Former presidential candidate Herman Cain announced on Thursday that he has been hospitalized with Covid-19, almost two weeks after attending President Donald Trump’s Tulsa, Okla., rally.
Cain was diagnosed with coronavirus on June 29, nine days after the president’s Tulsa rally, and his symptoms worsened and required hospitalization on July 1, according to a statement from his Twitter account.
“He spent the past night in a hospital and as of today, Thursday July 2, he is resting comfortably in an Atlanta-area hospital,” the statement read, adding that Cain did not need a respirator. “There is no way of knowing for sure how or where Mr. Cain contracted the coronavirus.”
Cain, briefly a frontrunner in the 2012 GOP presidential primary, tweeted a picture on June 20 of himself and others at Trump’s indoor rally.
“Here’s just a few of the #BlackVoicesForTrump at tonight’s rally! Having a fantastic time!” the caption read. No one in the picture was wearing a mask.
Cain has frequently downplayed the risk of Covid-19 on social media. As he was in the hospital yesterday, Cain’s account tweeted approvingly of the lack of social distancing restrictions at Trump’s upcoming Mount Rushmore event.
“Masks will not be mandatory for the event, which will be attended by President Trump,” Cain wrote on Twitter. “PEOPLE ARE FED UP!”
On June 29, the day he tested positive, Cain downplayed the threat of coronavirus in Florida amid record hospitalizations and cases in the state.
“The news is better than what you’re being told,” Cain wrote on Twitter. And on June 8, Cain wondered on Twitter if the virus was weakening.
In Tulsa, the 7-day average of cases was 104.4 on July 1, an increase from 17.4 on June 1, according to figures from the Tulsa Health Department.
Cain, the 74-year-old former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, recently became a contributor to Newsmax TV. In April 2019, Trump came close to installing Cain at the Federal Reserve before Cain withdrew his bid for consideration.
Marc Caputo contributed to this report.
