Rudy Giuliani, who has been hopscotching around the county in a fruitless effort to overturn the presidential election results, is reportedly hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19.
President Trump announced his personal attorney’s diagnosis in a tweet that, in typical fashion, referred to the coronavirus as “the China Virus.”
“Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!!!”
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Soon after, The New York Times and ABC News reported that Giuliani—a 76-year-old cancer survivor—was at Georgetown University Medical Center.
Giuliani could not be reached for comment, and the hospital spokesperson did not immediately return a call, though Giuliani did retweet the president and a Twitter user who asked for prayers for the president’s lawyer. Giuliani’s son, Andrew, tweeted that his father was “resting, getting great care and feeling well,” and thanked friends for their concern.
Later Sunday evening, Giuliani himself tweeted that he was “recovering quickly and keeping up with everything.”
A senior Trump campaign official told The Daily Beast that contact tracing is underway.
“We are taking appropriate steps to ensure people’s safety, including those who have recently been in contact with Mayor Giuliani,” the official said. “Individuals have been advised to quarantine.”
The former New York City mayor has been leading a slew of voter fraud lawsuits that are failing dismally and had been at a number of indoor events in recent days.
On Monday, a maskless Giuliani met indoors with a cadre of Arizona state legislators. On Wednesday, an unmasked Giuliani testified at a Michigan legislative hearing, peddling further unproven claims about election fraud. On Thursday, he did the same in Georgia.
After the news broke of his coronavirus infection Sunday evening, Arizona’s Senate and House of Representatives both said they would close down for a week, citing COVID-19 “concerns.”
His diagnosis comes after his communications director, Christianné Allen, revealed that she tested positive last month after attending a now-infamous press conference at Republican National Committee headquarters. Trump campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn announced his COVID-19 diagnosis on Nov. 25, days after appearing at the press conference. And Giuliani’s son, Andrew, also reportedly tested positive after attending the event.
Giuliani is just one of dozens in the Trump orbit and the White House to contract the virus at the same time they’ve downplayed its severity.
Trump’s son Don Jr. revealed last month that he tested positive, as did Corey Lewandowski, another Trump adviser who has been bringing bogus illegal voting and election fraud lawsuits.
Lewandowski was at Trump’s Election Night party at the White House that has since emerged as a possible superspreader event. Several attendees later tested positive, including White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump campaign legal aide David Bossie, longtime GOP strategist Jeff Miller, White House political director Brian Jack, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, and several aides.
That outbreak came just weeks after perhaps the most high-profile outbreak in the world that ensnared the president and first lady Melania Trump. It spread to press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, advisers Kellyanne Conway and Hope Hicks, several GOP senators, Trump body man Nick Luna, and several White House reporters.
