Trump advisor Corey Lewandowski tests positive for coronavirus
- Corey Lewandowski, a top Trump campaign advisor who has helped lead efforts to undermine President-elect Joe Biden's victory, has tested positive for the coronavirus.
- "I feel great," Lewandowski told CNBC when asked if he had symptoms of Covid-19.
- Lewandowski was recently in Philadelphia, where President Donald Trump's team is mounting court challenges to election officials' vote-counting procedures.
- He was reportedly also present at a news conference on Saturday at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, alongside Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Corey Lewandowski, a top Trump campaign advisor who has helped lead efforts to undermine President-elect Joe Biden's victory, has tested positive for the coronavirus.
Lewandowski, 47, confirmed in a text to CNBC on Thursday that he tested positive for Covid-19 a day earlier.
Asked if he was experiencing symptoms of the virus, Lewandowski told CNBC: "I feel great."
The New York Times first reported Lewandowski's diagnosis.
Lewandowski was recently in Philadelphia, where the Trump campaign is mounting legal challenges to election officials' vote-counting procedures.
He was reportedly also present at a news conference in the city on Saturday at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, alongside President Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
While NBC News and other outlets have projected that Biden defeated Trump in the presidential race, the president has refused to concede and is falsely claiming himself the winner.
The campaign has filed lawsuits in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and Arizona — all states where Biden either leads Trump or is projected to win.
The legal challenges come as the number of Covid-19 cases reported in the U.S. hits record highs. More than 10.41 million cases have been reported in the U.S. and at least 241,907 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Lewandowski, who was Trump's campaign manager in 2016, is only the latest person in Trump's orbit to have contracted the virus.
Just this week, multiple people who are with connected to Trump's campaign or had attended an in-person, indoors election night party at the White House have tested positive for Covid-19.
That group includes David Bossie, who was recently put in charge of leading Trump's effort to challenge the projected results of the presidential election after NBC and other outlets called it for Biden.
On Wednesday, it was revealed that two more people who attended the White House gathering — White House political director Brian Jack and former Trump aide Healy Baumgardner — also tested positive.
Lewandowski was also present at the White House on election night.
Less than an hour after Lewandowski's diagnosis was first reported, NBC reported that Richard Walters, chief of staff for the Republican National Committee, had also tested positive.
A White House spokesman declined to comment when CNBC asked about any contact tracing or notification process the White House was conducting in light of the positive tests of people who had been at the event. The spokesman also declined comment when asked if Walters attended the election night party, which was held in the East Room of the White House.
In early October, Lewandowski was seen at a children's flag football game in New Hampshire without wearing a mask. Lewandowski's attendance at that game came a day after he had said in a TV interview that, "I think people should wear masks," and two days before he appeared on NBC's "Today" show wearing a mask.
"Covid is a very, very dangerous disease," Lewandowski told the "Today" show.
His interviews and visit to the football game came days after Trump tested positive for the coronavirus.
Lewandowski at least twice in the week before the game attended Trump-related events where he was exposed to multiple people, including Trump himself, who were known at the time to have Covid-19.
Federal guidelines call for people who have been in close contact with others infected with the coronavirus to quarantine themselves for 14 days from their last point of contact and to wear masks around others.
There were about 100 to 125 people at the football game, a witness told CNBC.