Donald Trump’s reelection campaign manager, Brad Parscale, is one of a group of campaign staffers in quasi-quarantine after he attended a rally in Oklahoma last weekend where eight campaign aides tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh announced on a conference call Thursday that, “as a precaution,” staff who made the trip to Tulsa were “working remotely” and would be tested for COVID before returning to work. Asked by The Daily Beast in a follow up email if the self-imposed work isolation applied to the campaign manager, Murtaugh said, “Everybody who was in Tulsa, yes.”
Parscale returned to his home in Florida after the rally in Tulsa, and Murtaugh told The Daily Beast that he flew commercial.
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Sources close to the campaign described the quarantine measure as a precaution, and said the campaign plans to step up its coronavirus testing regime going forward in order to avoid similar incidents. One source said dozens of staffers had attended the Tulsa rally.
After publication, Murtaugh emailed to say that everyone "who flew home from Tulsa tested negative before leaving." The reason they were working from home still, he added, was as a "precaution."
Multiple U.S. Secret Service agents were also ordered into quarantine after accompanying the president to the rally, CNN reported this week.
Despite fears about the possibility that the event would lead to the spreading of the virus, many luminaries in the Trump orbit descended on Tulsa for the rally. The president’s son Eric gave an opening speech, as did Vice President Mike Pence. A number of Republican National Committee officials and White House staffers attended the Tulsa rally as well, including Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who said she would be there sans face mask. McEnany did not return a request for comment, though staffers who are in close proximity to the president are tested for the virus daily.
