GOP Paying Personal Price For Not Taking COVID-19 Seriously

Republicans are now paying a personal price for not taking the COVID-19 seriously and it could not come at a worse time with the election only a month away. 

The key superspreader event appears to have taken place at last Saturday's Rose Garden ceremony where President Trump formally announced Amy Comey Barrett as his nominee to the Supreme Court to succeed the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 

Aside from President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump being in attendance and testing positive, it has been revealed that Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee and North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis have also tested positive as has former White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway. Notre Dame University President Father John Jenkins has tested positive as have three White House journalists including one who was covering the event. 

It is worth noting that Justice Barrett was apparently diagnosed with COVID-19 during the summer. Even if Barrett has fully recovered, Senators Lee and Tillis give the GOP a majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee and she cannot be referred to the full Senate without their presence. So it very much remains to be seen if President Trump and Republicans will get their wish to have Barrett confirmed to the Supreme Court before the election. But with COVID spreading among GOP luminaries confirming Justice Barrett is the least of their problems.

While White House Counselor Hope Hicks was not at the Rose Garden ceremony last weekend, but was part of President Trump's debate preparation team. So too was Trump's campaign manager Bill Stempien. Guess what? Stempien has COVID too. 

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel also tested positive although she has been in her home in Michigan since last weekend.

I strongly suspect there will be more prominent Republicans who are diagnosed in the coming days. But the most watchful scrutiny will be placed on Vice-President Mike Pence who was also at the Rose Garden ceremony for Justice Barrett.

To date, Pence and Second Lady Karen Pence have tested negative. He'll need to stay that way if President Trump's stay at Walter Reed is longer than anticipated or if he never exits the facility. Then there's also the VP debate with Kamala Harris scheduled for October 7th. The Commission on Presidential Debates has agreed that the two candidates will be spaced 12 feet apart instead of seven feet as per the demand of the Biden campaign. 

However, the debate is still scheduled to take place in Salt Lake City. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell called upon the Commission on Presidential Debates to move the event to Washington, D.C. so to minimize travel and contact for both candidates and to ensure Pence remains close at hand if things take a turn for the worse for Trump.

But as with everything associated with COVID-19 all of this could have prevented had the Trump Administration and the Republican Party at large had taken COVID-19 seriously and didn't mock mask wearing, didn't disregard social distancing and didn't insisting on reopening a country long before it was ready to be reopened. 

President Trump can call COVID the China Virus all he wants but it has come to the White House and GOP's door to roost. Republicans are now paying a personal price for not taking COVID-19 seriously. I suspect that price will be paid in full at the polls in a month from now.