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Trump coronavirus: Morning Joe host says president could be guilty of ‘manslaughter’ if he infects Secret Service and White House staff

‘At some point isn’t this manslaughter?’ Ms Brzezinski said

Danielle Zoellner
Tuesday 06 October 2020 19:26 BST
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MSNBC host questions if Trump's behaviour following Covid diagnosis is 'manslaughter-.mp4
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MSNBC’s Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski has questioned if President Donald Trump would face “manslaughter” charges for potentially infecting the Secret Service and members of the White House with Covid-19.

The question was posed on Tuesday as Ms Brzezinksi and guests on Morning Joe discussed the president’s dramatic journey back to the White House after he was discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday.

“Maybe the president is immune from everything, because he said, ‘Am I immune now?'” she said. “Is he legally immune? What if the Secret Service men and women who got exposed to the deadly coronavirus, what if someone gets sick and dies? I don’t want this to happen, I wish for his health but he’s pushing all of this against the advice of the professionals in his government, against the advice of scientists.”

Mr Trump, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, walked up the steps of the White House to a balcony where he then took off his mask. The president’s doctors would not reveal if he was still infected with the novel virus, making it unclear if he could still spread it to others.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends for people to quarantine themselves away from others for 14 days after testing positive for the virus.

Following the photo-op, Mr Trump reportedly entered the White House without wearing a mask and then conferred with a group of people, heightening criticism that the president was still not taking the virus seriously.

“At some point isn’t this manslaughter?” Ms Brzezinski said. “If you purposely put people in a position that you send a deadly virus their way, what is that?”

The president has faced backlash for multiple moments where he potentially infected others with the novel virus.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who tested positive on Monday, reportedly got off Marine One on Thursday when the president was heading to Bedminster, New Jersey, for a fundraiser. She got off the plane because senior aide Hope Hicks tested positive for the virus, but the president, who also met with Ms Hicks, still went to the fundraiser.

He tested positive on Thursday evening after the fundraiser. 

The president also took a ride around Walter Reed on Sunday while hospitalised from Covid-19 to wave at supporters outside the medical centre. He was pictured inside an enclosed vehicle with Secret Service agents. Everyone was wearing a mask.

Whether others in the White House have been exposed to the coronavirus is not yet known.

Thus far, First Lady Melania Trump, Trump “body man” Nick Luna, Former senior advisor Kellyanne Conway, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, Kayleigh McEnany, RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Senator Mike Lee, and Senator Thom Tillis, among others, have all tested positive in the last week.

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