House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rested negative for the coronavirus, her office said Friday afternoon. Pelosi was tested after President Donald Trump announced he and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for the virus overnight. Pelosi has not been in direct contact with the president, but she met with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin this week to discuss a new coronavirus relief package. Mnuchin also tested negative, the Treasury said Friday morning.
“Out of an abundance of caution, Speaker Pelosi was tested for COVID-19 this morning by the Capitol’s Office of the Attending Physician. Dr. Monahan just informed the Speaker that she tested negative,” Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill tweeted. Earlier, Hammill said Pelosi spoke with Mnuchin on a relief package, but only over the phone Friday.
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After hearing about Trump’s positive test, Pelosi told MSNBC it would change the dynamics of stimulus talks. “This kind of changes the dynamic because here [Republicans] see the reality of what we have been saying all along. This is a vicious virus,” the California Democrat explained. She said it was Washington’s “responsibility” to find a “middle ground” to get another relief package done. The House passed a $2.2 trillion proposal Thursday night, and Mnuchin countered with a $1.6 trillion package.
Elsewhere in her MSNBC interview, Pelosi criticized Trump’s behavior during the pandemic, calling his behavior a “brazen invitation,” although she will pray for his recovery. “This is tragic, it’s very sad,” she said. “But it also is something that, again, going into crowds, unmasked, and all the rest, was sort of a brazen invitation for something like this to happen.” Pelosi added that she is “hopeful that it will be a transition to a saner approach of what this virus is all about.”
Pelosi also questioned the validity of the rapid tests at the White House. “I have concern about the test because, obviously, the tests that are happening at the White House are not as accurate as they should be,” she said on Friday. According to The Hill, Pelosi and Mnuchin sat six feet apart during their 90-minute meeting Thursday and wore masks.
On Friday afternoon, White House physician Dr. Sean Conley said Trump received a dose of Regeneron’s experimental polyclonal antibody cocktail. Trump is “fatigued but in good spirits,” Conley wrote. “He’s being evaluated by a team of experts, and together we’ll be making recommendations to the President and First Lady in regards to next best steps.” Other members of the Trump family, including Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, tested negative for the virus.
