“I knew when I was going back in that I would be taking risks, that I would be safer sitting at home in my house than going into a West Wing that with even all the testing in the world and the best medical team on Earth, is a relatively crammed place,” Kevin Hassett, a senior economic adviser to President Donald Trump, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
The comments come days after two West Wing employees — Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller, and one of Trump’s personal valets — tested positive for the deadly virus. Hassett, who said he did not have close contact with Miller, told Tapper he has been tested repeatedly, with the last one being conducted Saturday, and so far has tested negative for the coronavirus.
Several top medical officials of the administration are now self-quarantining because they had close contact with Miller last week.
Hassett, who had left a job in the White House for the private sector and became a CNN commentator, went back to work for the administration in March amid the crisis. He said Sunday that when he came back into the administration he helped set up a data operation in the basement of the White House, “interacting constantly with people who were going to and from (the Federal Emergency Management Agency).” The adviser added that some people “caught COVID at FEMA.”
“So we’ve all been exposing ourselves to risks, under the best guidance we could possibly have to keep us safe. But we’re willing to take that chance because we love our country,” Hassett said. “Yes, I absolutely have a mask in my pocket … and I practice social distancing, I wear a mask when I feel it’s appropriate and so on.”
This story is breaking and will be updated.
