Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Lawmakers Who Met With Giuliani Scramble After COVID News
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 4 years ago on
December 8, 2020

Share

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani was “doing very well” after being hospitalized with the coronavirus as lawmakers in battleground states that Giuliani visited last week scrambled to make sure they did not contract the virus.

The 76-year-old former New York mayor, hospitalized in Washington, had traveled extensively to battleground states to press Trump’s quixotic effort to get legislators to overturn his election loss to Joe Biden and subvert the November vote. On numerous occasions, Giuliani met with officials for hours at a time without wearing a mask, including hearings last week with state lawmakers in Arizona, Georgia and Michigan.

Fallout from Giuliani’s diagnosis continued Monday as the Michigan House announced it had canceled its voting session scheduled for Tuesday. Giuliani spoke for hours last week before a Republican-led committee in Lansing investigating alleged election irregularities.

Michigan’s move came after the Arizona legislature announced Sunday that it would close for a week out of an abundance of caution “for recent cases and concerns relating to COVID-19.”

“Multiple representatives have requested time to receive results from recent COVID-19 tests before returning to session, out of an abundance of caution,” Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield, a Republican who met with Giuliani before the hearing, said in a statement. “The CDC guidelines would not consider them close contacts with anyone, even if Mayor Giuliani had been positive, but they want to go above and beyond in the interest of public safety. With the recent spike in COVID cases nationwide, this makes sense.”

The health department in Ingham County, where Lansing is located, said several people who attended the Michigan committee meeting with Giuliani on Wednesday must quarantine at least through Saturday. Health officer Linda Vail said she consulted with the state health department, which agrees that “it is extremely likely that Giuliani was contagious during his testimony.”

In Georgia, state Sen. William Ligon Jr., chairman of the subcommittee Giuliani testified before, urged those who had come in close contact with Giuliani “to take every precaution and follow all requisite guidelines to ensure their health and safety.” Giuliani on Thursday attended a hearing at the Georgia Capitol, where he went without a mask for several hours. Several state senators, all Republicans, also did not wear masks at the hearing. The Georgia legislature is not currently in session.

Trump, who announced Giuliani’s positive test in a Sunday afternoon tweet, told reporters he spoke with Giuliani on Monday. Giuliani was exhibiting symptoms when he was admitted to Georgetown University Medical Center on Sunday, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly.

At Wednesday’s 4-1/2-Hour Hearing in Lansing, Giuliani Did Not Wear a Mask

“Rudy’s doing very well,” Trump said Monday. “I just spoke to him. No temperature.”

At Wednesday’s 4-1/2-hour hearing in Lansing, Giuliani did not wear a mask; nor did lawyer Jenna Ellis, who was sitting next to him. He asked one of his witnesses, a Detroit election worker, if she would be comfortable removing her mask, but legislators said they could hear her.

Giuliani traveled last Monday to Phoenix, where he met with Republican legislators for an hourslong hearing in which he was maskless. The Arizona Republican Party tweeted a photo of Giuliani and several state GOP lawmakers standing shoulder-to-shoulder and maskless.

The Trump campaign said in a statement that Giuliani tested negative twice before his visits to Arizona, Michigan and Georgia. Unidentified 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.”

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.”

The diagnosis comes more than a month after Trump lost reelection 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, also contracted the virus.

The extraordinary spread in Trump’s orbit underscores the cavalier approach the Republican president has taken to a virus that has now killed more than 282,000 people in the U.S. alone.

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.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Trump Administration Freezes Future Grants to Harvard

DON'T MISS

Trump Denies Posting Image of Himself as Pope, Laughs Off Critics

DON'T MISS

Old Merced Sun-Star Newspaper Building Reduced to Rubble

DON'T MISS

US Seeks to Weaken Global Development Finance Efforts, UN Document Shows

DON'T MISS

Trump Signs Executive Order to Encourage US Drug Manufacturing

DON'T MISS

Dollar Slides Against Peers Weighed Down by Fresh Tariff Worries

DON'T MISS

Rivian to Build $120 Million Supplier Park in Illinois

DON'T MISS

Trump Signs Order Restricting Research That Enhances Pathogens

DON'T MISS

US Appeals Court Rejects Trump Bid to Revoke 400,000 Migrants’ Legal Status

DON'T MISS

Trump Orders the Reopening of Alcatraz Prison

UP NEXT

Don’t Have a REAL ID Yet? That Could Cause You Travel Headaches After May 7

UP NEXT

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Trial to Delve Into the Seediest Side of Rap’s ‘Bad Boy’

UP NEXT

Robbie Ray’s Gem Leads the Giants Over the Rockies

UP NEXT

World’s Tallest and Smallest Dogs Meet Up for a Playdate

UP NEXT

University of Texas Chancellor Is Named President of the University of California

UP NEXT

Here’s Why May the 4th Is Celebrated as Star Wars Day Across the Galaxy

UP NEXT

Military Parade on Trump’s Birthday Could Include More Than 6,500 Troops

UP NEXT

New CIA Videos Aim to Lure Chinese Officials

UP NEXT

Trump Taps Waltz for US Ambassador to the United Nations

UP NEXT

Brazilian Nun Who Was the World’s Oldest Person Has Died at 116

US Seeks to Weaken Global Development Finance Efforts, UN Document Shows

6 hours ago

Trump Signs Executive Order to Encourage US Drug Manufacturing

7 hours ago

Dollar Slides Against Peers Weighed Down by Fresh Tariff Worries

7 hours ago

Rivian to Build $120 Million Supplier Park in Illinois

7 hours ago

Trump Signs Order Restricting Research That Enhances Pathogens

7 hours ago

US Appeals Court Rejects Trump Bid to Revoke 400,000 Migrants’ Legal Status

8 hours ago

Trump Orders the Reopening of Alcatraz Prison

9 hours ago

Will CA Law Change to Allow Councilmembers to Govern While on Military Duty?

9 hours ago

Former Proud Boys Leader Enrique Tarrio Says He Met With Trump in Florida

10 hours ago

Trump Is About to Steal My Friend’s Christmas … and Yours

10 hours ago

Trump Administration Freezes Future Grants to Harvard

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Education informed Harvard University on Monday that it was freezing billions of dollars...

5 hours ago

Harvard University’s campus in Cambridge, Mass., Sept. 6, 2024. The Trump administration said on Monday, March 31, 2025, that it was reviewing roughly $9 billion in federal grants and contracts awarded to Harvard, accusing the school of allowing antisemitism to run unchecked on its campus. (Sophie Park/The New York Times)
5 hours ago

Trump Administration Freezes Future Grants to Harvard

Trump Takes Questions about Pope Image
5 hours ago

Trump Denies Posting Image of Himself as Pope, Laughs Off Critics

Merced Sun-Star building before demolition
6 hours ago

Old Merced Sun-Star Newspaper Building Reduced to Rubble

A 3D-printed miniature model of U.S. President Donald Trump with the United Nations logo in the background is seen in this illustration taken April 23, 2025. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File photo)
6 hours ago

US Seeks to Weaken Global Development Finance Efforts, UN Document Shows

Signage is seen outside of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) headquarters in White Oak, Maryland, U.S., August 29, 2020. (REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo)
7 hours ago

Trump Signs Executive Order to Encourage US Drug Manufacturing

U.S. dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration taken May 4, 2025. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)
7 hours ago

Dollar Slides Against Peers Weighed Down by Fresh Tariff Worries

The Rivian logo is shown on one of their new electric SUV vehicles in San Diego, U.S., December 16, 2022. (REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo)
7 hours ago

Rivian to Build $120 Million Supplier Park in Illinois

President Donald Trump announces the NFL draft will be held in Washington, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 5, 2025. (REUTERS/Leah Millis)
7 hours ago

Trump Signs Order Restricting Research That Enhances Pathogens

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend