The White House on Sunday reacted to the corporate media frenzy following the president’s SUV drive-by to see his supporters despite fighting COVID-19.
“Appropriate precautions were taken in the execution of this movement to protect the President and all those supporting it, including PPE,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere said in a statement. “The movement was cleared by the medical team as safe to do.”
Critics of the president signaled alarm that the president traveled in an SUV with a member of the Secret Service, even though he was infected with COVID-19. Many suggested that the president was recklessly putting the Secret Service agent in danger.
Both the president and the Secret Service agent driving the SUV were wearing masks during the short trip on the road outside Walter Reed hospital.
The president waved to cheering supporters as the SUV drove slowly by the group of supporters.
The White House Correspondents Association was very upset that the president called a “lid” to the day’s activity earlier in the day and did not call the WHCA press pool of reporters to follow the president’s movements.
“It is outrageous for the president to have left the hospital — even briefly — amid a health crisis without a protective pool present to ensure that the American people know where their president is and how he is doing,” WHCA President Zeke Miller said in a statement. “Now more than ever, the American public deserves independent coverage of the president so they can be reliably informed about his health.”