Election Day alone, the president visited Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin, making multiple stops in the latter three states to host massive rallies.
On Election Eve, the president’s campaign required five separate groups of Secret Service officers — each cohort including a minimum of 20 employees — to travel to as many states, according to The Washington Post. Part of the Secret Service’s job is to secure the perimeter of events and sweep the area before the president arrives.
Per the Washington Post's estimate, the sidelined members of the Secret Service make up approximately 10% of the agency’s Uniformed Division workforce, which boasts roughly 1,300 officers.
The agency is reportedly also investigating whether some Secret Service members contracted the virus at the White House, where staff regularly do not wear masks.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Secret Service told Spectrum News, "the health and safety of our workforce is paramount for the Secret Service and, as such, we continuously assess the requirements necessary to operate during the pandemic and ensure we remain prepared and fully staffed to carry out our critical integrated protective and investigative missions, neither of which has been degraded by the pandemic."
"To the contrary, the Secret Service successfully carried out its protective obligations associated with the presidential campaign while fulfilling its statutory protective responsibilities and continues to investigate and bring to justice those using the pandemic to commit millions of dollars of fraud," Julia McMurray, a spokesperson for the Secret Service, said in a statement.
"The Secret Service maintains well-established protocols inclusive of testing, conducting contact tracing related to confirmed and suspected exposure, and immediately isolating of any employee who tests positive for COVID-19," the statement continued."This program ensures that every precaution is taken to keep our protectees, employees, families, and the general public, safe and healthy."
McMurary would not comment on how many Secret Service officers have tested positive for COVID nor how many are, or have been, in quarantine, citing "privacy and operational security reasons."
In addition to the reported outbreak among the Secret Service, a number of top officials have tested positive for COVID-19 after an election night watch party in the White House East Room. The event has been under scrutiny since White House chief of staff Mark Meadows contracted the virus, which has now killed more than 238,000 people in the U.S. alone.
Ben Carson, the secretary for housing and urban development, tested positive, a department spokesperson confirmed Monday, as did David Bossie, who was recently tasked with overseeing the campaign’s legal challenges contesting the election’s outcome.
Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski also tested positive for the coronavirus after attending the watch party, although he said Thursday he believes he was infected in Philadelphia and he's not experiencing any symptoms. Lewandowski appeared with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani at an event last Saturday in Pennsylvania outside a landscaping company and lobbed unfounded accusations of voter fraud as the race was called for Trump’s challenger, now-President-elect Joe Biden.
The White House has repeatedly refused to say who else has tested positive, even as the virus continues to spread.
Neither the most recent cluster of cases at the White House nor the large amount of Secret Service members who reportedly contracted the disease, coming just a month after Trump’s own diagnosis and hospitalization, would be the first outbreak linked to the Trump administration.
The president himself contracted the disease not long after senior adviser Hope Hicks revealed she had tested positive; The Minnesota Department of Health reported 24 coronavirus cases among people who attended large Trump campaign events in the state in late October, and at least two people who attended a rally in Gastonia, North Carolina in October also tested positive for COVID.
And it isn’t the first time the Secret Service has been impacted by the White House’s apparent disregard for health concerns amid the pandemic. When Trump was being treated at Walter Reed medical center after contracting the disease in early October, the president took a surprise drive around the hospital to wave to supporters from the window of an SUV. The Secret Service agents in the car with him were dressed in personal protective equipment.
The president was lambasted with criticism for potentially endangering the health of the agents, getting so much heat that White House spokesman Judd Deere was forced to issue a statement on the matter.
“Appropriate precautions were taken in the execution of this movement to protect the president and all those supporting it, including PPE,” Deere said of the outing.
Behind the scenes, agents told a very different story.
Several who spoke with The Associated Press expressed concern over the cavalier attitude the White House has taken when it comes to masks and distancing. Colleagues, they said, are angry, but feel there’s little they can do.
Others noted the difference between facing outside threats they have trained for — a gun, a bomb or a biohazard — and being put at additional risk because of behavior they characterized as reckless at times. The agents spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardizing their jobs.
At the time, the Secret Service refused to disclose how many of its employees tested positive or had to quarantine, citing privacy and security.
Secret Service spokeswoman Julia McMurray said the agency takes “every precaution to keep our protectees, employees and families, and the general public, safe and healthy.”
Spectrum News has also reached out to the White House for comment.
This story has been updated to reflect a statement from the United States Secret Service.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.